Month: February 2016

Retirement years are golden years. Do you agree?

For many young people, “retirement” is synonymous to “rest”: You have already done your part, now you can enjoy the rest of your life without working and still get paid. While this notion is obviously overly simplistic and presumptuous, it is partly true that the retirement years seem to promise one with many perks that he or she could only dream of during their working years, such as almost endless leisure time, guaranteed payment and freedom from commitments to do whatever they want. However, in my society in Vietnam, retirement years are never considered “golden”, in fact, they often bring one much worries as they usually mean less financial security and loneliness, as well as lack of healthcare and overall less fulfilling life.

Stressed-out and overworked adults often have the delusion that retirement years would be the end goals of their working life, during which they will have much fewer work commitments and thus would finally be free from such a stressful lifestyle. They dream that they would have all the time and freedom in the world to travel, pursue their hobbies or to simply spend more time with their children and family. After all, who would complain about too much leisure time if they can afford it? This mentality can be seen in the trend of enrichment classes, not for children but retired adults, ranging from cooking to dancing to flower arranging being organized and are very well-received by those with a lot of time on their hands after retirement. More religious people also see retirement as an opportunity to compensate for ignoring their spiritual growth during the busy years, and dream of using this free time to journey to pagodas and churches all over the country in pilgrimages tours tailored specifically for retirees. They also rather naively think that retirement years allow them to spend more time with their family and children to make up for the time that they could not while they were busy working. This mindset is particularly popular in Vietnam, where traditional Eastern values of putting family first are still highly upheld; and it is not uncommon for several generations to stay in the same house, which would certainly allow them to easily care for other members. Overall, many have understandable, but not so realistic dreams about the endless enjoyment in their retirement years.

These dreams, in fact, are overly optimistic and superficial, since they forgot to consider two other very important factors that would allow such enjoyment and leisure: money and health. While it is true that retired people have considerably more time, they might not have the financial capacity and energy to follow through with their plans. The majority (over 80 per cent) of Vietnamese live in rural areas and thus primarily do agricultural works, meaning that for them “retirement” comes when one is no longer capable of such laborious tasks and has to stop working.  Certainly, they do not have any kind of pension or guaranteed form of payments, making daily sustenance an issue, not to mention costly leisure such as travelling. Thus, for these people, retirement often means becoming dependent on their children and thus they are no longer able to participate in recreational activities. For city-dwellers, the situation is slightly better cine most people either work for the government or private firms; however, they fail to realize that while their pension is significantly less comparing to their working wages, their living expenses do not decrease simply because they have retired. Prices of goods, house rents and other commodities might even continue to rise due to Vietnam’s growing economy’s vulnerability to inflation. While it is not impossible to carry on with their previous lifestyle, looking forward to a luxurious lifestyle with extravagant trips to exotic places or shopping sprees is simply unrealistic. Furthermore, retirees are often 55 to 70 years old, meaning that their health has deteriorated considerably compared to their prime working years. Those who use to do laborious tasks often face bones and respiratory systems diseases, while office workers have their shares of cancer and heart diseases due to their sedentary lifestyle. Vietnam’s lack of a comprehensive healthcare system also leaves many people without healthcare insurance, making it very difficult for them to obtain affordable healthcare. With such poor health conditions, it is rather difficult for a retired adult to follow the adventurous plans he made when he was 27. Hence, in Vietnam, retirement years are not golden as it leaves people financially insecure and often means poorer health.

Those who still insist on viewing retirement years through rose-tinted glasses might argue that despite the lack of money, a retired adult can still enjoy life through simpler things, such as human interactions and a sense of community, what they might have missed out on due to their previously hectic lifestyle. They would back up this claim by pointing out that Vietnamese society, in fact, has very strong grassroots organizations in residential areas, and would frequently conduct meetings and activities to facilitate bonding between members in the neighbourhood. This community, as they would enthusiastically claim, would ensure that retired adults have companionship and can still lead an active meaningful lifestyle even after retirement.

However, it is still evident that retired adults feel much lonelier after leaving their workplace, in fact, many were in shock and terrified of no longer having work and wish to continue working to have a sense of purpose. These grassroots communities might provide short-term relief for these people, but in the long run, it essentially confines them to interactions with people in the same situation, further drilling into them the notion that they now belong to a “group” of old, non-productive people of the society. Activities carried out become repetitive and superficial a while as they do not have many variations, and thus cannot help retirees find a sense of purpose after they have stopped working. Family-wise, they might find themselves cast aside by other family members who are still working and have much busier schedules to follow. Ultimately, retirees are left falling lonely, unproductive and ignored by society, which severely damages their self-esteem and can even contribute to depression among the elderlies.

