today

To say that I felt great with Amy today is an understatement. She's just a great person to be around with. We talked much today, discussed some stuff and generally had a fun time. She passed me my present: a Billabong tee and a little salt shaker in the shape of a little guy. I especially adore the little shaker. That's just great. Honestly I can say that she's the only person from the opposite sex whom I'm really comfortable being with, and whom I really enjoy being around with. I may sound slightly effervescent saying all this ("gushing", anyone?) but it's all true, believe me. I'll never be able to type everything that I enjoyed with her out because it'll never end.

It's all worth it, spending time with someone who really cares.

Got my hair cut at Thomson Plaza. And when I was exiting the building, the most incredible thing happened. I was kind of walking fast, when this youngster who couldn't have possibly been older than me - maybe 1, 2 years younger - approached me from the side. He was pushing for donations. You know those kinds, charity pamphlet in one hand, identity card in the other, pushing for donations for some kind of save-the-kids foundation or some institute for the retarded in which they really should be in (I have my ways of helping these poor people, thank you very much). I was walking fast, when he strode up to me and went "excuse me sir..". Ok here, I might have been slightly abrasive but I simply said "no thanks" and carried on walking. Don't blame me. I've been approached many times by these people and frankly, I don't know whether these fellas and the organization they claim to be representing are legit. Anyway, what happened next was nothing short of bizarre. As I walked away, I clearly heard the fella mutter "wah walk so fast". Now, at this point of time I was so incensed, I had half a mind to do an about-turn and slog him once in his face. But cooler heads have prevailed and so did mine, and I just carried on walking. I simply attribute his sentence to a juvenile and immature expression of annoyance.

What right do these youngsters have to snidely snipe comments at people who refuse to donate? And how can these people so aggressively push their sales pitch (yes, sales pitch) at people like us? Does the NCSS have guidelines drawn up as to protect the donor too? I don't fully blame the young man as he was just doing a job, possibly on a volunteership basis or as a paid employee. What I accuse is the charity (or front organization, dare I say) of using aggressive tactics and emotionally-manipulative stories of destitute children and/or homeless individuals to tug on the heartstrings of donors, and making use of impressionable young people to do their begging for them, in a manner which is wholly inappropriate and invasive. If you're marketing a new clothes rack that dances or a cooking stove which can sing Ave Maria, fine, but don't bring your new Donald-Trump-invented marketing tactics into charity. That's just wrong. I think that even if the people whom these organizations claim to be acting for are genuine, they won't approve of the methods used to collect donations should they hear about them.

This has got to stop. I've half a mind to write in to the Straits Times forum because I don't think I'm the only victim of such overtly-aggressive donation collection. It's time someone said something to prevent another NKF disaster from blowing up.