Skip to main content

This preoccupation...

Hmmm... what happened to the preoccupation with the widening rich-poor gap, as reported in yesterday's ST? I checked today's ST twice and I couldn't find any article/letter/quote from policymakers or anyone about the issue.

As for TODAY, there was just Mr Brown's article and a letter entitled 'Will Asia's Buffett, Gates stand up, please? (I don't think the letter was a response to the Household Survey report.)

Anyhow, I shall indulge in some preoccupation here, following up on comments on yesterday's post.

Since I'm also sometimes occupied with the goings-on at Wimbledon and I know that some of those millionaire players do their bit for charity, I searched and found the following:

1. Andre Agassi Charitable Foundation, focusing on at-risk children

2. The Andy Roddick Foundation, for at-risk children and families. You can even buy stuff from his online shop to support the foundation!

3. Okay, and much as I do not like his arrogance as a player, Roger Federer Foundation, for the disadvantaged children of South Africa and promotion of sport for young people. Federer is also now a UN goodwill ambassador.

4. Lleyton Hewitt supports the Special Olympics

I looked up a few lady players but could only find a charity link for Kim:
5. Kim Clijsters supports tsunami victims in India (Sorry, can't get the exact url. Click on the link that says 'charity')

Very heartening, indeed, for people to share their talent and their millions. More heartening, though, was this young girl featured on a documentary on Channel 8 last night. I missed most of the show but I saw the part when she said that when she has passed her exams, leaves prison (show was about female prison; this girl is taking her A levels, I think) and gets a job, she is going to do what she can to help people in need. Somehow, those who have less give more...

By the way, if you go to Bangkok, you can buy handicraft made by tsunami survivors at some of the BTS stations.

The Saori Foundation trains and helps survivors return to 'normal' life
(Picture taken from here)

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

A lesson in love

I am a little pencil in the hand of a writing God who is sending a love letter to the world. -Mother Teresa Most of the time my eyes just glaze over when I see article upon article of football news. One caught my glazing eye over the weekend, though - 'De la Cruz - Mother Theresa in boots' , because of the familiar name. Mother Teresa, that is. It was the first time I’d ever heard of this de la Cruz guy, an EPL player who hails from Ecuador (GNI per capita US$2,630; as a comparison, Singapore’s is US$27, 490 – source: BBC country profiles ). His is a great story to illustrate that famous Chinese saying about not forgetting your roots. According to the article, ‘Each month a proportion of that salary (about S$150,000) Reading pay him - be it 10 per cent in January or 20 per cent in February - goes direct to the village’ (where he grew up). (Picture and profile from here ) Here's what he has been credited for: 1. 'The 2002 World Cup,' de la Cruz reflects, 'finan...

True train school

‘Having eyes, but not seeing beauty; having ears, but not hearing music; having minds, but not perceiving truth; having hearts that are never moved and therefore never set on fire. These are the things to fear, said the headmaster.’ How would you like to have such a headmaster? I finally re-read (read it first as a teenager) Totto-chan, The Little Girl at the Window , a ‘school story’ by Tetsuko Kuroyanagi, translated by Dorothy Britton. Totto-chan is the name Tesuko Kuroyanagi called herself, and the book is about her life during her school days at Tomoe Gakuen. Totto-chan was expelled from her first elementary school because of her ‘disruptive’ behaviour, which included constantly opening and closing her desk top (because she was so thrilled by it), ‘vandalising’ her desk (because there wasn’t enough space on the piece of paper to draw) and standing by the classroom window waiting for street musicians to pass by or talking to swallows. Her mother, although probably alarmed about the ...

When the best man doesn't win

Speaking of 'sway' spurned lovers, the latest one I've come across is in Love Revolution ( only 12 episodes!), a J show I recently watched. Heroine of the story is pretty, 30-ish Smart Doctor, who is dying to fall in love and get married. She meets Aspiring Actor and Broadcast Journalist (right). She falls for Broadcast Journalist like a ton of bricks. It's obvious from the start (to the audience but not to her) that Aspiring Actor is nuts about her. But... she has fallen for Broadcast Journalist like a ton of bricks already. No doubt, Smart Doctor and Broadcast Journalist must be given credit for their love that stands the tests of time, separation and misunderstanding, but the one who loves most in the show is undoubtedly Mr Aspiring Actor. What he does/does not do because of his undying love for Smart Doctor: Y does not pursue her at first because he is still struggling to survive in this small-time drama group and he knows he doesn't have much to offer Y resp...