Of CHC's fund raising for the 6 accused.

From AsiaOne

City Harvest Church warned over fund raising for accused 

Singapore's Commissioner of Charities (COC) has warned City Harvest Church about its employees' efforts to raise funds to pay the legal fees of the church's leaders facing criminal charges in court.

At issue is a donation form which surfaced this month seeking funds as a "personal gift" to the six people charged so far.

Commissioner of Charities' response

"The Commissioner of Charities' (COC) office had earlier issued a Restriction Order to the Board of City Harvest Church (CHC) to restrict CHC from paying the legal fees of the six accused persons and entering into transactions relating to payment of services to the suspended individuals and their related entities, without the approval of the COC.

The COC has informed CHC that the church and/or its employees should not be involved in raising funds for the legal expenses or setting up a specific fund for this purpose."
 

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Is this a good call by the Commissioner of Charities to stop CHC members for raising funds for the lawsuit? We cannot decide. Members will simply route their funds to a fellow member who is not part of the 6 accused. This "personal gift" is a major loophole. At the same time, it does seem that CHC has forgotten why they are in embroiled in a lawsuit in the first place. Seems like CHC is pretty recalcitrant.

What is even more disgusting, disappointing and appalling is this: CHC actually puts itself up as a recipient for donations in kind. NTUC FairPrice and the National Council of Social Service (NCSS) have a collaboration so that people who would like to donate food items or basic necessities to voluntary welfare organizations (VWOs) may do so via FairPrice's website. CHC is one of the VWOs listed.

 

How is this appropriate when church members are busy raising funds for their already very rich pastors and senior members of the church and leaving the needy people in their care to the public? Surely they should know where their priorities lie? Is giving to the needy less prosperous then giving to the pastors, you believers of the prosperity gospel?

This is not an attempt to penalize the needy. This is an indication that CHC members rather tithe upwards to pastors who can live in luxury appartments instead of giving meaningfully to those who need it more. We are even more convinced that somewhere during sermons and cell group sessions, CHC has not been sharing the right message.

Regardless of religion, God helps those who help themselves.  

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Of Mentos' National Night

CNN reports on how Mentos hopes to get Singaporeans to get busy and start making babies starting this National Day!

The video is well worth your time. In our opinion, it beats any national day songs that have been written in recent years. Get busy Singaporeans! Own this National Date Night!


P.S. The comments on the CNN article are mostly idiotic. Perhaps, most of the commenters are not Singaporeans. The ones on Youtube however, are more encouraging. It shows that Singaporeans have a sense of humour too.
 

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Video urges Singapore couples to make babies - like, now

By John D. Sutter, CNN

(CNN) - This week's over-the-top marketing campaign is a YouTube video from Mentos that hopes to convince Singaporeans to get busy. Like literally. It asks them to "make a little human that looks like you and me" and "make Singapore's birthrate spike" on National Day, a Singaporean holiday, which will be celebrated on Thursday.

"This August the 9th, it's time to do our civic duty," a deep-voiced man says in the video, produced by an ad agency on behalf of Mentos mints. "And I'm not talking about speeches, fireworks or parades." (Woman in the background: "But I like that stuff.") "I'm talking about the stuff after that stuff. I'm talking about making a baby, baby. You ready?"

Just watch the thing:

 

It turns out that the country has a "problem" with population decline. Fertility rates are going down. The population is aging. Growth of the small city-state's population was 1% in 2010 and shrank to 0.5% in 2011.

From a government report on the issue (PDF):

Like many developed countries, Singapore’s key population challenges are our low fertility and an ageing population. Our aim is to achieve a sustainable population that supports both economic growth and social cohesion, so that Singapore remains vibrant and liveable.

Oh, yeah. And the country also runs a dating service, called the Social Development Network.
That government group is referenced (of course, right?) in the "National Night" song:

It's National Night and I want a baby, boo. I know you want it. So does the S.D.U.

(The S.D.U. was renamed the S.D.N. in 2009. But "U" apparently rhymes better.)

Just FYI, new parents in Singapore are offered thousands of dollars ($18,000 for the fifth child!) for having children, according to a government site.

It's unclear if the government was involved in the Mentos have-sex-now-and-increase-our-population video campaign, which also has a related Facebook page. The ad firm Bartle Bogle Hegarty developed the the video. A spokesperson told the Financial Times that the government of Singapore did not request to approve the campaign.

It's unclear, of course, if this will actually work. But it certainly has people in Western media circles talking.
From James Fallows at The Atlantic:

The Singapore government has often been criticized for being too Grandgrind-like and strait-laced. So, no joke, congrats to whoever broke the stereotype by doing this. And ... ummm, Happy National Day!

And it's resulted in plenty of funny/bossy tweets. Like this one:

 Perhaps the most striking thing about the video is its lack of subtlety. Here are a few lines:

"Let your patriotism explode. Because it's National Night."
"Put this track on repeat. Let's put a bao (bun) in your oven!"
"We gotta go all the way for Singapore, you know what I'm sayin?"

Yes. Yes, we do.

Let us what you think of the video and Singapore's birthrate issues in the comments.

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