Mr Miyagi is a little cheesed off that the owner of the Mother of All Singapore Supermarkets (plus a whole lot of other industries), seems to be a little less than generous with the moolah when it comes to the tsunami disaster.
Atypical Singaporean thinks so too.
When you think about it, 1.5 million tonnes of food relief packages ain't exactly the same as S$1.5 million dollars of aid (actually it is S$50,000).
After all, even the The Singapore Red Cross says that Cash is Best:
Added Ms Teo: "Right now, money is the best form of assistance as it can be spent according to the priorities in the affected countries."
She noted that "in-kind" donations, such as clothes, are not based on identified needs and might not be culturally appropriate.
"Transporting these items will also be difficult and time-consuming as roads have been damaged," she added.
Giving $10 cash to the Red Cross versus paying $10 for "Relief Packs" containing goods which disaster victims may not need, or may cost a bomb to ship and distribute, or may expire before the victims get to use them.
Hmmmm, tough choice.
Maybe cash is tight at some large local corporations. Here's an idea, to supplement the packs, maybe we can send the victims some Linkpoints too.
Excerpt:
Some corporations, really big ones, like Pfizer, Amazon.com, Citigroup, Cisco Systems, Bristol-Myers Squibb, have rallied in response to the tsunami disaster by donating generously.
Over here, our very own very big quasi-corporation, NTUC, "expresses her deepest heartfelt condolences to the families of victims affected by last Sunday's tsunami that struck many parts of Asia, following the earthquake off the coast of Aceh, Sumatra.
The Singapore Labour Foundation (SLF), on behalf of the labour movement, has made a S$20,000 donation to those affected in the region through the Red Cross."
