3/09/2008

Why so many charities and help schemes?

We are doing very very well economically. Full employment, huge national reserves, money pasting everywhere, money throwing everywhere, our banks have so much money that they have problems lending them out. Then our favourite past time is charity, setting up charitable organisations, organising charity events to raise funds, begging on the streets, setting up public help shemes and schemes and organisations. And officially hundreds of millions are spent to help the poor, if there is any, and unofficially millions and millions were collected from the public, also to help the poor. Why should a super rich little island with only 3 million citizens so obsessed about helping the poor? It is a strange phenomenon indeed. Where are the poor, 3,000 of them I heard, or where are the money? Oops, better clarify on this point. Are the money reaching the poor? Or if there are so few poor, why the need for so much money? Really what is causing the hardship to those who are struggling?

6 comments:

Ⓜatilah $ingapura⚠️ said...

On somedays it is virtually impossible to sit quietly minding your own business in Holland V.

Some annoying little fuck will approach you--replete with "official identification"--and ask you for money, or try and sell you some worthless merchandise "for a good cause".

Unfortunately it is against the law to inflict harm or kill these people (just for fun!), so one has to simply say "No thank you".

It is great that there is more freedom in S'pore, and that includes freedom to form charities for "good causes" - whatever they might be - helping the poor, saving the whales, supporting battered women, etc etc. This is far BETTER THAN THE ALTERNATIVE: where the govt STEALS from you on the pretense that they are going to "help" these poor fuckers.

The point is this: you can't say "NO" to the govt when it comes reaching for your money. You can however say "NO" when some private citizen asks for the VOLUNTARY contribution of your money.

Tip for the day: Get a mirror. Practice saying "NO" and "No thank you" firmly, with a friendly look, and without a tinge of guilt feelings, or internal dialogue of self-doubt. Then practice asking the question in a non-threatening manner: "Would you kindly leave me alone?", again without feeling "guilty" that you "hurt someone's feelings". Actually you are doing them a huge favour: teaching them how to handle rejection, IMO YHE fundamental life skill.

Result: works 100$ of the time.

Anonymous said...

I say NO all the time.

Saying "NO" requires only a split second. No other lingering thoughts.

Saying "YES" requires me to think about how much money to give. Should I give coins or notes? Should I give 20 cents or 50 cents? Do I have a 20 cents coin or 50 cents coin? On and on. Wasting my time on the go.

I do my charity work in my own way.

Anonymous said...

They increased GST on the pretext of helping the poor too, but guess where most of the money ended up. Helping the poor is the best excuse to collect money. Whether the money actually reaches the poor, well, that is another thing.

Ⓜatilah $ingapura⚠️ said...

anon 215 ===> a person after my own heart.

It is amazing how many people don't think at all, nevermind carefully before saying "yes". The increasing rate of divorce is just one proof of this.

Chua Chin Leng aka redbean said...

want to give just give, don't want don't give.

no need to think so hard. it is a heart thing. using the head on giving defeats the whole purpose of giving.

only time to think is whether the other is a cheat. no one likes to be cheated, i think.

Ⓜatilah $ingapura⚠️ said...

"I think therefore I am. I think".