Charity Groups - Are they Relevant Today ?

The Executive Board

I have been serving as the 2nd Vice President at a small charity for the last 6 months.There are a total of over 2,000 charities in Singapore and the short experience I have had has led me to question a) the relevance and b) the objective of not just this charity but for the bigger picture, the charity landscape in Singapore.

'Charity begins at Home' is a common proverb which is very apt, even in today's times. There are record levels of unemployment all over the world and countries are becoming very clever at reporting statistics which would cast them in bad light, so underemployment - a situation whereby there are a group of people, many over 40, without the proper skill sets,education, with health issues who have been unemployed for over 18 months and have given up looking for a job. They would NOT be classified as unemployed, so do not fall into the category of unemployed.So, categorically, there are many people who are 'semi-working' or providing useful time as semivolunteers, especially after they have lost the will to look for a full time job,in charities.

I have several questions which are similar to those first raised by my friend Roland Teo in his blog post.

a) Is there is a pressing need to serve the niche of for example, wayward youth, whereby our own Government has ably provided many programmes under the Minstry of Community Development,Youth and Sports such that a charity be set up solely to address this niche ? The answer is YES and NO. Depends on who you ask - basically.

b) Will charities solve the social problems of our society ? Again the answer is YES and NO. YES to a certain extent, they do help and NO they only provide the basic support structure which their meagre funds from wellwishers and donations from
corporates (eg. MNCs)can support. Charities can never replace the Government in terms of funding, infrastructure and organisational capabilities.

As Roland had aptly put it, if the Multi Natinal Company really wants to be charitable it should look after its interests of its staff and not fire or downsize the company whenever their profits are dwindling. What they are doing now is doing both, that is downsizing or rightsizing their business and also donating a sum of money through its Corporate Social Responsibility CSR programmes. This helps to improve its 'good corporate citizen' image and also show the public that they are a'caring' employer.

If MNCs were so 'caring' they would do their best not to retrench or downsize. That would itself be a charitable act for their loyal serving staff, rather than focus always on productivity.

So in the end, why are charities existing ?

They are for the greater part, self serving, and also providing the small niche services which the Government should be handling. Instead these organisations fill the small role which the Governnent should be taking more direct involvement in.

Another Play on Words Joke

This second joke is also courtesy of Get Fuzzy (Darby Conley) first featured today 21st Feb. Lets get to it.

Fred and Rita were much in love and wanted to get married,as part of their marriage preparations they wanted to engage a singer to sing at their wedding. So one day while they were at the KTV, they heard someone sing the song "Don't Stop Believing" in the room next to them and it was AWESOME. "My, the cover of this song from Journey is great, lets get to meet him." said Fred.
So off they went and met up with Sam. who incidentally turned out to be a Justice of the Peace or Judge. Sam was a nice guy and he agreed to wed the both of them in 2 weeks time.
Anyway 2 weeks later, it was their wedding and Sam sang another song "Faithfully" from Journey and it was AWFUL. Fred and Rita were so upset but what was done was done, and in front of so many guests too. So what was the moral of the story ?

Don't Book a Judge by his Cover LOL !!

A Funny Joke

This is a series of jokes from "Get Fuzzy" a cartoon strip in our Sunday Times. It is a play on the phrase, Don't Judge a Book by its Cover.

1. There was once this fellow, lets call him Frank. He went to the Ferringhi beach to sunbathe and found a nice and quiet spot near the end after walking for quite a while. So he picked his spot and laid donw his blanket and went to sleep. He was awoken by someone near him who had plonked himself down recently. When Frank sat up to see who it was, Horrors ! it was a fat senior man with grey hair and a bald top who was sunbathing about 3 feet away from him. The worse thing was that this fat guy was naked and only had a book covering his face and he was sleeping and snoring ever so loudly.

So what did Frank do ? He gingerly took the man's book and placed it over his - you know what - and thought that was it. NO, the guy woke up and was very pissed with our friend Frank, the guy turned out to be a judge and sued our poor Frank. So what is the moral of the story ?

" Don't Cover a Judge by his Book " LOL.

Doing the Right Thing

If there is one philosphy to guide yourself in life, it is to do the right thing. People will always have their objectives,
emotions, agendas and preferences but at the end of the day, if you have given your best effort and its still not up to the expectation of people you work for,or around you then at least you will have the satisfaction of telling yourself that it was not meant to be.

That has always been my personal and business philosophy and it has served me well. Give of your best and nothing less and God will be fair to you. Another very simple phrase to remember in life is this :

1. If IT (business proposal, offer or situation) sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

So don't get conned by 'sure win' deals. Its a scam.

