Time is valuable as long as we know how to spend it. Time is money for those who want to accumulate wealth, yet time allows us to live our lives in a much more meaningful way.
A few weeks ago, I came across a feel-good story on social media. It was about a time-banking project in Switzerland that invites retirees to provide care for older seniors and bank the time spent on charitable acts, to be exchanged later for care when they need it.
The post was written by a student who learned about this interesting system from the 67-year-old owner of the house where she rented a room while studying in a Swiss city. The house owner was a former high school teacher with a rather healthy nest egg, yet she dedicated her time to work as a caregiver for an 87-year-old senior.
She went to his home twice a week, spending two hours per visit on day-to-day things like shopping, cleaning, bringing him outdoors to relax and doing other leisure activities with him. After one year of service, all the hours she had contributed to him were recorded on her personal account at a "time bank".
One day the retiree got into an accident and had a bone fracture. But she had nothing to worry about during her recuperation. She just contacted her time bank and a volunteer was sent to her door to take care of her every day for a full month.
After the recovery, she decided to go back to her volunteer job as a caregiver, this time not only for one senior but for two. She said that she was still in good health and wanted to accumulate her hours of service in exchange for care she might need in the future.
That was the first time I heard about time banking. It is applied to many other fields of volunteer work and is in operation in more than 30 countries, including the US, the UK, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. In Thailand, we are more familiar with voluntary works that don't involve a systematic exchange of the time spent to help others.
Personally, I admire this Swiss time-banking initiative for the elderly. It isn't only a constructive method to deal with the problems surrounding the ageing population but also opens doors to the kindhearted persons to see for themselves how their contributions for those in need can be rewarding. I believe that the nature of this kind of volunteer project is inspirational enough to encourage older people to treasure their time and spend it more wisely.
Honestly, this article made me look back at certain figures in the news and wonder if they ever questioned what they had done, which now puts them at the centre of fierce criticism.
The 63-year-old billionaire Premchai Karnasuta's alleged poaching of at least three protected wild animals, including a black leopard, right in a wildlife sanctuary has sparked outrage across the country since the news broke out early last month.
With all the carcasses of the poor beasts, three long-barrel guns and a cooking pot containing leopard-meat soup found at his campsite, it's impossible to convince everyone that the construction tycoon was there only to appreciate the forest as he claimed. So far nine charges have been pressed against him and everyone demands that he be brought to justice.
At the same time many people, including me, are curious to see the last chapter of the 30 million baht lottery saga in which a 50-year-old teacher accused a 62-year-old retired police officer of stealing the winning lottery tickets from him.
Despite the teacher's big entourage and all their stories to claim his ownership of the tickets, the forensic and scientific evidence has suggested that all of them might be nothing but big lies. It's widely believed that the teacher has made up the story all along because he wants the big windfall for himself. Now, he is being charged with falsely reporting a crime and attempting to bribe state authorities.
Greediness is also the major culprit behind the extensive embezzlement of nearly 100 million baht of state funds at welfare centres in at least 44 provinces. It's hard to describe how it feels to learn that the state officials who are supposed to help the poor and the underprivileged to get the welfare funds allocated for them, instead, steal their money.
The first case of fraud came to light two months ago by a group of university students who witnessed cheating at a welfare centre where they worked as interns. Further investigations are under way and we can guess what would lie ahead for those corrupted people.
We can't know how long our lives will be. It's a lot better to spend our remaining time in a way that benefits others and our own souls. It's fine if one still cares more about their personal pleasure. But at least, they should make sure that they stay away from sinful acts.