extracted from ST forum.
Behaviour at Starbucks event holds up a mirror to our society
MISS Tay Li Ching's observation, that the majority lining up for
Starbucks' coffee-for-charity event last Thursday were not making a
donation ('Here's the free coffee, how about a donation'; ST, Dec
10), did not surprise me.
After 40 years of independence and phenomenal economic growth, it
is sad to see that our non-economic indicators, such as humanity
and culture, have not progressed very much. As they say, economic
indicators of development are the easiest to achieve. The
non-economic indicators - these take generations.
What did surprise me as I watched the snaking line waiting for the
coffee was that the majority of those in the line were young and in
office attire and that two things seemed not so apparent to them:
the amount of time spent in the queue just for that 'free' coffee
('free' because most were not giving donations); and not knowing
(or pretending not to know) that many passer-bys were well aware
the majority of them were out to take advantage of Starbucks'
charity programme rather than help the less fortunate.
Last year, Starbucks collected only $16,000 for 14,000 cups of
coffee served. We all know Starbucks coffee is not $1.14 a
cup.
Thank you Starbucks for this imaginative programme which not only
helped the disadvantaged, but also served to hold up a mirror to
our society. Chiang Meng Lee (Ms)
