In her speech to the Parliament on Mon, President Halimah Yacob stressed Singapore’s foundational values of self-reliance and inclusiveness. She also spoke about helping older Singaporeans with social inequality, new housing options, and staying employable. She expressed a vision of Singapore as a “world-class city and an endearing home”. With the population of Singapore becoming so rapidly older, the aspiration of inclusiveness and developing an “endearing home”, should mean that seniors should be spending their time as mainstream members of society, not just at play, but also at work and in building happy, healthy communities. Families are getting smaller too, with less having children, so the option to stay with family is getting less relevant. 80 per cent of our population live in HDB estates. However, the overwhelming dominance of HDB and heavy reliance on government programmes may subtly lead us down well-travelled paths, and steer us from trying better solutions. One idea: Cooperative living for senior.... Continue Reading