My engagement was with Michael Switow, the founder of OneSingapore. Michael has long been campaigning against the issue of poverty, he has participated in the Global Call to Action Against Poverty (GCAP), given speeches in schools like SMU to “Make Poverty History”, and voiced the series “Poverty No More” on the national radio. With so much experience on the topic of poverty in Singapore, I thought it would be a great idea to interview him as he would be able to provide me with some valuable insight on poverty and income inequality in Singapore.
During the engagement, Michael told several personal stories about his experience with poverty in Singapore which were very interesting to listen to. This made the engagement fun as well as interesting and he kept me engaged throughout the entire meeting. He told stories about his inspiring moment at a concert with Will Smith, which was where his passion for alleviating poverty sparked. During that concert, he learned that every three seconds, a child dies from poverty. He then explained all of his experiences with working with OneSingapore, explaining how around 80% to 90% of OneSingapore’s operations happen in Singapore and the rest globally.
The nature of the meeting was also more like a conversation instead of an interview, where we would be asking questions to each other and answering them. This made the engagement very powerful to me because his questions forced me to reflect upon my past experiences and my views on the issue in Singapore. For most of the questions he asked, I did not have a definite answer to them, and this made me realise how my knowledge of the issue in Singapore was not sufficient enough to truly understand poverty in Singapore. Another thing that I have learned from the engagement is the social causes of poverty in Singapore. Initially, I thought that the causes of poverty were purely income inequality, and how people just were not earning enough money to sustain a living. However, I learned that the Singaporean society itself may have also caused poverty. The issue of poverty in Singapore has always been swept under the carpet and neglected, both by society and the government. This may have caused the issue to worsen, as some people who are in urgent need of financial aid may not get it in time.
Finally, I also learned that governments and the private sector have the most power over the issue of poverty and income inequality in Singapore. This is because they have the resources to deal with the problem which charities and NGOs do not have, making the Singaporean government and private sector the most effective candidates at alleviating the issue.
