Now a new initiative is seeking to repurpose the funpacks to help migrant workers.
Started by A Good Space — a co-operative that brings together individuals and companies for charitable causes — the initiative is calling on Singaporeans to fill their funpacks with items that may be useful for migrant workers.
"As we celebrate National Day, we hope to take this opportunity to express our gratitude for the sacrifices that our Migrant Worker community has made in building our beloved city," wrote the organisers on a petition linked to the initiative.
Organisers have suggested items such as hand sanitizers, kettles, portable chargers, masks, or earphones... the mothership.
Saw this kind message in the mothership. Many Singaporeans who have done well, who have lived a life without knowing poverty and hardship, are grateful for the good life they are enjoying. And they can relate this to the tough life the foreign workers are having building more HDB flats for them.
While many Singaporeans are pulling their heart strings to want to share their blessings with the less fortunates, let them not forget the Pioneer Generations and the Merdeka Generations that build this foundation of wealth for them to show their kindness. The earlier generations of Singaporeans slogged real hard to build from scratch a prosperous Singapore today. It was really tough. Their life, the working condition, their pay, their living quarters, were no better than those of the foreign workers today. They did not have a govt with all the machinery and regulations to protect them.
Many from these two generations are still alive, jobless and scrapping for a living, living on charity, some working as cleaners, sweepers, security guards if they are lucky. Some are living from paycheck to paycheck and considered themselves lucky. Many have virtually no more income and everyday alive is a dreadful day wondering where the food is coming from. The extremely high cost of living has made staying alive in this island a nightmare waking up for some people of these generations. Poverty has returned to their lives. Offering them piecemeal help is not acceptable and unable to sustain a decent life with a little dignity.
May the good samaritans think of a better way to ease the lives of these generations fell by the wayside of mainstream Singapore. Show some real gratitude to the people that made the new generations of Singaporeans able to make millions so easily and living in posh landed properties and a life of luxury unknown to these pioneering generations. They were the ones that made this possible today, nothing the foreign workers can come near to. The pioneering generations contributed to the whole infrastructure of Singapore to make things happened today. They planted the trees that provide the shades and the fruits for the Singaporeans today, not counting the cash stashed away in the nation's reserves. In those days, not only the majority of the Singaporeans were poor. The state was also poor with an almost empty treasury. The pioneers and merdeka generations and several generations to come became NS men with a miserly $90 allowance when their families needed them to bring home the bacon.
Through thrift and sacrifices, the pioneering generations made the first pot of gold for Singapore, literally. And it was from this pot of gold that more gold were accumulated. There would be no GIC or Temasek with billions and trillions to feed the foreigners and Singaporeans they employed to manage the pot of gold. And to think that many of the senior citizens are struggling to live in this very expensive island with virtually no income is sheer ungratefulness.
Show some kindness and gratitude to the people that really made the difference to your lives today. The foreign workers are just passing by and doing their bits and paid accordingly. What is frightening is their counterparts that are devouring Singapore at the higher end of the food chain and might take over this island built by our pioneering generations as their own and discard the pioneers as unnecessary inconvenience, deadwoods.
Have any of the foreigners that made it good here show any gratitude to the Singaporeans that made it easy and plentiful for them, or instead showing contempt to the Singaporeans? Have they been taking their good life for granted, that they deserved it here more than the Singaporeans that built this place from scratch?
When would the millionaire Singaporeans really think of giving a helping hand to the ones that made it possible for them to make their millions today? Touch their hearts and asked, if the pioneering generations have not made the sacrifice and put in the hard work, made the first pot of gold, what would their lives be today?
