Subsidised drugs for HIV patients

I wake up this morning, to some sort of new dawn.

And I know, that in Singapore, more than 3000 people, multiplied by how ever many family and friends they have, are waking up to a new dawn.

HIV drugs for HIV patients are going to be subsidized!

I’m not suggesting that this is a panacea for people living with HIV – we can never understate the horror – but at the very least, these people have some hope and justice accorded to them.

Hope, because with the drugs, they can live healthy, productive, meaningful lives for DECADES on, the way a diabetic or hypertensive patient does. Hope, because their lives need not be centered around the desperation and fear of getting their next dose, or their child’s next meal. Hope, because they can use whatever financial resources they have on their child’s education, on food, on building their lives and relationships, instead of spending every penny, and more, on drugs.

And justice, because nobody, NOBODY , should die from being unable to afford medicines in a country so affluent as Singapore. Not HIV patients, not the low-income, not the old, not the imprisoned, not the smoker, not the ignorant – NO ONE.

 

For me, there were a second layer to this new dawn.

A reminder that the government is not an impersonal, dehumanized object.

A reminder that that the government is filled with people – people who have feelings, who can sympathize, empathize and rationalize. People who have great power and great responsibility to accord life and death with their deeds and thoughts.  People who actually listen to the voices of their fellowman.

There have been so many people who advocate tirelessly and courageously for year after year, banging wall after wall, burying patient after patient, friend after friend.

Today we see that their efforts are not in vain. That for thousands in Singapore, change has come, hope has been given. Because people on the ground have chose to speak up, because 87% of the electorate has voted ‘YES, spend my taxes on subsidies!’, because policy makers have listened.

I have a renewed hope to continue standing up for justice and mercy. To continue screaming out for those without voices.  To be our brothers’ and sisters’ keeper.

I have a renewed reason to practice my faith, which says to all
“Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute.
Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy.”

 

Let no one ever say again, ‘Don’t bother lah , no use one lah’ – because today our bothering has made a change

Let no one ever say again, ‘Government never listen one lah’ – because today the people who make up our government have heard.

Let no one ever say again, ‘Don’t talk to loudly, wait ….” – because today chants of the brave have given many a chance at life.

 

My Singapore, my calcutta

I started with a simple question.

What can I do contribute positively to humanity? How can I be of help?

I was thinking Africa, thinking East Timor, thinking India, China. Thinking, gosh, am I prepared to live a life without hot water and air-con, without internet and instant food? To live without electricity or sanitation. To live with creepy crawlies. Could I do that?

I thought, maybe I’ll go for a soft launch into saving the world. Let me first start by looking at Singapore, at how can I help in this place that I’ve spent only all my life in. This should be a lot more bearable; I’ll have my sterility and safety, my convenience and comfort.

 But seriously, Singapore, the air-conditioned nation with the efficient government who does it all and thinks it all and provides it all for you, with record efficiency and security. What could be lacking here, right?

I thought, well perhaps I could help out with those “First World” type of issues.  Given my background in biomedical research, I thought I’ll go into issues with some biology basis. Homosexuality, HIV, sexuality issues. I thought the other issues that should be tackled (but by someone else) in Singapore would be stuff like having Freedom of speech and expression, Political Freedom , social stratification, educational pressures, etc . Stuff like that.

And then, as I began asking, meeting people, attending events by the U60, Calcutta began unfolding in front of my eyes , right here in Singapore. It’s as if, I was spring cleaning a really clean house, thinking there was nothing much, and then lifting the carpet and seeing in underneath infested with maggots, and half me wants to just cover it back again and pretend I didn’t see a thing, and another half makes me sick and I can no longer see my house the same way ever again.

Yesterday evening, I learnt, through films, of how Singapore is responsible for fueling the sex trade in our neighboring countries, where it is COMMON for 13 , 14 year old girls to be sold, forced, cheated into being prostitutes for peanuts, for Singaporean men. For peanuts that they wouldn’t even get.

In the Philippines (and I suspect in other neighbors as well), there are generations of families that grow up IN the rubbish dump. It’s their everyday reality and norm to pick up food scraps, re-cook it and eat it and even savor. It was horrible to watch.

Yesterday I thought that we had major “3^rd world” problems with the “3^rd world” around us, and though we had a role to play, it wasn’t HERE.

Tonight I was talking to a social worker. She works at a social service center in Bedok. She says, very matter of factly, that there are 5 social workers, each with a caseload of 40, handling just cases involving domestic violence, in the East side area they were in charge of.  These are cases of physical domestic violence that were referred to them by the Courts. Meaning that these were the reported cases, 200 in the east side of Singapore, at this present moment.  She says that abuse happens across all the family incomes and educational groups, there was no real specific profile or link to poverty. In fact she says, the richer the family, the more likely they would keep quiet and the victim would not leave because there was so much more to lose. Abuse does not start when the marriage has gone stale, often it starts early in the marriage or even before, and it escalates with the first pregnancy when the victims are “forced” to stay for their children. And victims often stay silent. And when they do speak up, women and children find themselves homeless, because they are afraid to stay in their flat with their abuser, but the flat belongs to the abuser, so the abuser gets to stay, and the victims are forced to become charity cases, staying at shelters for years. Yesterday , at the film, a lady related her experience of calling the police to intervene when she heard a violent episode happening in her neighbors flat, only to have the police tell her not to be a busybody.  

She says that poverty is common in Singapore. Poverty, where you receive / earn just enough to live from hand-to-mouth, with nothing else. Poverty, where you receive just enough help to give your baby milk and diapers, where you receive just enough to keep you alive , and nothing more. There is a show on Channel 8, Monday nights, called Life Transformers. I think it is the BEST show EVER EVER made in Singapore, for all time. EVER. It shows exactly what it means to live without hope in Singapore.

I think these people tend to be invisible and isolated because of the way our society has been stratified. The scholars, had the best schools, best tuition, the educated parents (LKY is actually right to say that there is a correlation between parental education and child education now, but is it really genetic, or about the starting advantage that the child of grad parents has? ). The scholars who are roped into the government to plan policies have absolutely no idea how it feels to be at the bottom, hopeless.  The mid-level people, the teachers, doctors, lawyers, media people – the people who tend to form the bulk of the social activists here – they see issues, but they don’t see or feel the depth of the issue. I must confess, I am somewhere here. The average and below, they are too focused on personal improvement.

The people that really need help. They are invisible on the internet, invisible to the vocal alternative view-generators on the Net. Because they can’t even read, don’t own a computer, may not even have electricity, let alone internet connection. They are invisible to the journalists who write the papers, because the journalists ,  the people who were in the correct social strata to have the chance of becoming a journalist , never had the opportunities to interact with them. These are people who can’t speak English, probably not even proper mother tongue, they can’t even get noticed by journalists. They are also invisible to each other, because in their helplessness , they can’t reach out for support , they have no voice to call out at all.

There are people dying because they can’t afford medicines. People living on one meal a day because a factory worker supports a family of 6. People in their 70s who scavenge the rubbish bins at 4am. People being raped and abused by their family. People dying because they have no idea of any other way out.

All this is happening, in some home,  within a 10minute radius (half an hour if I took the public bus) from where I am this very moment. In my Singapore, my Calcutta.