The New Straits Times on 6 May 2010 had two stories that caught my interest.
One was headlined ‘Accidents, diseases at workplace on the rise’. It reported that the number of accidents and diseases at the workplace tripled over the past five years. The number of cases recorded last year was 669 compared with 244 in 2004, with a total of 185 cases reported between January and March this year. Most of the cases were related to problems involving lungs, hearing, and muscular skeletal structure.
The other story was in the letters page headlined ‘When fears came true’. The writer complained about the unsatisfactory conditions at the National Service camp in Kem Semberong, Batu Pahat, Johor where her son was sent to. There was insufficient drinking water and food, and the accommodation was poorly maintained. The serving of food was not supervised resulting in some trainees helping themselves to greater portions of the food leaving few or none for others. The accommodation was poor. The mosquito nets had holes. The plaster and paint kept peeling off of the ceiling and dropping on the beds.
The two stories were unrelated but to me they highlighted a central issue – that we are now more susceptible to diseases and that our youngsters are being pampered and protected to the extent that they become hapless when removed from that protective environment.
The children of not too long ago were able to drink water straight from the tap. They played around in the rain and rejoiced at having mud splattered all over their bodies, without a care in the world. They may share and eat food from the same plate without any thought of taboo. And yet they were still healthy and strong.
They walked or run to and from school every day. They slept on the floor, often without blankets and certainly without air-conditioning. And yet they can withstand the mosquitoes.
Parents were very strict then but they care about proper upbringing for their children. They themselves may not be sufficiently schooled or educated but they made sure that their kids were indoctrinated with the right values.
Thus the children of not too long ago were taught to share and to respect and to survive. They may not have much to eat and yet they can share what little they have. They may be from different background and religion but they learn to respect one another.
We do not see much of that nowadays.
Somehow the parents of today (yes, they were the children of not too long ago) became overly protective of their children. So much so, the children of today are given more parental protection right on through their teen years and sometimes even through their university and early working years.
Thus the children of today are poor at fending for themselves and become susceptible to simple diseases and unable to withstand a bit of hardship.
