- Andrew Loh Caring? Gracious? Kind? Compassionate? Yea, we have heard all these before. But they are all meaningless when our govt does heartless things like this, and then wonder why we aren't a "caring and gracious society".
http://phuketwan.com/tourism/rejecting-shipwreck-survivors-shows-singapore-lacks-heart-17241/
- Patrick Tan Where got time? All time spend working so that can pay for all the increases. Money also not enough to use. I don earn millions every year n I don know how to carry balls.
- Mohamed Mod @chiayongjian I believe thats the problem with Singaporeans, they keep saying the govt needs to take the lead. We as citizens can take the lead too, by making organisation, movements, etc that leads such movements without the government's help.
- Abdul Salim Harun Not all can afford to give money and time to charity. Cost of living is going up, people are working doubly hard so that they can earn enough just to feed and support the family. Many are taking up 2nd jobs.
You need to realize and be aware that many of us are not earning 'peanuts' and we are not happy when we are looking at our CPF account...
- Andrew Lee Who say so. Singaporeans have give so much blood money and times to charity. PAP Minister Salary Foundation Funds.
- Tan James Did I read wrongly. Shame, you say? Helping strangers? How?
In case you haven't read the news, we sure didn't get off to a good start for 2013 in the rankings by witholding aid to the refugees rescued at sea and refusing to let the ship dock for supplies.
I guess the Singapore Kindness Movement was barred from the gov't to be caring and gracious that they did not make a statement at all. Err, in fact I don't even remember the last time I heard from them. Hopefully their photographers will be out on their make believe photo-ops soon to assure S'poreans that kindess is very much alive. Without taking a cue from the Singapore Kindness Movement, it is really very hard for government and the people to be kind.
- Koh Jie Kai Dear Mr Goh (and what I assume to be the rest of your grassroots team). The reasons for why Singaporeans are not especially charitable or happy are complex. But I suspect that a large part of this has to lie with the culture that our establishment (the government, the grassroots organisations, the mainstream media, and our business leaders) has created.
Firstly, our establishment doesn't really understand that people can be motivated to do good and be good for reasons other than material wants and needs. If this were not so, why else for example would our establishment think it morally appropriate to reward youths with cash awards for good behaviour? Or for that matter, free car parking for grassroots leaders?
Secondly, our establishment encourages a culture of despising people who are thought to be "losers". A corollary of this is that there is great fear of being thought to be a "loser" (i.e. kiasuism). Your social status (or lack thereof) in Singapore is dependent on whether you are academically and materially successful, whether you are married, whether you have children, and whether your children in turn are also academically and materially successful. The establishment must have noticed that far too many people who have all of the above to look down on people who lack one or all of the above.
Why should the establishment be then so surprised at the lack of charitable intent to help one's fellow man or woman? After all, if our society is one which prizes meritocracy as a core value (as our prime minister has said), wouldn't being charitable or compassionate be a sign of betraying this core value and a way of propping up "losers"?
Thirdly, our establishment encourages a culture which lacks self-awareness and self-reflection. Our establishment's instinct whenever less palatable aspects of our culture are raised or discussed is to engage in denial - both about the problem and their role in contributing to it. Who here will be surprised if our media follows up on this report with loads of "feel good" stories about how in fact, there are Singaporeans who do engage in charitable works and are not especially obsessed by material gain?
Obviously, there are Singaporeans who are active in charity or civil society, are content with what they have, and are kind and good people. But many others are not, afflicted by the prevailing culture we have. If Singaporeans really want to deal with our culture of unhappiness and selfishness, some acknowledgement about how many of us have in a way contributed to this culture would be a good start.
Update: 7:30am
We ain't that bad and we are somewhat different from many societies...
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