Charlie Simpson

Good on you Charlie!

A 7 year old boy, Charlie Simpson, rode his bike around a park and raised over USD160,000 for Haiti, putting Singapore to shame with its $50k donation.

Sudesh Maniar, Director, Public Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs said: "Among other things, we have to consider the nature of our relations with the affected country and whether we can provide aid which will add value to the relief efforts when deciding what to contribute, as we have limited resources and cannot respond to every disaster in the same way."

But $50k? when a 7 year old boy can raise more than 3 times the amount?

Come on...

So... what's next?

A recent news headline: GIC booked losses for investment in New York property.
SINGAPORE: The Government of Singapore Investment Corp (GIC) has booked losses, believed to be in the tune of US$675 million.

Soon after, we see this headline: Electricity Tariffs to go up.

And after that: 4 more Electronic Road Pricing gantries to be up soon.

And after that: ERP rates up at 3 gantries from next month.

Sigh...

Ridiculous

Haiti has just experienced a crisis beyond what they're prepared for. A 7.0 quake that has left an estimate of a hundred thousand people dead and the country in chaos...

It's really sad that our Singaporean news don't really give much coverage of this crisis and spend more time telling Singaporeans about headlines such as Youths spending more to look good and some actor's new ugly role...

But here's the ultimate jawbreaker .... The Singapore Government has donated just US$50K to help the situation at Haiti.

Singapore is a rich country. Yet we're really just giving "peanuts". The 2nd lowest on the list I saw was South Korea, which gave a helpful US$1,000,000.... then it was Singapore...at the bottom... no, not half of that (500,000)... just 50K. That's just 1.8% of what they pay the President.

Heartless? Cheapskate? Or does the Singapore government just care about the Integrated Resorts opening soon? Or is this due to the fact they made a huge mistake investing in the Manhattan project?

Kids and school

Saw an article on the newspaper yesterday with the headlline: "School's not a blast for all kids."

Seriously?? You mean, not all kids enjoy school? My gooodness, this is a shock to me! Because I've always thought that all kids LOVED school and are excited each day as they put on their uniforms and head out to class.