I have dipped my roti in "ang chee gu ni" for breakfast, & eaten plain rice with soya sauce for lunch & just vegetables for dinner when young, he is not the only one. He so poor thing...
Bro Halsey02,
Many fellow readers and i can emphatise with you. Our sympathies are with you for many of us grew as impoverished kids amidst poverty.
Let me share with you some of the real scenarios then faced by us:-
On the way to school, we would first collect the "crumbs" from a very nice Hainanese (Ah Ko) who worked as a baker in a family-run bakery close to the school.
He would keep it for us in a used newspaper.
In school we all received free milk courtesy of some charitable organisations. We ate the crumbs with this milk, which for us was manna from heaven.
I remember the huge tins of powdered milk comes with either a Union Jack or Stars and Stripes emblazoned on the sides under which were four hands folded togather.
This was in later years used on the back of our old $10 notes.
In school many of us received free-text-books and a waiver of monthly school fees (50 cents per month).
Kind teachers identified the poorest students and would buy them pen, pencils, erasers, exercise books and sometimes even shoes and socks using their own money.
Maybe thats the reason why discipline was so good for we truly respected the teachers for their genuine kindness and concern.
Back to kampongs, our parents had no worries about our health, continuous education and that of our fowls.
A mobile dispensary would call to our kampong where the nurse and "dresser" would dispense us the medicines for ailments like runny-noses, open wounds and other common ailments.
For our education, there was also this mobile library that would call at our kampong where many books and comics were loaned to us.
Our fowls (chickens and ducks) were vaccinated by the Vets who use to visit every 3 months. We would carry all our fowls to them for that purpose.
MIND YOU ALL THESE SERVICES WAS FREE-OF-CHARGE.
The well-being of mothers and new-born babies was also well-cared for. A nurse from the old Kandang Kerbau Hospital (now known as modern day KKH) would come to the kampong by public bus (in full uniform) and attend to the needs of the mother and child. True post-natal care.
WHAT DID THE PEOPLE PAY ? : Practically ZERO.
The Ministry of Culture would screen
free movies for the kampong folks at selected spots.
Community centres offered
FREE recreational services to the community like carrom, badminton, pin-pong, sepak-takraw and other hobbies.
Emergency ambulances were all provided
free of charge.
Hospitals and surgical procedures were also offered
free for the needy ones.
If the Colonial Masters of those days and the Labour Government (now known as Workers Party) with leaders like David Marshall could provide such
FREE services, I fail to think
why the Government of today treats the word WELFARE as if it is an out-caste (pariah).
So much more to write but I scared leh, people would complain being too long and utter rubbish of a bygone period. Happy Reading anyway......
