An article in today’s Straits Times raised some interesting thoughts.

 The article is about so called ‘Flag Days’ where volunteers have tins and rattle them when you’re walking or shopping to get donations.

 Here’s a direct quote: ‘ … Singaporeans growing disdain for the army of volunteers waving tim cans in their faces each weekend. Teacher Coen Ching has had students tailing him on the streets, trying to get him to donate. “Such behaviour is very irritating,” he said.

 In Singapore, such Flag Days are balloted – they’re only allowed on 63 days of year. But now, the Government here is going further, ‘levelling the playing field’ and making the Flag Days only available ‘to charities which have more urgent and immediate need for funds’.

 Last year, according to the Straits Times, nearly 70 per cent of the charities that held flag days raised $50,000 and over. And the article reported that the Singapore Red Cross – which raised $164,000 during its flag day – has close to $10 Million in reserves.

 So now you’ve got charities competing with charities. And now you’ve got charities saying it’s not fair that this one gets a flag day and we don’t. How crazy is all of that?

 And that’s one of the aims of Buy1GIVE1 of course; to stop charities feeling they have to beg and to get them to realise that it might also be interesting for them to look at what they can give. If they’d only read Masami’s brilliant ONE book, they’d get a totally different perspective.