Here it is. This is one rare payback for suffering unprecedented inflation and vaporising CPF values. But it is up to you to take it up.
If you have an idea of devices and systems for the idea, you can tap into the new established government fund. The Government’s focus is on developing and adapting new ideas and technologies to local conditions and producing prototypes for HDB living
http://www.straitstimes.com/Free/Story/STIStory_195694.html
Any ideas? Get together?
KT,
When I was in Bangkok recently, I bought a walking stick for myself. Features: it can easably be extended, and has a bounce when it touches the floor.
Someday, I hope this walking stick will have a built-in phone, a GPS so that my friends know when I am and guide me home, a blood pressure meter and a stool to use when I am tired. That’s new technology, suitable for HDB living.
Terence Seah
Aiyo Terence, why do you need to buy a walking stick when you still a bounce in your steps? Cheaper to buy now than later?
Here’s another idea.
Old people are dying in their own homes. No one knows in time. Otherwise, most can easily be rescued. And the solution is so simple. So many lives can be saved.
If the toilet is not used once a day, an alarm will send out a warning, say SMS, to a care giver.
If the old guy does not use the toilet for more than 48 hours, you can break down the door.
Joy @ #2
The walking stick is what you make for other senior citizens. The government fund is for you to build up your financial freedom as a reward for solving a problem for the aged.
Terence @ #1
Multi-function walking stick is a great idea. Like swiss knife, one should be able to customize it to their needs and budget.
Some other innovative applications for senior citizens
– Use it for self defence. The trend for mugging old defenceless people is on the rise. Arm the walking stick with an arsenal option ranging from the dummy to the lethal.
– Use it as a tripod or a telescopic extender for your camera. Great if you are working paparazzi in your retirement.
– Let the walking stick walk for you. A Segway type adaptation and you will be zipping past people quarter of your age without moving a single step.
(see photos if the two-wheel self-balancing human transporter http://www.segwaytours.com.au/default.shtml)
– hides a umbrella. No more rain.
Can you think of others….
Hahaha!!
The walking stick is getting better and BIGGER! Soon you’ll need to put wheels on it rather like the Segway.
Terence’s walking stick sounds like a blind man’s cane: not for supporting your weght but for prodding the recalcitrant who refuses to give up his seat on the bus or MRT.
But, let’s put our brains to the test and come up with some fantastic ideas!
I have one small idea: What about a mobile phone designed for seniors? Big easy-to-read screens, large keys for arthritic fingers, easy on/off, call and end keys, AAA battery power, etc.
Keep thinking about the $3 million!!
Ken @ #6
You’re right.
The better walking stick concept is getting bigger. Here’s how we can leverage on our senior status.
You can add a seat to the Segway which makes it the coolest personal transporter on the planet. Anyone can use it including the handicap. See this youtube clip
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NsgGiH0Y8O4&NR=1
See how you can go anywhere with a small hatchback. You save fuel and if you pass off as handicap you can have priority parking too.
It is perfect for the upcoming IR. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdL0PD6slM8&NR=1
See how you can enter the IR at subsidized rates reserved for the handicap, get all the ladies attention, play at the casino and how you can carry all your winnings away without lifting a finger.
The trick is to integrate an odds computer into the system. Program it together with the Segway’s on-board gyro computer and they won’t be able to stop you from going into the casino and bust the house.
And you still want a part of the paltry $3 million? Don’t be like that. Leave something on the table.
Ken @ #6 Part 2
Here is to pick up on Ken’s handphone idea.
At our age, not only the eyes but the ears are likely to fade away.
– have a blue tooth earpiece that doubles as a hearing aid that no one will guess that you are using
– Add a directional amplifier to your hearing aid for an eavesdroping option. Listen to conversation across the floor in Zuok. Check what your colleaques are saying about you behind your back.
-Add a locator option and give that to your spouse for his next birthday. Take care if he refuses to use it giving the excuse that it doesn’t work well when he is out frequently with the boys at SHC meetings. Its time to call out the PI.
