This report riled me......

Offers of help for family of man run over by MRT train

SINGAPORE: Members of the public have come out pledging support to help the family of the man who died after being hit by an MRT train.

46-year-old Tan Jee Suan had died after falling off the platform at the Chinese Garden station on Tuesday.

Members of the public had been coming to Mr Tan's wake since Wednesday and many were seen offering financial assistance to Mr Tan's wife and children.

The funeral operator is also offering his services for free.

Mr Tan had been an odd job labourer, while his wife works in an electronics factory earning only $500 a month.

The children's schools and the Member of Parliament of the constituency where the family lives have assured the family that they will receive whatever assistance they need.

Mr Abdul Harris Sumardi, Principal of Juying Secondary where Mr Tan's son is studying, says: "With regards to his needs in school, we have already taken care of what is needed. We will do our best to ensure that his future in the school is well taken care of both emotionally and financially."

Madam Ho Geok Choo, MP of West Coast GRC, also pledges her support.

"Other than helping them financially, we intend also to provide emotional support. For instance, I feel very strongly that there must be a mentor or befriender to the family especially for the two young children who are 13 and 15 years old," she says. - CNA/so

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Those who are familiar with Menicius will recall this story about a king. The king told Menicius that he considered himself a benevolent king, because whenever the water floods his country in the rainy season, he would deploy his own horses to fetch the common people across the river to safety. At which point Menicius told the king that if he were benevolent, he would have repaired the bridges and levees over the dry seasons, and hence if there were a flood, the common people would not be affected. The king was actually just showing off his "benevolence" in a post-hoc manner in order to mask his own incompetence.

See the similarities?

Look, the guy has already died. No matter how much "help" the govt and school are going to provide to his family, it just reeks of the odor of a cheap publicity stunt. If you were really sincere, you would have intervened a long time ago. The chinese papers are saying that the man applied for welfare aid from some govt agency, but was rejected the second time. And to top it, the MP had the audacity to claim that the man did not seek help from the grassroots, making it sound as if it were the man's fault for NOT (or that he didn't know, or that there was no record of the man applying for an aid... quite convenient huh?)

And what the fuck???? What was the school doing??? HELLO! The kids haven't been able to pay their school fees for a year... and we are NOT talking about those richy richy schools, but a public school.... DOESN'T THIS RING A FUCKING BELL ANYWHERE??? You know what??? There should be a rule written somewhere that if such a thing happens in the school, the principal ought to have his or her five-figure salary forfeited to the family concerned for a year....

The mother earned $500 per month. $500. 500 fucking dollars. This is not right. How in the world do you expect a family of four to survive on $500 a month in SINGAPORE? What do you expect them to feed on, air??? Heck, some foreign maids in Singapore might even earn more than $500 per month. Hey, maybe it is time we looked at minimum wages in Singapore. Maybe it is time for the govt to realise that there are a lot of poor people in Singapore who just cannot make ends meet. I mean, the country has prospered as a whole, but if it is at the expense of the lower strata of the society, the govt ought to have all that prosperity shoved up their fucking ass.... Hey, with the kind of salary that they are getting, maybe that is already happening....

So. This is NOT an act of kindness from either the MP or the school. THIS IS YOUR JOB!!!!! Your job is to make sure that THE PEOPLE gets adequate wages to SUPPORT THEMSELVES! Your job is to realise that something might be wrong if your students are unable to pay school fees. So don't come faking all these nice gestures after the fact. That is as good as admitting your own incompetence.

Because no matter what you guys do, the two young children have already lost a father.