Thoughts on Poverty (REFLECTION FOR 12 JAN 2015) -- Aloysius

In the 2nd Lesson of the CID module, I learnt that we should not judge a book by its cover and that there is more than meets the eye. During the lesson, our teacher showed us two pictures- one with a man sitting down on the ground with a sign that explains why he needs money and the other depicting a woman holding a baby asking for money and my teacher ask us who would we donate the money to? Then, she said that those who would donate to the man go to the left side of the class while those who would donate to the man move to the right side of the class and those who would not donate move to the middle of the class. I moved to the middle of the class as I felt that both of them may be scammers. Who would know if they really needed the money or if they are faking it? Furthermore, in the movie slumdog, there are syndicates which kidnap children or bought children to make them ask money from people. The syndicates also purposely make the children handicap so that the people would sympathize with them and give them some money. It is also said that the money collected from the beggars would proceed to the syndicate and a small percentage of it would be given to the beggars. Some of the money collected would be used to buy volka in order for the babies that the girls/women hold to be asleep and not affect the money collected. Thus i would not donate money to both of them.

Singapore is one of the worlds richest countries and the irony is that Singapore still has poor people given its developing status.In the developing country such as Singapore, the rich gets richer and the poor gets poorer despite charitable organisations taking steps to improve their lives. Poor people can be seen sleeping along the corridors of the HDB blocks or staying in the one room HDB flat. I feel that we should be grateful for the lives that we are having now thanks to our parents, we should treasure money and not waste it on useless stuff. I also feel that the government should give much more priorities to improve the lives of the poorer people such as giving them an monthly salary that can sustain them for their basic necessities, that way everyone can progress and the society can be a better place for us to live in.