Few days back while eating in Hougang Coffee shop, one chinese man with a folder showing a chinese newspaper write out . He was soliciting for money to cure his cancer... I think he does not look local....anyway the way he pleaded just breaks my heart yet....since i cant read chinese...no way to know if he was telling me the truth... he went to the next table and people gave him like few dollars...damn sad scene....
Anyone encounter something like that?
I hate to say this but the experience reeks and screams strongly that the guy is a FAKE.
Let's use simple logic. Cancer treatment is not cheap. It costs in the region of thousands $. For the guy to beg a few dollars and cents here and there per day, by the time he collects sufficiently, I'm not sure if he will have died from the sickness.
I personally encountered a few other cases of begging. One involved a healthy looking guy who went around in hawker center asking for money to buy food. Another went around with an elderly lady saying something like she needed money for medical treatment.
Think about it. There are avenues out there for the sick and poor to seek treatment. This is Singapore not some backward country where they let people die in the streets cos they've got no money. No matter what, there is help. Is there really a need to beg? and like I said, beg till when so that they have enough to pay the medical bills?
A friend made a very good observation that, for some of these beggers and healthy-looking con artists (really, they are just that), they can walk, talk and breathe normally like you and I, is there really no job out there they can do to earn their keeps, no matter how simple, rather than beg?
I hate to say this, cos I'm implicating myself. But I find Singaporeans can be really dumb sometimes. We rush for cheap stuffs, we refuse to help our own fellow countrymen, we are rude to one another, but when a foreign national begs and plays with our sympathies, we give them cash readily. The guy or woman begging may look pitiful and "break our hearts" but then again, I sob at touching Hollywood movies too.
Another case in point is the fake Buddhist monks and nuns going around for alms. It's been reported so many times yet they still exist, and people still give.
I just encountered a China Mandarin-accented lady standing in front of the MRT station yesterday asking for donations while holding a tin can and wearing a lanyard around her neck(with some sort of identification). And passersby gave without checking or batting an eyelid.
I told my friend with me she was likely a fake. I might be wrong. But it was after 6pm (very rare for donations to be asked at that timing), no where else did we encounter these people (usually we'll see many of them in shopping centres and other MRTs on the same day). And I hate to say this, but I have stereotyped and I'm not afraid to admit it, she sounded foreign.
So be careful. Not that I'm heartless. In fact, I think we should help the needy and poor always. But maybe writing a one time cheque to a large charitable organization would be better.... Or wait... NKF and the Renci Hospital saga came to my mind suddenly.
Oh what the heck, maybe just help our favorite organization or people who we know personally that are genuinely in need. They say Singaporeans are kind-hearted. To be fair, there are kind Singaporeans out there. But many times, I think it's more about our gullibility being manipulated to the fullest.
