Enough with the begging already

[zzm9980]

I've had none here. At all.

Go to a heartland central market (Toa Payoh Central, AMK Central, Bedok Central, MP, etc) on a Sunday. Especially outside banks and NTUC.

[zzm9980]

Here's an entry level candidate...

I was just going to ask if that was Sara Jessica Parker, but the URL confirmed it. Wow someone beat her with an ugly stick (axe?). Poor Ferris Bueller.

[katbh]

Just to get it straight. Charity collection is permissible for school children to do. They do it largely because they get their CIP hours/points which they have to have each your or they will not be able to get a good O Level score. These points are for charity and community work. You can help at SPCA, old peoples homes, orphanages, charity collection etc. They are all officially organised and the children do not get any financial reward. This is very similar to charities in our home countries such as poppy day in UK, Legacy day in Australia etc. These charities really rely on this to get their work done, and they do not pay the children. In Singapore, secondary students need to do a certain amount of CIP hours to allow their O level score to be reduced by a point or so (the lower the score the better).

[sundaymorningstaple]

So they are getting paid, but not in currency that is spendable, per se.

Or, to put it differently, it's not charity for them, they are earning something (usable on this earth as opposed to some mythical place in the clouds after they leave this place)

[JR8]

Quite: So they are being indirectly personally rewarded for ostensible '''charity''' (i.e. selfless) work?

Hello Singapore.

[kookaburrah]

Thank you! I am glad someone sees the point I am trying to make.

Ecureilx, I have clearly touched a particularly raw nerve and for that I apologise. My rant was toward the practice, not you.

You seem to be doing the same as the collectors - confusing money-collection-for-points with charity. I am not mother Theresa, and I never would purport to be, but this is not charity, but simple money collection. Again, I reiterate I do NOT think I am being scammed. I am sure the money is spent in government approved ways by the organisations in question. Just call a spade a spade, and maybe come out themselves and meet the populace. We like to know about these things - from people who care and actually DO. Send the children home and get them to spend some time with their grandparents - more useful, from a humanist perspective.

On another note, it hasn't escaped my attention that only the sexy charities get the masses to lift a pinky finger here. Just watch and see how ex-convicts, former drug users, or even AIDS charities get treated around here. Now THOSE I help. The children, you're damn right I don't.

[Hannieroo]

I.B and Duke of Edinburgh both require some sort of voluntary service. It's not a Sing Thing.

[JR8]

I get hung up upon this as a purist (and I apologise for my apparent puritan stance.

Giving means giving

Giving means getting no reward... er.. that's why it's *giving*, you are left in an unresolved debt. That IS the point.

Oh... I give up .... [sigh]

[Hannieroo]

I didn't say it wasn't a bit off. Enforced good.

But years of working for charities had taught me that nobody does it for nothing. To feel good, less guilt, boasting rights, whatever. There is always a pay off.

[JR8]

Yep, and that's why a simple act of charity

- not requiring you to build a house

- or rescue a village

- or what ever...

is so rare these days.

These days most people demand 'return', .... for their 'charity'...



Isn't it all so contrary.... bwahahaha....

[morenangpinay]

Are they allowed to collect in another way? Like a fundraising activity atleast they also Learn some fundraising and organizing skills.it seems their approach is not very popular

[Hannieroo]

I don't agree. I think most people are basically good.

Maybe skewed because most of the people I know are either in caring professions or volunteer huge chunks of their time to causes they believe in. The last charity I worked for was goal based, not financially, but we all had a task that varied by difficulty and time commitment, when you completed it you actually got high. You could feel the euphoria. For some people that could get dangerous. But a payoff all the same.

That's a point, you never see a charity bag pack here. Swiss School had a car wash but that's the only one i've seen.

[morenangpinay]

That's what my philosophy prof said .there are no unselfish acts. We do good acts because we feel good .

[Hannieroo]

Which is fine. Gets the job done, everybody is happy.

[JR8]

Which is fine. Gets the job done, everybody is happy.

Hence you could argue that charities are a facilitating mechanism allowing people to feel good about themselves

p.s. I've been in at both the front and back-ends.
- Working for a nil-profit all-volunteer charity for two years, incl digging wells/drains in Amazon villages, and so on...
-Working on Wall Street and being forced to donate part of my salary to charity via 'United Way', so the Bank could get a huge annual headline about how '''generous''' it's employees were...

(I've mentioned it before, but it's maybe worth airing again. In Confucionist societies people who receive charity (say monks on the daily alms rounds, or street-beggars) do not thank or even acknowledge a donor. The first few times I witnessed this I have to say I was puzzled (if not even a little put-out).

It is because to thank/acknowledge you would be the 'repay' (or settle) the debt, and it is considered more humble, or honest, [or? hunting the right word here] to remain in debt to the donor. The donor doesn't get thanked > they don't get to 'feel good about themselves', BUT as that is not why they gave, they don't want to be thanked. They wanted to 'give of themselves').