Gratitude begins at home

SINGAPORE - Why go to say, Cambodia, to assuage middle-class guilt? Students parachuting in will not have the time nor capacity to comprehend complex issues there. Surely ‘poor’ is not measured by the lack of air conditioning.

Spend taxpayers’ money and send our school children overseas.

Let them sleep under the stars and enjoy the morning dew.

Then they will appreciate Singapore’s infrastructure better.

That was a suggestion made in Parliament by Jurong GRC MP Ang Wei Neng to help the younger generation build a “wind of gratitude”.

The proposal is flawed on several levels, but I will focus on a few.

First, there is no need to send Singaporean children overseas to appreciate what they have.

Send them to one-room flats here.

I don’t mean shoebox apartments, but the HDB flats that are quite common in older estates across Singapore.

Why not instead consider getting the students to help groups that actively seek out needy families, like Loving Heart Multi-Service Centre in Jurong?

On its website, the group describes a programme it runs, Project Home Sweet Home, as “a house visitation and cleaning project” which began in 2010.

The group also provides breakfast for needy families and welcomes volunteers.

Why go to say, Cambodia, to assuage middle-class guilt? Students parachuting in will not have the time nor capacity to comprehend complex issues there. Surely “poor” is not measured by the lack of air conditioning.

And does it smack of arrogance to suggest we use a “poorer country” as a teaching model of what-not-to be?

Stay here. We have enough poor families for students to impose themselves on.

The Loving Heart Multi-Service Centre already engages students to “improve the living environment of needy families and aging elderly in estates within Jurong GRC”. I found them online.

But it’s not just Jurong. There are more than 100,000 families here living on less than $1,500 a month. Workfare and a series of aid initiatives are needed, and given, for these families to get by.

Many do sleep without air-conditioning.

But students must be aware that poor people are still rich in dignity so using them as model for what-not-to-be is also problematic.

GRATITUDE

The gratitude argument cuts both ways.

Mr Ang, who has experience in the police force and as a senior executive at SBS Transit, should know this.

It’s not an argument about a “wind of gratitude” or “gust of entitlement”. It’s about helping Singaporeans, young and old, understand how things here work.

And to understand that Singaporeans have higher expectations because of the phenomenal material success achieved in such a short time.

Fed on being No. 1 for so long, should Singaporeans expect less now?

As I have argued previously, if they don’t understand, it’s not their fault.

I have a simple mantra: Explain simply, sincerely and repeatedly.

So please drop the idea of sending students overseas.

All of us can learn to soar on a “wind of humility” instead.

This article was first published on May 31, 2014.
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