The Untouchable Pension

The sea teaches us patience—the slow erosion of coral, the gradual shift of sandbars, the patient waiting for the dhoni to return with the day's catch. But there's a different kind of patience forced upon us when it comes to the money we cannot touch, the savings locked away until some distant future when we've met criteria we didn't choose. I think of my father, who worked on a resort boat for thirty years, his hands calloused from hauling ropes and cleaning decks. Every month, a portion of his wages disappeared into this system, like rainwater draining through the coral rock. 'For your future,' they told him. But the future felt abstract when our roof leaked during monsoon season and the fishing yields grew smaller each year. Here in the islands, we understand cycles—the tuna migrations, the monsoon patterns, the rise and fall of tourist seasons. But this pension feels like it moves to a different rhythm, one disconnected from the urgent needs of today. When the price of rice climbs higher at the local shop, when school fees for the children come due, when the outboard motor needs replacing—that's when the untouchable nature of these savings feels heaviest. They say it grows slowly, like the mangroves at the edge of our island. But mangroves provide shelter for juvenile fish, protection from erosion, a living ecosystem. What does this slow growth provide when it's invested in avenues that seem to be receding like the tide going out? We watch the resorts expand, see the foreign currency flow, yet our locked-away savings feel like they're anchored in still water while the currents of life move swiftly around us. The frustration isn't about the principle of saving—we island people have always saved, storing dried fish for lean seasons, preserving rainwater for dry spells. It's about watching something that should be working for our community instead feeling distant, inaccessible, like a beautiful resort we can see from our shore but cannot enter. — Source fragments: id rather it be untouchable but how does this make it a scam? You are basically forced into the pension for starters. It seems generally inaccessible until you meet some criteria. And it doesn't seem to grow that fast.