SighSex

As we all know, we are an affluent country. The not-so-well-off are still in a better condition than their counterparts in neighbouring countries.

With wealth comes good healthcare, and more medical options, nutrition, health promotion and disease prevention. We have come to the stage where we are living longer - our life expectancy is much higher than what it was a few years back, and will continue to increase in the coming years. In fact, Singapore's life expectancy is one of the highest in the world. We are living longer and longer and longer. And come 2030, one in five Singaporeans will be 65 and above - we'll be a nation of senior citizens!

So naturally, we have to find ways to keep ourselves occupied in the extra years that have been given to us, delaying the onset of dementia etc, and we have to find ways to have enough money to tide our life till the end. This is the part where the Government announced CPF changes last year, and said that everyone had to work longer, unless you're a white horse or had a silver spoon (geez! The metaphors people use...)

To sit down and talk about the ageing issue, and to find out the challenges and opportunities in an ageing society, there's going to an exhibition known as the Silver Industry Conference and Exhibition, or, funnily put, SICEX (read sigh-sex). The Silver Industry is the term used for the huge market that's emerging that caters for elder-centric goods and services.

So if you want your ma and pa to feel more at ease about growing old, or more realistically, if YOU want to feel at ease, drop by the exhibition and get a feel of the future.