It was with great disappointment that I learnt that the Singapore government pledged only USD $50000 as aid to the Haiti who were just recently struck by a 7.0 earthquake on 12 Jan 2009. It was a terrible disaster, with over 200000 death so far.
The Haiti disaster has so far been described as the worst disaster the United Nation has experienced. Much of the Haitian government were destroyed. No not just the buildings, but the people too. 3 million people were affected, and the country is seriously damaged. The Port-au-Prince is a critical port of the country, where many resources are docked and unloaded to the country. With the port no longer in service due to the damages, many aids were unable to go into the country, with planes hovering around the airport trying to land but there were no space to.
Haiti had been a very poor country, the poorest in the western hemisphere, ranked 149th of the 182 countries registered.
Due to the massive amount of death, they are burying people in mass graves - Digging a big hole and dumping the dead bodies in. There was no time to do proper identification of the dead. Their concern had been to dispose of the bodies quickly to make room for those alive. Which means, a family can never know if a missing family member is dead or alive.
And food is running out of the country, and people are getting violent. The healthy people at least, had began looting. The others? Probably missing a limb or two, or still buried under the rambles.
So, 3 million people affected. USD $50000 of aid. That amounts to USD $0.0017 per person. Even Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt is donating USD $1 million.
So, what could we do?
Well, we could be here and grumble about how much more the government should do and could do. Make complains and protests. While the haitians are suffering.
Or we could do our part. We could make our own donations or aids. World Vision Singapore is accepting online donations at http://www.worldvision.org.sg/CF-General.php?catID=18. And Singapore Red Cross is taking cheque donations and walk-in donations (refer to http://www.redcross.org.sg/Singapore-Red-Cross-Assists-IFRC-in-channeling-donations-for-relief-in-Haiti.phtml).
The government of Singapore might not be able to do much, but the people of Singapore can. And, if you want to protest against the government, do it positively. Make a donation today, so that the donation from the people of Singapore exceeds the amount the government is pledging. Make it a shame to them, that the people are contributing more to humanitarian cause, than the government is.
When others talk about Singapore, let them not remember about how little the Singapore government had donated, but rather how much the Singapore people did. We represent Singapore, our country. The country do not just belong to the government. The country is not just about the government. You and me make up the country.
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