Dear Editor,
Yesterday was the day that old age pension books were distributed at the Diamond Market Tarmac. From last year’s experience with the number of pensioners, I decided to go a bit late hoping there would not be very many still to uplift their books.
I am a pensioner, and with someone else who is also a pensioner, we arrived at the tarmac around 10:45 am.
There were two huge tents with an adequate number of chairs, so seating was no problem.
The people who were distributing the books were four females, fairly young. They occupied a long table which faced ten rows of pensioners. Each row had twenty- odd old souls with varying levels of mobility.
We joined the last row after depositing our ID cards and the current pension book. As time progressed more rows were formed.
While it cannot be disputed that the four ‘officers’ were trying their best to do a good job, the process was slow and frustrating. One of the officers was placing the sticker in the book, another was recording in a ledger and a third was finding the pensioner’s name on a list and giving the book to him/her after signing the list.
At around 12:00 noon there was someone who, in a very loud voice, was accusing the officers of being unethical in giving preferential treatment to someone who came in behind others.
There was also grumbling among the pensioners about having to be in musical chairs in order to move forward.
It should be noted that there were those who were lame, some in pains when they have to get up from one seat to go into the next.
There were those who had to be led by the arm by relatives to get up and to sit down and to move around.
At one point, tempers flared when someone accidentally stepped on another’s toe. Someone complained loudly that she was there since 9:30 and it was then minutes to two. Still there were others who reflected helplessness in their faces.
Where Diamond tarmac is, there are no shops or snackettes nearby. Many complained of being hungry or thirsty. At one point, someone was selling coconut water in a plastic bag with a drinking straw for one hundred dollars. The quantity did not exceed half a pint. This roving vendor only vended for a short period.
Around 12:30 the rain came in a heavy downpour, the tents had small holes which enabled water to get through. But the space between the two tents allowed the water to tumble freely and created some level of confusion among those whose row of chairs was directly below the space between the tents.
This resulted in people losing their space, many of those who came last ended up ahead of many who were there earlier.
The breeze along with the shower also caused to be removed, those who were seated at the ends of rows.
One man complained about the treatment and conditions meted out to seniors.
Editor, the people who are responsible for how pension books are distributed are people who are very callous and insensitive. Or they lack that compassion for their elders.
They also lack imagination on how to put a proper system in place which will be efficient as well as effective.
I would like to believe that the list of the pensioners at each distribution point is in alphabetical order.
For consideration there should be about six desks, each with three officers.
Desk one will deal with surnames beginning with the letter A to letter G. Desk two will deal with surnames beginning with the letter H to N etc.
With this arrangement, no pensioner will spend more than thirty minutes to receive his or her book.
Another strategy is not to have one single day announced for distribution. Let there be a period such as from the 8th to the 12th of the month.
With some imagination, the older folks will not have to bear hunger and experience stress while waiting to be served.
It was a horrible experience which it is hoped will not be revisited on us senior citizens in the future.
Yours faithfully,
(Name and address supplied)
