WHAT IS POVERTY?
DEFINITION IN WORD BANK: Poverty is pronounced deprivation in well-being, and comprises many dimensions. It include low incomes, inability to acquire basic goods and services necessary for survival with dignity. Poverty also encompasses low levels of health and education, poor access to clean water and sanitation, inadequate physical security, lack of voice, and insufficient capacities and opportunity to better one’s life.
US DEFINITION: A human condition characterized by the sustained or chronic deprivation of the resources, capabilities, choices, security and power necessary for the enjoyment of an adequate standard of living and other civil, cultural, economic, political and social rights. ~ Poverty and The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights – 2001
We've always been living like young rich people, always wasting money, and not even caring about the poverty of Singapore. When our teacher told us to write a blog on Singapore's poverty line, we googled it. We got a big shock by the percentage of people living below the poverty line. This was totally different from what we expected! We thought maybe here will only be a few percent, but to our dismay, there are about one-quarter of people living below poverty line. Frankly, we only saw poverty in other countries like Africa, China, Indonesia, never would we expect that we are also one of them.
We saw a youtube video by ProjectICHAP about how different Singaporeans see the poverty of Singapore.
There is an urgent need for the Singapore government to define the poverty line, so as to prevent more Singaporeans from falling into the poverty trap and be stuck in chronic depravity. 26% earning less than what is needed to adequately survive in Singapore – S$1,500 – is no laughing matter, and is a severe case of the exploitation of the Singaporean labour force by the government. Wow, that means that every 4 people, there is 1 person living below the poverty of Singapore. A few of my friends applied for financial assistance scheme. There are also a lot of elderly, who have to find cardboards from the dumpster to sell for money. This really shocked us (to the max).
How had we been living? All my group mates asked each other this question. No doubt, we have all been wasting our food and our parents' hard-earned money. Eee, what is this, I don't want it, throw is away, this is what we have been saying for the past 14 years of our life when we face vegetables (or other food that we disliked. P.s. Sorry for the vegetable-likers but vegetables is the food majority of us don't like...). However, do we know that there are a lot of people in Singapore (not to mention the world) who don't even eat 3 meals a day? Indeed, now we know. Thus, we all agreed on one thing: Do not waste our parents' hard-earned money. There may be somedays when your family might be below the poverty line, who knows? (Touch wood, touch wood!)
(This man is begging for money) 😱ðŸ˜
(This lady is searching the dumpster for cardboards to sell for money) 😱ðŸ˜
(This elderly man is homeless) ðŸ˜ðŸ˜
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