Money corrupts

It is said that money corrupts, now it can be said that charity corrupts absolutely. Yes, sir, on this little 'ol island of ours, even people who at first had the best and most genuine intentions to do good to the community, when they see how easy money can be had through very generous people (or at least people who grudgingly ante up when faced with an innocent student with a donation tin in hand on a Saturday), they see the money only from then onwards.

Yes, the love of money corrupts, and it corrupts absolutely. This explains how a young man who started out doing good ended up with a whole pot of money that he couldn't decide how to give away. Money from donations not given away, by definition, is stolen. There's just no excuse for not using the money to which donors intended it. If you don't know how to use it in the first place, don't collect it.

The problem is that Singaporeans are a gullible and lazy lot of people. They would just not refuse to give away a few cents here and there because for most, its spare change. If it can assuage the soul and make them feel better, all the reason to plonk down those coins, if not those notes. If it can get rid of those pesky students with their tins or bags, sometimes chasing after you (mind you, some of these students probably have a quota to fulfill), all the better. The concern now is that Singaporeans will go to the other extreme of not giving because, as the saying goes, once bitten, twice shy.

And so who can we blame for this state of affairs? It would be unfair to blame the contributors, for after all, they are out of pocket by a couple of dollars, at least. It will be politically incorrect to blame the regulators. We see that they are doing something serious now. On the other hand, it feels good to blame the ringleaders, but in retrospect, they started out with the best of intentions, I believe. In the final analysis, they were led astray by the glitter of gold. As the good books says, this love of money will

pierce (themselves) through with many sorrows. 1 Timothy
6:10.