Kofi Annan, former Secretary General of the United Nations, defined a developed country as follows: "A developed country

is one that allows all its citizens to enjoy a free and healthy life in a safe and secure environment." To be less advantaged is to be in a less favourable position in terms of economic or social circumstance. The poor (cannot afford basic necessities, cannot pay off medical bills, no proper roof over their heads, jobless) The sick (long-term/incurable diseases, people with special needs)

Most developed countries have recognised that in order to improve their social and economic standing, they have to try to close up the gap between their rich and poor, and also improve medical policies to ensure that their people have access to healthcare, thus maintaining their labour force. In some developed countries such as America, schemes for the needy are almost invariably always adjusted for inflation so that the less advantaged will not be hit too badly. I believe that although Singapore has indeed tried to improve the living situations of the less advantaged, their efforts are insufficient, leaving many people still unhappy with their way of life, and the disadvantaged still disadvantaged.

SINGAPORE In Singapore, the policy of profits and gains has made the rich richer and the poor poorer. Amongst the developed countries, Singapore has the highest level of inequality. With inflation, increased cost of living and depression of wages, the people in the lowest income sector of population are finding it harder and harder to cope. This means that the people who will ultimately suffer will be the children of those on the lowest rung of the socio-economic ladder. There is a growing recognition that a long-term measure to combat social inequality is to offer children from less advantaged homes with a good foundation for life-long learning and a good chance to succeed in life through quality pre-school education. There is a universal government subsidy for child care fees and needy families are eligible for further financial assistance from the government or nongovernment agencies. Kindergarten fees are generally lower and financial assistance schemes are also available for poor children. Over the years, the amount of such subsidies have increased for the needy so that their children can have a better chance of going to school.

There have been an increasing number of private organisations who help the less advantaged in Singapore, be it through donations from the public or subsidies from the government. These organisations include:

YWCA. Their meals-on-wheels for Elderly distributes free lunches to needy, frail and homebound senior citizens in Banda Street, Bukit Merah View, Cantonment Road, Holland Road, Lengkok Bahru, and Mei Ling Street. Meals-on-wheels for Children program provides free dinner for children from Low-income families who are schooling in Zhangde Primary School, New Town Primary School, Queenstown Primary School, Gan Eng Seng Primary School and Beyond Social Services. A total of S$4 million will be set aside to help needy families cope with the 1-per-cent fare hike in public transport fares that was announced a few days ago. This will be enough to fund 200,000 public transport vouchers. The Government will draw down S$3.45 million from the Public Transport Fund, which was set up in 2007 to provide help to lower-income households on public transport costs. The public transport operators - SBS Transit and SMRT - have also set aside S$550,000.

Despite such efforts, many Singaporeans claim that the government is not doing enough for their people. If one looks at the MCYS website on where the ministry is spending their budget (http://www.singaporebudget.gov.sg/budget_2011/expenditu re_overview/mcys.html), you can see that the amount that is allocated to the needy is a paltry sum compared to the rest of spending in the different areas. And the overspending on the Youth Olympic Games last year by 3 times could have seriously impaired the ministry ability to disburse more for the needy when the ministry have to cover for the shortfall. Hence, instead of spending more to help needy Singaporeans, the government instead is cutting back so as to make up for their spending on the Youth Olympic Games. At a forum organised by REACH, the governments online feedback portal last year, Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports, Dr Vivian Balakrishnan, said: If you were a poor person, anywhere on this planet, Singapore is the one place where you will have a roof over your head, where you will have food on the table. Even if you cant afford it, we will have meals delivered to you. But are such actions really prevalent in Singapore? Also, the minority Malay community in Singapore has been protesting that their needs are not met. An issue raised was that despite the existence of institutions to help disadvantaged Malay/Muslims, they were not doing enough. A member of the public gave an account of how his application for funds to attain a diploma from a private polytechnic was denied on the grounds that his parents were working and thus should be capable of paying for his studies. According to him, the officers did not even ask for his parents combined income. As a result, he discontinued his studies. Another member of the public recounted how his sister who was a single-parent tried applying for grants with Mendaki to pay for her childs studies but was rejected. This shows that Hence, though Singapore has indeed put in place measures to help the less advantaged, they are still not doing enough, spending too much money instead on other sectors, neglecting the needy.