Generosity measured

The morning news greets us at the start of the day, with grim news of extreme hardship faced by Haitians devastated by a massive earthquake on Tuesday. I also then read with much bewilderment, that the Singapore government pledged US 50,000 dollars for Haiti relief efforts. Seriously, are you kidding me now? The Government of Singapore, representing our population of 4 million, pledges 1.25 cents per Singaporean? While I know that many Singaporeans are undergoing financial hardship in this bad economy, surely it doesn't take much to figure out that Haitians are many many more times in need right now. Let's take a moment to compare what this 50,000 USD represents:

Cost of a new car in Singapore
5% of what Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie pledged for Haiti relief efforts
1.75% of PM Lee's annual salary
0.69% of our 10M SGD Community Integration Fund
0.000005% of the value of what our sovereign wealth funds are worth

Gosh darn it. 50K USD is not even enough these days to pay for the down payment on a new property.

I feel slightly ashamed of my country right now. For sure, Haiti represents little in the way of economic value to our government. There isn't a significant Haitian population in Singapore. In many ways we are far removed from the impoverished Carribean nation. However, on the grounds of our shared humanity, I think they deserve a little more than 50K USD. I personally will be making a donation to the relief efforts, and it will surely not be 1.75% of my annual salary.