Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Appeal for Singaporeans to help

In the wee hours of Saturday morning (12th May 2012) in Singapore, a speeding Ferrari driver beat a red light only to crash into a taxi, causing the death of himself(Chinese national), the taxi driver(Singaporean) and the taxi passenger(Japanese tourist). 

The news was all over the social media and everybody was ranting and cursing the Ferrari driver for causing the accident.

Even as both the official and unofficial news sources publish the appeal for donations for the local Singaporean taxi driver whom was survived by his spouse and 3 teenage children, the rants went on about foreigner causing the deaths and it almost seems to me that we, Singaporeans, are xenophobic!



Instead of the ranting that results in nothing but stirring the xenophobic emotions, we should focus on how to help the family of the deceased taxi driver.

I come from 2 generations of taxi-drivers in my family and I,myself had once worked as a junior executive in a local taxi company. With my gathered experience, I can say that almost all taxi drivers will not want to drive a taxi if given a choice. The rising costs of living versus the earnings of a taxi driver leaves very little for luxury. Even tougher if one were to maintain an upkeep for a family of 5 with the meagre takings.

And fate had decided to make things tougher for this particular family by claiming the life of the sole breadwinner. Due to the father's demise, his daughter intend to postpone her plans to enroll into a local university.

As Singaporeans, perhaps we have become too dependent on our government to do everything for us.
And when our lives are not smooth, we rant on and on. And though we know that our rants will have no effect, we keep waiting for something to happen that will flip our lives back on track.

Truth is, if we never do anything, nothing will happen!

As a fellow Singaporean appealing to all Singaporeans to help out a Singaporean family whom needs assistance, I hope fellow citizens can act upon our rants and show that we are compassionate and we do come together in times of need.

Instead of being xenophobic, let us show them that we are united.

There are currently several ways to donate to the family.
Details can be found here.

Every little sand maketh the beach
I made my rant worthy when I drove from Bedok to Sembawang at 1.00 am to make my donation.




Facebook Comments