There has been a spate of articles recently in the newspapers on the lower income group in Singapore, and how the income gap is widening. I think that this is something to be concerned about. Both HY and I were talking some time back, and we agree that we belong to an "elitist" crowd in Singapore. We may not belong to the highest income group, but nevertheless, having upper middle class exposure, having a limited social circle.
Who are those left behind anyway? Do they have a voice? If they are not well-educated in the first place, there is probably no way they can articulate their situation in words to the ST forum, or Today. Are they left behind?
Last year my friend and I visited a man who stayed alone in his one room flat. He was heavy on smoking, didn't have money to get a mattress, and probably surviving hand-to-mouth.
In CHC, the youths I got to know did belong to a different social circle from my usual crowd. Some of them dislike studying, a few of them smoked. One of them, clear in my mind, a girl who was in sec sch. Her parents wanting a boy badly, and had abt 4 daughters before they had a boy. However the family was not well to do, and ofcos having many children meant that they had to struggle.
I also met an unwed mother- In her early 20s only, her bf had just come out from jail. They had to depend on loans from family to start their own family, feed the new born child and all that.
Anil said something that time. Lest I misquote, this is only the jist of it. Why do we catagorise the poor? Because, if everyone in the neighbourhood has a TV set, and you don't have, u are considered poor.
For some time, immediately after hearing this commment, I was a little taken aback, and the most immediate response from me was, er...but a TV set is not even a necessity. People in Africa are probably dying from lack of food. That is a difference between wants and needs, between "good to have" and surviving.
But..The left-behind group in Singapore, who are they? Do they have enough to eat? Are they forever trapped in poverty cycle? Will they ever own that TV set?
Surely that is of a concern also. Whether it is about needs or wants. $1 income per day....no singaporean can survive. But can they survive with $2 a day? One plate of chicken rice costs $2.
Pardon the blabbering... Just trying to reconcile some thoughts. This December will probably be visiting and giving out some christmas gifts to the Left Behind. And I urge you to think about them as well.
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Where your heart is, there your treasure is also. I've been trying to allocate parts of my money to different purposes. Learning to be a wise steward. If I am giving money, give to who? Philippines? Bangladesh? Lesotho? Ethopia? China? Where? And is this giving sustainable?
Oh I do need to think of long termed how I should start something to do something.
Thinking abt my conversation with a friend. Again, the comment of how much can I help. Again the comments of naivity. And so we need to change government and political structures, eliminate corruption, cos those mean that the food aid doesn't get to the proper place. But my point is, while the structures are being changed, does it mean that we just quit and say that no point us doing anything anyway? It must be a two pronged approach to solve poverty issues. Surely while govt structures are being changed, we can't afford to sit there and do nothing. Or a three pronged approach, govt, civil and corporate sectors must work together.
Anyway there are all sorts of possibilities. I hope make poverty history happens in our lifetime.
An idealist can become a realist. Or he can become a cynic. ;P
I hope to become the former.
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