11/30/2013

An ingenius way to collect donations



Donating to a charity or a charitable home cannot be more easy than just tapping an EZ card on a reader. Every tap will only lead to a deduction of $1 from the card. This is a very convenient way of donating without being pestered by little boys and girls with their tin cans or donation cards. Just simply tap the card when one feels like it.

This is an initiative of the Community Chest and the posters with the readers are already up in 5 MRT stations. In the ST today there is a beautiful photo of several young primary school children tapping on the reader to make their donations. And the children are very happy doing their part for charity. It is always good to start young, to make the children think about caring for the less unfortunate. What a way to go.

I remember a story of a young school boy who hailed a cab and after being dropped off, told the uncle driving the taxi to keep the change. The uncle told the boy it was good to be generous but to wait till he earned his own money before trying to be generous and spending his parent’s money so happily and so easily. Children may not know how difficult it was to earn a few dollars and what a few dollars could mean to those lower income people. Exceptions if the children have parents who are ministers or tycoons.

Children are very innocent. Tell them to do good and they will happily obliged. Tap the reader, they will. How many of them understand how hard it is for their parents to earn a few dollars more to load into their EZ cards? How many of them know that the few dollars in their EZ cards could be squeezed out by their parents missing a meal? How many of them know that the $1 in the EZ card was the last dollar in the card and their parents would have a hard time trying to top up the cards?

There are laws against the young buying cigarettes or liquor or betting in the Singapore Pool outlets. There should be laws against little innocent children donating without the consent of the adults or being accompanied by their parents.

It is a good cause to donate. I think it is necessary to spare the children who still do not know what they are doing and donating the hard earned money of their parents who are struggling to make ends meet. For those parents who are earning millions or hundreds of thousands, it is damn fun tapping and tapping and tapping at the card readers. The Community Chest may want to organise a contest to see who can tap the most times in a minute or an hour or who can tap continuously for the longest number of hours non stop and stood to win a prize, like a car donated by a car dealer.

I think that would be nice. But keep the children out unless with parental consent.

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

Aiyoh, so troublesome. Put a donation box and ask people drop the ell ink card in lah tio boh. Tot they expert at sucking blood already?

Anonymous said...

Exploiting the innocence and the poor.

Anonymous said...

Since when is it good or fun to be a poor Sinkie parent, you tell me lah?

But I think these poor parents are a minority lah, or else how can PAP got 60% votes, you tell me lah.

Anonymous said...

Not just poor Sinkie parents, but also poor Sinkies, jobless Sinkie PMEs, ex Sinkie PMEs turned taxi drivers, etc etc are also a minority lah.

That means as a whole, these Sinkies are minority and also most likely unhappy with PAP govt lah.

If not ah, PAP would have been voted out already, let alone winning at least 60% votes every election.

Anonymous said...

If you are poor, just remain as a poor Sinkie. Don't become a poor Sinkie parent. Or else more people suffer.

Anonymous said...

PAP govt problem is even rich Sinkies also don't want to become parents.

Or else how to explain the low fertility rate of Sinkies, majority of which are rich and happy to vote PAP?

Ⓜatilah $ingapura⚠️ said...

Relax lah redbean. You really come off as a neurotic control freak. And now you want to control OTHER PEOPLE'S CHILDREN -- who are doing nothing -- i.e. zip, nada, zero -- to affect you, either directly or indirectly.

How kids spend their money should only be the concern of their parents/ guardians. Parents have the ultimate control on their lives of their children.

>> Children are very innocent. Tell them to do good and they will happily obliged.

You have to be fucking kidding me, mate. What year are you living in? 1955?

Anyway, I've always had reservations about the EZ-Link cards being used for an increasing number of transactions. On the one hand, it is damn convenient, but it comes with problems -- "unintended consequences" -- i.e. incentivising "undersirable" behaviour. Number 1 on my list is unhealthy FAST FOOD. EZL can be used to buy shitty food at places like McD's. The consumption of food like this should be restricted by parental consent. (again, not my kids, not my problem. Only offering suggestions). This is because of the "addictive" nature of fast food and how bad it is, especially when consumed regularly. And kids eat this shit, as they commune with other kids also consuming this stuff -- too much fat, way too much sugar and salt.

