Well, it is an ironic thing. We, the fortunate and blessed ones, encourage people to save the poor and needy through the luxury of a computer. However, do we(when we encourge others) do our parts to actually save the needy? I doubt so. Most probably, which I believe, is that we just want to ease our guilt of helping the needy since we find it difficult to help them, especially the ones in overseas.To which I have to admit to being guilty of not doing enough.
Perhaps, it will be easier to contribute a small effort first, starting from helping the needy in your own organisations, or country. People seriously needs to know that every small effort counts.
I personally think there's a phobia towards volunteering for the less fortunate that can be difficult to overcome. Much can be done to package it like pop music. I mean package it as not just meaningful, but a well respected endeavour. How can we make teenagers with nothing to do choose volunteering over say.. the shopping mall over the weekend?
Outside of that, the allocation of resources on a global scale needs to be completely reassessed. I'm also sure MANY people'd be willing to give up their dvd player so 20 kids in a desert get 2 proper meals, IF they actually get to SEE the massive difference their DVD player can make, or meet the beneficiaries.
Donation agencies need to be alot more transparent. I think recent happenings in Singapore have reinforced the notion that when we donate we don't know what happens to the money, and we're considered a nation with low corruption.
P.S. Charlene can u get that music off your blog. We don't always feel all lovey and emotional.
Mr ong,I agree with how people need to see evidence of what their 'donations' have become.Africa is one such example.There are summits to discuss solutions to eradicate poverty in Africa and also concerts and other ways to raise money for such eforts to actually happen.Yet,there's little progress in Afirca.Whom do we blame for the lack of apathy then?
ReplyDeleteThat,and things like CIP encourage youths to get more actively involved in the community.It may forced but its a start
(:
MR ONG.
ReplyDeleteHAHAHA. You can just...mute your speakers while you're reading through Charlene's blog right.
How effective is CIP for school students is a really a debatable topic. I mean, come on, we all did CIP because we need the CIP hours. Would be actually volunteer to do extra hours?
I will so not do so?
But yeah well, I will go onto websites like freerice.com and play the word game so that sponsers will donate rice to poor people (and I get to improve my vocabulary too).
Hey Mr. Ong.
ReplyDeleteThose songs are inspiring, don't you think so?
Well there are other songs in my music tracklist too. :)) And thanks so much for allowing me to be the magnificent one! Haha! xp..
Well, most youngsters do volunteer works just to have good testimonials. This might be the only way to encourage them.
Another ironic thing I will be saying here is that people, most of the time, choose to volunteer doing charity works overseas than to do so locally. Why is that so? I am always puzzled. Is it due to having the opportunity to travel to overseas at the same time, or is it simply the feeling of doing volunteer works overseas make them look more noble?
I guess after the NKF incident, most people in Singapore would not want to place their trust in charity organisations anymore. Besides being transparent, people need to, on their part, have faith in charity organisations again, else no matter how much transparency is put into place, people will not encourage the idea of donations at all.
Humans are selfish lah. Like all these help aids and societies. How much of the money that we give them are actually being sent to the charity they support? i dont think its a 100%.....
ReplyDeleteOh and celebrities that have millions of dollars in their account, i wonder why do they even have so much money for. Its not as if they can bring it with them when they die. Cant they just give like half of their millionssss to the poorer folks who really need the cash?
Humans are selfish, money is never something that is enough.
in all the poor countries like Africa, Sri Lanka, India.. they do needed help, cause there are alot of unfortunate.. like: no clean water to drink, starvations, and even kid have to be refugees and went for war.. what is all the reasons for that? because they got no help.. even organisations trying to help them is still not enough.. main reason is because people thinks that is cheating their $.. and there are lesser people volunteering for fund rasining.. even have people will have question like.. what organisation are you from? are you cheating my $? so is getting harder and harder to help.. but i hope that people really donate and help.. cause every $1 you can provide them clean water to drink and also a shelther.. find the right organisation so is not a waste of $ helping the unfortunate
ReplyDelete