Comrades, Ladies and Gentlemen, I am pleased to join all of you here today.
Care and Share Spirit
1. This will be the 6th year that NTUC is organising this annual Care and Share project. Over the last few years, we have visited Sunlove Home, Singapore Leprosy Association, Bukit Batok Home for the Aged, Moral Welfare Home and Geylang East Home for the Aged.
2. This project was previously known as “Gotong Royong” project, signifying people in the same community coming and doing something together, to help one another in the kampong spirit.
3. What was the kampong spirit? I remember my days in the kampong. When a family needs to dig a well for water, neighbours chip in to help dig the well, which can go 30 feet deep. When a new chicken coop is to be built, whilst a master builder may be engaged, the labour comes from neighbours. The neighbours provide the labour free of charge. Their only compensation is the lunch and drinks that the householder supplies. People provided such mutual support, which lowered their costs.
4. As people move from kampong to high-rise living due to modernisation and urbanisation, some degree of the kampong spirit has been lost. Not that people have become more self-oriented, but due to our lives becoming more structured and help given are now more organised. Our experience is that it is increasingly difficult to offer practical help in terms of cleaning, painting a Home for example. One key reason being is that most Homes have moved to better facilities in clean and modern environment complete with maintenance programmes. Those who wish to help may not have the skills needed.
5. We now live in a more affluent society where we pay to get services. It is also more convenient to do things with cash. During the aftermath of the Tsunami 2 years ago, efforts poured in worldwide to help the victims and their families. What they needed at the ground was food, water, clothing and medical help. In Singapore, Embassies were flooded with tons of clothing, blankets etc. just the initial 2 days when the appeals were made known. However, they very soon had to reject almost everything brought to them except for cash donations. The logistical efforts required to coordinate the donations-in-kind are just too time consuming and massive. Yet, we know that donation-in-kind are more personal and direct than cash donations. Those who donated their good-conditioned blankets, clothings and food are those who thought through what the victims might need at a time of the crisis they face. Some element of “kampong spirit” is visible in this kind of giving. In our modern living, although it is a challenge to keep up this spirit, it is worth preserving the value of sharing what we have with the less fortunate and less able and passing it on to the younger generation.
6. Today, I am glad that our affiliates have come together to purchase gifts worth more about $14,000 for the residents of this Home. Besides the contribution, some 50-60 union volunteers have also spent one day on 9 December, helping to paint the doors and grilles of the Home. This project gives NTUC and affiliates an opportunity to preserve the value of giving and sharing and reinforce community bonding with the less fortunate. We hope that this simple act of caring will bring some joy to the residents here today. I hope that we will re-build the good neighbour spirit in our communities because it will help us lower the cost of living in an ageing society.
7. On this note, I wish you a good year ahead filled with good health and joy!
Thank you.
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For media queries, please contact:
Julie Tai (Ms)
Principal Executive
Corporate Communications Department
National Trades Union Congress
DID 6213 8186
HP 9848 2483
Email taihl@ntuc.org.sg