EZL's should return to its original function: to be used ONLY for public transport, and perhaps ERP and parking.

This will greatly assist parents in controlling the spending habits of their kids. There are of course electronic alternatives to hard currency such as prepaid "tap and pay" Master or Visa. Every transaction is recorded and can be viewed on a statement -- along with TIME and DATE information -- which can be used to catch a kid telling lies about their whereabouts, or what they purchased on such-and-such a date. For e.g. Guardian Pharmacy, 10pm Saturday $5 -- What did Ah Chye buy? Was it condoms? Was it Panadol?. Or -- how come there's McD's visits over 4 consecutive days? (Junk food habit alert!)

Makes it much easier for parents to interrogate their children, and intervene if necessary.

Conclusion: EZL -- for transport only

All the rest: Visa or Master prepaid, with statements of transactions.

Anonymous said...

What an easy way to pay us back our CPF money !

Every time we tap the card, $1 of our CPF money is credited back to us.
But can only dream lah!

Money flow out of our pocket, the gahmen always find new ways to make this easy.
Money flow into our pockets.
Wah! Very hard leh!
Have to pay million dollar salaries for talents.
Even then, still very hard leh.

So what is the easiest way to get money flowing into our pockets again?
Vote Opposition lah!

agongkia said...

I remembered a case of audit and one department was found to have collected million in access of license fee....
My friend receive a letter yesterday out of a sudden from MDA claiming that he owe his radio license of his vehicle for an amount of about 300 dollar and was threaten with Court action.He remembered he had pay for all his radio license when he renew his road tax.Why are there no reminder since 2011 if that is the case.Why make him poorer out of a sudden.
I think this is the easiest way to collect donation.No need to tap an EZ card.

Anonymous said...

My mistake, your fault. Your mistake, your fault. Cool!

Anonymous said...

http://www.transitioning.org/2013/11/30/jobless-47-year-old-nus-graduate-offer-after-jobless-for-7-months-6hour-temp-position-from-cdc/

Anonymous said...

Hmmm

Soon it is my money is my money. Your money is also my money too.

Now that CPF is no longer the people's money to decide, they are looking seriously at other ways of having a share of your non-CPF money, like what they did to depositors in Cyprus.

Anonymous said...

i will give a dollar to those elderly risking their life colecting scraps on the street to make end meet ..... period


knnccb .... will any kind soul gimme a cup of oat???

jjgg said...

Btw..anybody saw the accounts of community chest? Must have fixed deposits in the hundreds of millions...))) the most important lesson to teach kids is to be thrifty, and not to spend excessively whichever guise these expenses come in..

Anonymous said...

/// ... the most important lesson to teach kids is to be thrifty, and not to spend excessively whichever guise these expenses come in.. ///

No matter how thrifty you are;
If the PAP gahmen wants your money,
You can say "No" or not?
You drive a car.
Can say you don't want to pay ERP or not?

Don't waste time teaching your kids to be thrifty.
No use one.
Teach them to vote Opposition.
Only way to protect your money is to have a strong opposition in parliament.
Tiok boh?

Anonymous said...

PAP government is alway thinking of ways to suck up your money. Don't fall for their tricks. They collect tons of money in taxes each year. This is supposed to be used for various purposes including helping the poor. Boss to them if they wasted the money buying failed banks. Citizens shouldn't be asked for any extra donations to help the poor. This is the govt's duty. If they do this, VTO !

Anonymous said...

Knn.
So clever to the extend of
sophistry.

Anonymous said...

You can't fool the people all the time. The nose is getting longer, in fact too long.

Anonymous said...

The current state of historical development in this island is similar to the dying days of the Qing Dynasty.

Anonymous said...

The Qing Dynasty lasted more than 250 years from 1644 to 1912, you know.

So based on Qing standard, if you think PAP govt is similar, then PAP still got at least 200 years more to go lah, until your great, great, great grandchildren time, tio bo?

Chua Chin Leng aka redbean said...

You never read properly. I said the dying years. In this new time, many events or developments are running at a heightened pace and the life cycle is so much shorter to run.

Time to go for my kopi break.