Are we ready to CARE?

The sky has been very generous today despite giving out few drops of rain this very late evening. It was so warm, one could really understand that the rain is actually a teaser and not the changing of monsoon. It was said that the warm and dry weather will persist till somewhere in June. So folks, make sure the air cond is still working.

It was a holiday on Friday here. I had some time to look at the news before beginning my day. Something had caught my eyes on the paper and yes, again the eyes rolled up like nobody's business. I mean, it's a total nuisance. I know, i know. We have been reading so much nonsense nowadays that we don't know what's for real and what's not.

Well, if you might let me highlight some points over this article, Maureen finally gets a home. Yea, kudos, finally being a single parent, Maureen gets a home. On top of that her son is offered KWAPM (Fund for the poor students) and his education will be taken care off. Besides, there was a pour of donations coming from as far as the USA. Wow, what a generous society we have!!! (rolling eyes sideways)

Ok, the reality is this. There are so many other single parents like Maureen living across the country. Unlike Maureen, they didn't get as much publicity. Well, before attention was shone towards Maureen's path, she was nobody and there wasn't anyone who care to even look at her plight. And now, suddenly she was treated as if she was the only destitute single parent in this whole country. No, don't get me wrong, I am not saying anything wrong about extending aids to Maureen. But it feels so ironic.

It's always the same stuff. When there's a publicity, people start to pay so much concern. In fact, if there was something like 'Fund for the poor students', or welfare for single parents, why did Maureen cry foul in the first place before getting all these attentions. Certainly some quarters are sleeping on their work. Or are those documents and applications for the funds sitting on the dusty wooden chair or are they simply kept in a locked drawers and be looked into only when there are highlights from the media or around the general elections period?

I had a chat with a senior staff on Thursday after everyone knew that I worked late on Wednesday at another town because there were simply too many clients to be seen. They were sympathetic towards me which I quickly snapped on them. It's the clients that they should be paying sympathy. Because of the poor system, people had to wait for such a long queue. Fine, unavoidable circumstance if there were so many clients, but please find a more permanent solution. She was more afraid that the clients would make a complaint for the long waiting hours than to improve the situation. I find it rather unrealistic. I told her that I'd rather people to go and make a complaint. Otherwise, people who sit up there in the office would never realize the magnitude of the problems. These people only will look into such cases if there's a complaint. If we sit on the problems and no one make any noise, they also will play the deaf game.

The thing is, often at a time that the authority or the higher up people turn a deaf ear or pretend to close an eye on the real situation. Everyone knows there's a shortage of manpower everywhere. And to make ends meet, people from around the places are called in to relief. There's simply no proper distribution and organization. Look, there are parts where overflow of certain positions which are not needed in the sector. Yet, they are creating more and more administrative posts but fewer people to bring out the tasks. Imagine, generals are more than the soldiers. What's the use? Yea, pay them more, to do more orderings but none is gonna work.

I realized that I have diverted a lil from the main topic. What I wanted to highlight in Maureen's case is that, the proper authority should look into every of the single parent case and also identify who needed aids from the government. I believe there are still many more single parents like Maureen living with their children outside. We don't want another publicity to push the authority to work. They are paid to do their job, so help these people out and not sitting on the application itself. I was dealing with single mothers and I know how difficult it is for the applications to go around. Not mentioning the time and hope they(single mothers) put on the applications but finally find it futile and keep applying every year.

And society, yes, you people, ahahaha. I find it so ironic (pardon my sarcasm). Not that an issue was brought up in the media that the society started to pay concern. Wow, suddenly Maureen was flooded with aids. Why just Maureen and not others who are unfortunate enough to make it to the paper? If the society is really concern about single parents, find a proper channel to contribute the funds. I am so glad that Maureen directed the funds she received to others who needed more than her. Kudos. We need a responsible citizen and not any advantage seekers in the news. But again, I know-la. It's so difficult to find an org which supports these unfortunate souls coz I've even tried to look for deaf and mute org which is so scarce or simply downplayed by publicity. Guess we are not ready for a charitable society yet. Btw, the welfare society in my previous high school was sleeping as well, so obvious we are not nurturing "Charity begins at school (home)", a total let down from the Ed Ministry.

Let's be a REAL caring society.