Deserving, Undeserved, Well-deserved II

You hear of stories of poor people. In sunny little Singapore, we also have our share of the poor, some poorer than others just as some men are more equal than others. What is so heartwrenching to me was when I came across these referrals by schools for financial aid:

"ABC is well-behaved, motivated and hardworking. She is in need of financial help and is currently under MOE financial assistance."

"DEF looks forward to come to school even though he stays as far as Jalan Very Far. He has never been late and has been very positive in his attitude."

How about this? "GHI is a quiet and well-behaved student. He cannot afford to come to school regularly and he needs to take turns with his brother to come to school."

"JKL's parents are odd job labourers, and do not bring home salaries consistently. His father does not come home regularly. He is therefore left to fend for himself. He is not provided with any allowance and even has difficulties attending school (no money given for transport and food)."

"MNO is trying to be self-supportive in her finances as parents do only odd job and at times out of job. She has difficulties with finances but still wants to finish her O level. She is determined to have education and have a good career in the future."

"Mother is the sole bread winner. Father has passed away. PQR is the eldest with younger siblings. He is a good boy and active in CCA. He is well-liked by teachers and a very well-behaved boy."

"STU comes from a single parent family. Since the demise of her father, her mother tries to provide for the family as a baby sitter. (income $530) She has 3 other siblings in school." $530 for a person's living expenses is okay provided one is frugal. $530 for FIVE people is terrible. Makes you feel for them.

"Parents earn "$150.00 (5 children)".

"Parents not working (2 children)".

"Student is being supported by the grandmother and at times by the uncle. The mother passed away suddenly 3 years ago. There is no trace of the father. Recently, the grandmother has been sick and unable to work. Student is a good soccer player."

"Mother not working. Father in prison since Dec 2006. VWX is the eldest. Mum borrows money from friends to support the family. According to the student (VWX), the family at times eat bread and drink tea for dinner."

Do these put you to shame? Here we are, living in relative comfort compared to these poor folks. We don't have to eat bread and drink tea for dinner. At least we have a roof over our heads and we don't have to worry about food on the table or taking turns to go to school with sibilings or having no money for school.

Shame on you who are born with a silver spoon in your mouth with food being served on a silver platter, AND who are NOT born with the silver spoon but have worked enough to put yourself in the top end of the salary scale, and do nothing to help people like this. You must have no heart and/because you are too caught up in your own little world to do your part and lend a hand to people who are worse off than you, who have to take turns with their sibling to go to school. It irks me that there are people like this, living their comfort life, complaining about the loss of the convenience of a spoilt laptop. Have you, for a moment before you complained, thought about the people who don't have the luxury of owning a laptop/PC/fancy gadgets like that?

It irks me more when I'm in touch with the lower class. If I were God, I'd make every single person, rich or poor alike do a day of manual labour. So what if you are rich? You are only up there, sitting your fat butts on your money. Mother Theresa had nothing but a heart of gold. She helped so many. When she died, she only had a few possessions. I'm not saying everyone should be Mother Theresa. Indeed, we are not saints and most of us can't match her. But at least we can do something to help others, to help at least 1 person. If everyone who has the ability to help others does so, we'd be able to lessen the suffering in the world by a fair bit.

I've come to the conclusion that Singaporeans are spoilt and selfish and they spoil their kids and produce another spoilt and selfish generation.

Time

Time is a diminishing resource unlike money which is also a resource but doesn't diminish.

You choose who and what to spend your time on. Even if you don't choose, you have just spent that time. Because every second that ticks by is a second lost in eternity. You do things which you find meaningful to you, which you enjoy wasting time on.

During the last days of spending hours to travel everyday, I haven't made use of my travelling time fully. To think of the hours of travelling every day multiplied by many days over-I am guilty of wasting time. I'd slept when I was travelling instead of doing something productive. As we grow older, we have lesser time. So it's natural to grab every minute possible to do those things you can't usually find the time for.

When I went out with SH, she was driving with one hand and in her words, "do(ing) a lot of nonsense" with the other hand like sms-ing, holding the phone speaker, searching for her dropped hp. When I went out with Ms Lim, she cleaned her car while driving. These are people who utilize every second they have.

Time has become such a scarce resource who and what you spend your time on determines if you have lived each day to the fullest. In that case, we should invest our time wisely especially since you can't get it back. If time is a resource, is it wise to invest in people/things in which the returns are low? If someone is unable/unwilling to invest as much time into your relationship as you, should we start investing in other relationships in which the returns are higher? Is fishing as a hobby a productive use of time? Maybe. If you sell the fishes. Or you cook them for dinner.