Conviction of the Heart - Kenny Loggins (Acoustic Version)

This version is the acoustic guitar only with Kenny Loggins at the Taylor 30th Anniversary gig. Fantastic song about the fragile Earth and what we humans have done to it. We need to go beyond just mouthing phrases like Climate Change, Global Warming and walk the talk. But before doing that we need the conviction of the heart to push forward this agenda worldwide. The earliest version was made in the lats 80s and 20+ years later, we are slowly killing Mother Earth. There is still time, if each and every one of us take a serious look at our carbon footprint and make efforts to reduce our dependency on oil, and non recyclable products.

Preparing for Chinese New Year

The small garden has been trimmed

The tradition for each Chinese New Year is the same, spring cleaning is out in force and many old stuff like old CDs, DVDs, videotapes and old books,magazines and shoes are all sent to either the Salvation Army (if they are in good condition) or basically the junk yard. This year is no different, so we have had the gardener come and trim the small garden, cleaned out the basement, and had the car waxed and polished. There is also a time honoured tradition that all debts must be cleared in time for Chinese New Year.


Car needs to be polished again

Old clothes are donated away, new clothes with bright colours like red, blue and orange are bought and lots of oranges are given away. My company has made the effort to change for the better in this coming Tiger Year, and we are focussing on new challenging directions for 2010 and beyond. The economy is on track to post positive growth for 2010 and everyone is looking for a return to profitability for their businesses - like SIA for one - and people are generally upbeat on the whole.


Trimming the trees

2009 has been a difficult year for Singapore, what with its open economy and there are more than double the number of people filing for financial assistance in 2009 than say 2007 or 2 years ago. Also as a sign of the times, there are more than double the number of children applying for the Pocket Money fund, something like 11,500 so it is symtomatic that all is not back to 'normal' on the middle class front.

My wish for the Tiger Year ? Good Health, Happiness in the Family and with Friends and lots of Luck and Business Cash Flow !

My Run at Macritchie Park

Lovely morning sun

Today, 2nd Feb, I decided to make a more consistent effort at running 5K regularly and plan to run continuously 10K before the month ends. That is my intermediate goal. It was my turn at cheuffering my elder son and his friends to school and immediately after that, I made my way to McRitchie Reservoir. McRitchie Reservoir was named so because in honour of the Civil Engineer McRitchie who helped design and build it in the late 1800s. The fact that it is still very much in use and a major stop for people who want to exercise,families , lovebirds, tourists and photographers that it is one of the major attractions of Singapore.


The band stand over the Reservoir

I started my run at roughly 7.50am and it was a cool morning. There were a sprinkling of cars and people of all ages and nationalities. At the start point,just after the band stand, I set off on a brisk pace with no trace of tiredness or soreness from my earlier run 4 days ago. Upon entering the path strewn with wornout stones and damp earth, I paced myself briskly and into the forest. A run in the forest is called 'fartlek' (Swedish) and it differs from road running because of the undulating and more challenging terrain. Most times, runner use trail shoes although I was using my stability shoes for maximum cushioning.The air in the forest was very cool, something like 22 deg C and it was lovely to run.


Canoeists in the distance

I made may way down the first hill and scampered up the second, it was a breeze, so I increased my stride length and started overtaking some people who were running slowly or walking. The beauty about running in trails is that due to the canopy above (forest leaves and branches), very little sunlight gets through to the forest floor and whatever diffused lighting which gets in does not heat up the trail very much. I was in my full throttle mode by mid-run and enjoying the fresh morning air and near empty forest. Many people prefer the Botanic Gardens nearby but I personally find that there are no trails and too many people going about their morning walks and jogs so much so its like I am swerving to avoid all manner of people, dogs, push prams and walking sticks !


Nice sunny morning at Macrithie Reservoir

At the half-way mark near the golf course I hit the signboard with my trademark "clunk" and returned back to the trail with renewed vigour. I was really into my run and made a mental note to try 2 rounds (10K) the next time I went to McRitchie.The plod plod of my feet on the soft earth also did wonders for my knees. It was much softer and gentler on joints so I think that I should try out more trail runs to improve my stamina rather than the harsh road runs.On top of that, the Pose Running method taught by Dr.Nicholas Romanov is an excellent method of running and increasing pace without straining the body. I finished my run in 28 minutes 45 seconds. I then went to the bench for the strech and warm downs and admired the lovely view of the canoeists in the distance and the chatter of birds over the reservoir.

It was indeed a good start to the day