Poverty in Singapore

             Poverty is a state where one individual is unable to cover certain basic necessities , taking into account the circumstances and social requirements of the environment . This includes not having enough food to eat or have no shelter.

             During our second CID lesson  , we were shown two pictures on poverty : a man sitting on the floor holding a cardboard that states that he lost his belongings thus need money and a lady carrying a baby begging for money . I was asked who would I help if I had only a dollar ? I chose to help the lady as she was carrying a child and would definitely need more money to support themselves as compared to the single man . However , I was shocked to be  informed that the man in the first picture was a handicap while the  was part of a syndicate organisation which earns money by taking advantage of the sympathy of others . I feel cheated by the lady but I understand that she was also trying to earn a livingby working for the organisation , so I tried to understand her by stepping in her shoes . 

            From this lesson , I learnt that we should not judge a book by its cover as not everything we see is true , thus we should get more information about the certain subject before trusting its content and information .

            Singapore is one of the world's richest countries but I believe that there is still a lot of poverty existing . But unlike those begging money on the street in other countries such as China , people who are poor in Singapore either sell tissue or perform by playing musical instrument to earn money . Even through these actions seems useless and not essential for us , but I think those poor people must have gathered a lot of courage to do this kind of thing to earn money . However , there is more campaign nowadays to raise awareness for the poverty in Singapore , such as the " ONES SIGAPORE " campaign and the " Singapore against poverty " caimpaign which aim to raise awareness on how the poor lives in Singapore . As we know more about the living conditions of these people who are poor , we will appreciate more of their effort put in to earn money , and more of us will be willing to donate a dollar or two .

           With the help of government and campaigns , I believe that poverty in Singapore will be greatly reduced and their living condition will improve gradually . However , I think we should not only depend on them to help the poor , we should also do our part by being more concerned about their life and also donate when possible . Because as all our donation add up together , the poor families might finally have a delicious meal to reward them for their hardwork .