(a commencement speech)

I am easily overwhelmed by the magic of commencement speeches but this one by David Foster Wallace at Kenyon College in 2005 has a bit of a social work slant to it, don't you think? He talks about perceptions, self-awareness towards a need for the spiritual, and generosity. Take a look if you have the time.

Little-known Facts 1 (that should be more widely known)

Some foreign workers live in bin centres when they don't want to. You know, bin centres, those little buildings in HDB carparks where all the rubbish collected from surrounding apartment blocks is brought to. They are, without fail, very stinky, and have lots of cockroaches. You can barely put a human being inside there for five minutes. Our foreign workers do this because their employers can't afford a place to put them, and there aren't enough dormitories around to house them decently. And the reason there aren't enough places fit for human living to house them, is because we, elitist status-conscious Singaporeans that we are, don't want them seen to be living near us. Think of your friendly neighbourhood cleaner living in a Bin Centre(!), the next time you petition against having decent housing for them near you.

Prisoners are only allowed to reply to two letters a month. [Update: Not a rigid rule, the Prisons Service says.]

The Medisave withdrawal limits are $450 per day for inpatient hospital stay, $300 per day for most day surgeries, $20 per day for senior citizens' daycare at daycare centres (up to $1500 per year), and $300 per year per account for chronic diseases. The chronic diseases in the list are diabetes, stroke, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, various lipid disorders, asthma, COPD. If a person with one or more of these chronic diseases qualifies for Medifund assistance, the $300 per year per account of Medisave of the person and all his immediate family (parents, spouse, children) must still be exhausted first for partial payment, while Medifund covers the remaining cash component.

I know the Medifund income criteria, but I cannot reveal it, not even under pain of death I suppose. Suffice to say that it is not the $1500 household income that is openly used by some other financial assistance schemes. This is because Medifund has a different mission from those other financial assistance schemes. When the government calls it the Medical safety net of last resort, they really mean it. You won't be left alone to be ill if you can't manage.