Students in secondary schools in Singapore are encouraged, sometimes required, to participate in charity drives. They can be spotted all around the island collecting donations for all sorts of charities. The main idea is not to learn about the spirit of giving or helping out, but to collect money. A local school administrator told Singapore Donkey, “These are the kinds of values we are trying to teach our children. It’s not about helping out a charity. It’s about learning how to beg shoppers for money. These begging techniques will help the children when they grow up and get displaced by foreign talent. Say, for example, that the charity involves childhood cancer. Rather than asking our students to learn about childhood cancer and volunteer to help victims or help out at hospitals, it’s much more meaningful for them to stand in a shopping mall all day and pester people for coins. After all, Singaporean children like to be in shopping malls. And if they learn how to ask for money from strangers today, then they’ll learn how to ask for money for the rest of their lives.”