KT @ #3, heard of constipation? A few have it naturally; more among the elderly are grooming themselves to have that as it makes good economic sense – saves water, saves paper (and so saves money), less need to clean the toilet………
The achievers shiit only once a week. Whoever comes to break down my door when I am still new to constipation will cause me consternation and yes, the walking stick comes handy to send him on a constellation orbit.
Jokes aside, $3m is pittance and I wont think so hard for that amount which will certainly be shared thin.
For me, I dont need so much of convenience to stretch my life beyond 65 (assuming I get to live that old), work or collect boxes to maintain myself, live to 85 and so give more justification to the annuities scheme.
Tim @ #9
$3m for holding back shit is rich. Give me $3m and I’ll get a surgeon to sew it up.
Actually government funding limits for social enterprise programs is flexible. The problem is that there is not enough good ideas. A limit is set to restrain so that the privilage can be seen to be earned. Otherwise every constipator in town will fill the room with shit.
Seriously, the basic idea fills a real need. Many seniors face incontinency. Adult diapers is humiliating. A solution to this shitty problem is worth its weight in gold. Sure to qualify for funding.
Think about the problem in simple terms. Assume that you do not have a caretaker. You have taken a dump in the middle of a SHC meeting or in somewhere shopping in Vivo City. Are you going to carry it with you. will you tell the others you have anoter meeting and make a quick exit. Are you going to discharge it. Did you bring a spare. How?
Here’s my take. Put the portable toilet or extractor on your personal mover walking stick (Segway type apparatus.) If full just go to the nearest toilet and pump it out. You can also use the pump in a heated arguement to make a point; or for defence in case you are being mugged.
Do you have a more creative solution?
“Give me $3m and I’ll get a surgeon to sew it up”.
KT, I can only hope that the same surgeon will still think that $3m “is rich” & reverse the process for you if you suddenly realise that you’re too fed-up………
If there isnt enough good ideas in response, it can only mean that either we’re damned stupid or the poser is.
At shopping malls, closer to festivities, you see aunties & uncles rushing up on stage to answer qns like : do you take the bus or the airbus to the zoo……and be richly rewarded with a bot of newater. The privilage is seen to be earned from an effort but looking hard at the queue, I dont see you lining up in there……..
Do agree that incontinency (sic) is real & not a contingency we can defer our attention fr, and thus the plans to deal with it.
Dont we hv A*star, the 2 national health groups and the many thousands employed some as professionals and hv been treating similar cases for years. Have they been tasked enough to find the solutions? Or shd they now unabashedly dangle $3,000,000.000000 at us and say, go for us the solutions.
Pls tell us to continue working till 85, cajole us to accept the annuities scheme only if we’re convinced that there’re adequate help, amenities & conveniences around………
If we’re to depend on self-help then save yr $3,000,000.00000000 – it’sbig money to buy another bank……….
Tim @ #11
Alas, the devil is in the details.
Off course, there is a tap and a pump for quick discharge. What think you! Sew it up and throw away the sissors? This is not a solution to incontinency. It is suicide.
All the guys at the ***** institutions are either attending never-ending cocktails or too busy thinking how to spend their bulging bonuses. Where to find time to work out real solutions? Right now, they can hardly find enough time to even pass the buck.
It is very simple. Taxpayers pay their salaries. They dangle a small fraction of their budget back to the taxpayers and ask them nicely to solve their own problems. The trick is to have many people asking nicely in four languages at the same time.
With annuities, you can take it or leave it. CPF will soon be in “Never, Never Land”. You’ll never get your money back.
Wise up, kid. Learn to invest. The alternative is ignorance. This is where you put your money into trying getting out some ill-gotten wealth from some retired tyrant’s african account or fund the latest scam as the scheme’s principal sucker. If this is suppose to be “Bliss”, try “Pain”.
This is the last wake-up call.