Vietnam has quickly moved from a tightly bonded, inclusive and caring society to one that favours productivity, progress and economic development, and this has had clear impacts on the retirees. While it is difficult and not necessarily beneficial to try and make the retirement years “golden years” in one’s life, it is certainly important that the government, communities and every member of society change their views towards retirees and help ensure that everyone is allowed to lead a productive and engaging lifestyle regardless of age and socioeconomic status.

Is it futile to try and save the environment?

In this post-industrialisation era, many governments and individuals have raised concerns over the environment; global warming, loss of biodiversity and land degradation pose threats to our survival and add moral burdens on our shoulders. Many international conferences have been held and environmental organizations’ voices have grown stronger than ever before, giving some the illusion that we can restore the environment we damaged. However, efforts by these institutions and individuals, more often than not, do not produce actual effects, due to profit-centric political agenda, technological limitations and nature’s unstoppable force. Thus, it is true to some extent that it is futile to try and save the environment.

Looking through rose-tinted glasses, those who are overly optimistic may claim that the rising concerns for the environment at the national level will make the restoration of the environment an achievable goal. It is true that environmental issues have been brought up in many international conferences. The World Commission on Environment and Development, for example, was established in 1983, where the concept of sustainable development was first acknowledged by multiple nations. In the later years, environmental conventions in Brazil, Copenhagen, Kyoto and Paris brought together world leaders to discuss strategies to save our environment. Such international efforts to address environmental issues paint a promising picture for the optimists, especially when many countries have consistently met the environmental targets set. France, for example, successfully reduced its carbon emission drastically by using nuclear energy to power 70% of its domestic electricity. Example like this can easily give the impression that our efforts to save the environment will be effective, as the world nations seem to be willing to put in resources collectively and some results have been seen.

            However, those optimists fail to recognize that those international conferences and the apparent results have too trivial an effect to be able to save the environment, as the current level of technology does not allow us to achieve our ambitions. In particular, the notion that humans can slow down environmental degradation by changing our energy use pattern is overly simplistic, because the process of producing alternative energy itself deteriorates nature. For instance, although many countries have tied to use solar energy as a green alternative for fossil fuels, the production of solar-energy panels involves mining-specific metals, which are already scarce in nature, and the transportation of materials, as well as the manufacturing process of these panels, emits greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. Hence, the so-called environmentally friendly energy is ironically environmentally devastating. Furthermore, the waste generated by nuclear plants and the radiation that affects the surrounding ecosystem has also rendered our efforts to save the environment counter-productive, causing further damages to the environment. Therefore, the attempts taken on a national level to restore the environment are rather futile as the solutions to environmental problems still cause an adverse impact on the environment.

            Active environmentalists may argue that the awakening of individuals around the world who now advocate for the environment has halted many environmentally damaging projects and activities. With the maturing of democracy across the world, citizens have used their individual power to try to save the environment, by protesting and advocating. For example, Nature Society of Singapore, a non-government organization, published Master Plan for the Conservation of Nature in Singapore in 1990, which propelled the government’s now institutionalized Green Plan that sets aside five per cent of Singapore’s total area for nature conservation. Incidents like this convince the environmentalists that concerted efforts by individuals can be very powerful in protecting our environment. Nevertheless, they ignore the compelling truth that most of the time, profit-driven companies or governments that prioritise economic development are too powerful to be challenged. The Three Gorges Project in China, for instance, caused many environmentalists to protest due to its potential damage on biodiversity. However, the project was continued due to the strong will of the Chinese government and the multiple corporations involved. These examples show that individual efforts are too insignificant to save the environment when most of the time, governments and corporations overpower these individuals.

            Lastly, the environmental issues we perceive can simply be a natural pattern that no human efforts can stop. Global warming, for example, is believed by many scientists to be merely a result of increasing solar activity, which has nothing to do with the faults of human. Researchers also point out that, the earth has experienced a period of warming when the level of atmospheric greenhouse gases was low. Scientific pieces of evidence like this reveal the horrifying fact that environmental issues may not be a result of human activities. If so, our efforts to save the environment will not produce any effect. Furthermore, the still-rising carbon dioxide level in the atmosphere is a compelling corroboration that our individual and international efforts achieve a little outcome to stop the possible natural trend. Hence, given the scientific uncertainty about the truth of environmental degradation, it is rather futile to try and save the environment because the force of nature itself is almost unchallengeable.

            In conclusion, provided with the current state of science and technology, as well as the socio-economical needs of countries, human efforts to save the environment produce rather negligible outcomes. Moreover, the possibility that environmental issues are merely a natural trend tells us that it is futile to save the deteriorating environment and ourselves from its impacts.