http://theonlinecitizen.com/2010/01/raiding-the-homeless-in-the-middle-of-the-night/
http://theonlinecitizen.com/2010/02/the-behaviour-of-little-lee-kuan-yews/
http://theonlinecitizen.com/2010/04/raiding-the-homeless-%e2%80%93-part-two/

I came across these articles recently. I was quite angry when i read them. I've always thought The Online Citizen is too anti government, their articles are almost all about how the government did wrong, and i tried to take what i read with a pinch of salt. I don't doubt their journalistic integrity, but they might not be painting the full story, maybe unintentionally. They might be too focused on digging dirt that they missed some details. This is just a thought of mine after reading their articles for some time. I follow them quite regularly as they offer news that would not appear in the mainstream media, not without heavily packaged to not make it look bad on the government.

Back to the articles. They were about some homeless people in Singapore. And how they are treated by our government and the ministry who is supposed to take care of them. There could be many reasons that they got homeless. Some of it could be due to their own mistakes, carelessness and greed, and they desIerve all the hardship they are getting. But shouldn't we try to help people who are worse off than us? Or if we are not helping, at least not give them a kick while they are down, unless the kick is to get them to stand up again.

If I have to sacrifice 1 park, just so some people have a place to stay, I'll gladly do it. A friend argued that you don't know what they'll do. They might litter and make the place dirty. They might vandalise. They might commit crime, robbing people who use the park or something. I disagree heavily with this view. 1stly, poor people do not equal criminals. Criminals an be poor and can be rich. And the non homeless do litter as well. If they are really breaking the law, then catch them and put them on trial. My friend argued that it will take up too much resources to constantly monitor them. Again, the assumption that poor people will commit crime. And they are already constantly watched and harrassed by the Npark officers anyway. If only those efforts are channeled to helping them. Apparently, it's illegal to squat in parks. When they lose everything, don't make them outlaws too.

Not many people like to be homeless. Given a choice, most people will chose to be homeless on purpose. There might be idiots out there trying to take advantage of the system. But I will rather use a leaking bottle to get water to a drought area than to watch those people die. There might be people who'll take advantage of your kindness, but should we stop helping people who are really in trouble just because of that?