Fund Raisers

Singapore's mediacorp has a fund-raiser for China's Sichuan earthquake this evening. This is admirable, but when you consider that a disaster has struck Myanmar as well, and Myanmar is a much poorer country than China and hence requires financial aid much more than China, holding a fund-raiser for Myanmar would seem like a more reasonable thing to do.

So why is it that they hold fund-raisers for China instead of Myanmar? And we see that the total amount of funds raised through all sorts of events for the China earthquake is much more than the hurricane that hit Myanmar. If you look at it, China is right now such a prosperous nation, that if their citizens were to each donate $1, they would have $1.1 billion! That is much more than the single-digit million that Singapore raises.

I suspect that this has to do with relations. Having more contacts and business relationships with Chinese clients is, I suspect, one of the main reasons for holding such fund-raisers. This is to let their clients know that we care for them. This is similar to businessmen sending gifts to clients to make them happy. Whereas there may be less business dealings with Myanmar, and hence no such need to hold fund-raisers for Myanmar. This is a realistic world, we must understand.

Also, one can suspect that as Myanmar is controlled by the military junta, funds raised by various organisations may not reach the people in need, but end up somewhere in the coffers of the junta. This could be a reason that put people off donating sums to Myanmar.

Nonetheless, I feel that to be fair, Mediacorp should have a fund-raiser for Myanmar as well, as they really need the funds, much more than their Chinese counterparts.