cHyOrK: >>

Sunday, May 28, 2006

First and foremost, my condolences to the 3000+ and counting dead from the 6.2-quake that rocked Java early yesterday morning. This was the first major disaster that befell Indonesia after the nightmarish Dec 26, 2004 tsunami, which the country had barely recovered from. And not forgetting, an imminent volcanic eruption at nearby Mt Merapi looms. This goes to show the destructive prowess of the Pacific Ring of Fire, on which Indonesia unfortunately sits on. I hope survivors still trapped under the rubble would be attended to, soon.

I'm now more tempted to engage myself in some sort of voluntary work. Perhaps its due to the occurrences of disasters near us. Or perhaps its due to some issues closer at heart, in Singapore.

Yesterday's Straits Times, under the sub-paper "SATURDAY", featured an 8-page report, 'Poverty: Generation Next' . It goes to highlight the lives of children from low-income families, their plight, their hunger, their problems faced in schools and elsewhere. As the country continues to progress, are these bottom 20% left behind?

An earlier report, some months ago, spoke of the rising disparity between the rich and poor. The rich has become richer over the years, and there are now more millionaires than in the past. But simultaneously, the poor has sunk deeper into the poverty trap--they are now worse off. Yes, I do feel its appropriate that the government pays out the "Progress Package", especially in times of economic booms, to try to narrow down the wealth disparity. But, is such one-off payout sufficient for the lower-income? What do you think, using the thousand-plus dollars for 5 years, before the next such payment comes rolling in when the election bells ring again? If that is true, then where is the "staying together, moving ahead" promise? So I hope wealth distribution comes every financial year, at least to the very poor. Of course, this would come to conflict with the possibility of idling and a disincentive to work, and its important that the government weighs the arguments.

As for my plans of volunteering, I hope my enthusiasm in it would not gradually disappear 17 months later, when I ORD. There's always so many things that I want to do, but I can't. Very often I just think about how wasteful it feels to be living my 18th and 19th year without accomplishing anything. Nothing constructive, nothing tangible nor intangible.

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There's also a recent interest from the blogging world, on a 17-year old, ACJC student, Gayle Goh. If you have never heard of her, it means that its been quite a while since you read the papers, or online forums, or even blogs. She is one young lady who has a sophisticated mind that commands a great deal of interest in politics. And she speaks up openly and gets 2000 readers from 39 countries, after she made news recently when a senior civil servant responded to her criticism of a speech he had made in her school. I read her blog and admire her language and the way she puts across her thoughts.

She will now be added to my list of must-read blogs.

And I suspect she is actually the "3-o'clock" (a name that my ex-classmates in DHS coined) back in DHS.

人生是黑白的.
6:39 PM <3

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