<TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%"><TBODY><TR>Stop buying into this hollow chestnut
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<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->I REFER to Mr Paul Chan's letter last Saturday ('...but so should Canadians'), rebutting my view that Singaporeans should be thankful for the benefits of good government ('Be grateful, Singapore', July 31).
Mr Chan states that in Canada, 'a distressed family of four with children under 17 years old receives...a total of up to C$1,106 (S$1,480) a month'.
In a large Canadian city, rent for a bachelor apartment starts at about C$800 a month, while an individual public transit pass costs close to C$150 a month. After rent and transport, how will a family of four eat on an allowance of C$1,100 a month? That is why, when I lived in a prosperous part of Toronto, I would pass up to 15 beggars on my five-minute walk to the train station.
Are there that many homeless beggars on a five-minute walk to an MRT station here? Are Singaporeans reading only dry economic statistics? After hearing coffee-shop talk for the past 10 years about how people in Western countries do not have to work because the government pays them, I think it is time Singaporeans learnt the truth.
Many people will refuse to believe that poverty in the West is much worse than in Singapore. Well, google 'homeless Toronto' or 'homeless New York' and find out. If Singaporeans believe Western governments pay people to be idle, why are homeless beggars freezing to death in the streets?
Most of those homeless Canadians or Americans were not lazy; they were not taken care of, by either the government or private sector job creation.
Indeed, many Canadian citizens were turned down for such generous subsidies, while foreigners claiming refugee status (but without even permanent residence) were granted generous welfare benefits and health care when they landed in Canada.
Does the Singapore Government deny benefits to citizens while giving them to newly landed foreigners? The Singapore Government is not perfect, but it should be respected for the good it does for its people.
As for 'free education', university at undergraduate level in Canada costs about C$5,000 a year, out of pocket, not including textbooks or residence.
I know of many bright Canadians who would have qualified for a full government scholarship if they had been born in Singapore. Instead, they worked in unskilled, low-paying jobs as the price of their unassisted poverty.
How much of what Singaporeans believe about Western social benefits is based on hearsay, rather than reality? Rather than listening to coffee-shop gossip or reading the press statements of foreign governments, Singaporeans should compare Singapore's ground-level social conditions to those in the West.
Ultimately, actually seeing the street-level socioeconomic conditions of Western countries puts Singapore's Government in a very good light indeed.
Eric J. Brooks
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<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->I REFER to Mr Paul Chan's letter last Saturday ('...but so should Canadians'), rebutting my view that Singaporeans should be thankful for the benefits of good government ('Be grateful, Singapore', July 31).
Mr Chan states that in Canada, 'a distressed family of four with children under 17 years old receives...a total of up to C$1,106 (S$1,480) a month'.
In a large Canadian city, rent for a bachelor apartment starts at about C$800 a month, while an individual public transit pass costs close to C$150 a month. After rent and transport, how will a family of four eat on an allowance of C$1,100 a month? That is why, when I lived in a prosperous part of Toronto, I would pass up to 15 beggars on my five-minute walk to the train station.
Are there that many homeless beggars on a five-minute walk to an MRT station here? Are Singaporeans reading only dry economic statistics? After hearing coffee-shop talk for the past 10 years about how people in Western countries do not have to work because the government pays them, I think it is time Singaporeans learnt the truth.
Many people will refuse to believe that poverty in the West is much worse than in Singapore. Well, google 'homeless Toronto' or 'homeless New York' and find out. If Singaporeans believe Western governments pay people to be idle, why are homeless beggars freezing to death in the streets?
Most of those homeless Canadians or Americans were not lazy; they were not taken care of, by either the government or private sector job creation.
Indeed, many Canadian citizens were turned down for such generous subsidies, while foreigners claiming refugee status (but without even permanent residence) were granted generous welfare benefits and health care when they landed in Canada.
Does the Singapore Government deny benefits to citizens while giving them to newly landed foreigners? The Singapore Government is not perfect, but it should be respected for the good it does for its people.
As for 'free education', university at undergraduate level in Canada costs about C$5,000 a year, out of pocket, not including textbooks or residence.
I know of many bright Canadians who would have qualified for a full government scholarship if they had been born in Singapore. Instead, they worked in unskilled, low-paying jobs as the price of their unassisted poverty.
How much of what Singaporeans believe about Western social benefits is based on hearsay, rather than reality? Rather than listening to coffee-shop gossip or reading the press statements of foreign governments, Singaporeans should compare Singapore's ground-level social conditions to those in the West.
Ultimately, actually seeing the street-level socioeconomic conditions of Western countries puts Singapore's Government in a very good light indeed.
Eric J. Brooks
