Charity, SME-style

So pleased to read this Susan Long's interview. Makes my day! The only way to make it better is to have read this first thing this morning :-)

I am going to insist that my kids also read it.

Like many, I have always been skeptical about the brand name NGOs. This chap provide substance to my suspicion. For a while WWF set up a booth at Suntec City Fountain Terrace. My daughter had spoken to them before but I was always against supporting them. Later I found from the ST that they weren't even from the WWF. They were a promotion company WWF had hired. Disgusting.

On and off I hear of friends' children making the trip north to help build a house, dig a well etc., in villages of poor people. Looks good on the CV especially for applying to Ivy League colleges. Again I am suspicious. This is what Robert Kee had to say about these initiatives.

What a sham! These days everyone is into building their resume than doing really good and meaningful work. Even school and national exams I have learned over the years are just games. In some subjects my kids have to dumb down in order to get a good grade :-( I am not alone, we have all read such stories in ST Forum.

Our school system look excellent on paper and in practice it is but in far fewer ways. Of course compared to the so many broken systems in the world, we look like a shining gem. In real life it is morally corrupt. Safer I don't share details on such things here. That's why on a separate matter Kong Hee's lawyers would also have no reason to come a calling for me.