Comments on: Our charity sector : Uniquely Singapore – F1 or F9?

By: scb

scb — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 08:35:21 +0000

Charity begins at home; words of wisdom not from me!

By: shoestring

shoestring — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 05:50:02 +0000

On the topic of disparity in health care. I understand that in one government hospital, which claims to be a premier learning/training institution, patients in subsidized wards are entitled to only medical teams comprising relatively inexperienced doctors supervised by a senior specialist. It applies to surgery as well. Only when necessary (eg. if the rookies foul up?) will the patient get to be treated/ monitored by an experienced doctor/specialist. Patients are even made to sign an acknowledgement which is also an agreement giving permission to be probed/investigated etc.

Can someone confirm this?

Should that be the case? If you are rich, you are entitled to the best, if not, you pay to be a guinea pig?

By: lesile

lesile — Sun, 24 Jun 2007 08:23:39 +0000

When gov want to take money, gov will be actively promote the media to take money from ppl without choice because these are profit center. When ppl ask about charity from gov, gov is quick to use media to push that to other organization because charity are cost center !

Incredible cronies !

By: Get Real

Get Real — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 10:17:11 +0000

You think many of these religious organisations are “Mother Theresa ensuring ALL resources be expended on destitutes or the marginalised”? Oh please, it is more like Donald Trump building an empire through ‘good works’.

By: No More Charities

No More Charities — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 03:33:30 +0000

Organized charities or organized crimes?

Nobody is in a position to follow the path where the dollar that he has donated leads to. The donated dollar simply passes from one hand to another. The more organized the charities, the more hands it passes through. As with water passing from one hand to another, it seeps through the fingers and out to nowhere.

How sure are we when we hand over $millions to the Indonesian Generals that every single dollar would go to the victims of the Tsunami? How sure are we when we handed over our dollar to TT Durai, the Board of Directors of NKF whose Chairman was Richard Yong and whose Patron was none other than Mrs Goh Chok Tong?

We simply gave our donation based on TRUST! But when wolves in sheep skins lurked in the dark waiting to devour the unwitting and unconcerned lame sheep, there lies the whole question of TRUST. When the unwritten public trust had been revealed to be foolhardy and sheer stupidity and when salt had been rubbed into the wide gaping wounds, which stupid people will allow himself to continue to be stupid all his life?

A centralized organization to raise funds for charities? Isn’t that been tried before? What was the Community Chest meant for? What is the President’s Charities meant for? They are still in existence. What are their functions and responsibilities? Did they failed us to the extent that another new Centralized Fund Raising organization needs to be instituted?

The higher the hierarchy and the bigger the organization, the more finance is needed to administer and to pay the string of staffs needed to administer it; plus the higher the pay the CEO and its Board of Directors and Patron would demand for their “extraordinary talent”. Therefore, the more the donated dollar will deplete and defray to administrative cost than to be sincerely and directly distributed to those really in need.

If you asked me, I would say: “Once bitten, twice shy. Twice bitten, never will I try.”

Learning from past experiences, I will never donate a single cent to any charitable organizations. Nor will I encourage my children to do so. Never, never, never! I would rather take the trouble to donate directly into the hands of those who really need. An extra bit of my time, but I can assure myself that my dollar does not fall into the paws of the wolves in sheep skin.

Enough is enough!

By: Numb Already

Numb Already — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 02:29:31 +0000

Your suggestion to have these charities concentrate on what they do best i.e. taking care of the people that needs their specialised attention, medical or otherwise, is a good one. In fact, with the damage done to the confidence of donors after the NKF and others, there shud now be a review and relook at the way such charities are run. Maybe, a centralised fund raising body be instituted. These funds raised will then be apportioned among all the different charities but these will be reported accordingly. We can then have another body that manages the opertional budget of these charities, controlling their expenses according to the “revenue” given to them by the central fund raising body. In the current environment of a booming economy, Singaporeans should be feeling more charitable. Let’s not wait for our ministers and MP to “volunteer” to donate their increments.

By: ticking clock

ticking clock — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 08:09:32 +0000

more than half of people’s charities are held by religious organisations. these are untapped resources sitting there to “worship some kind of deities” and “fund some kind of a lifestyle” etc etc. it is time these resources be unleashed for the good of the community.