Skip to main content

Willing Hearts Reflection

I personally have not visited Willing Hearts but I am writing this based on a short video taken on that day as well as personal accounts from those who have been there.
 
As a country known for being cold and unfeeling, it is indeed refreshing to hear about Willing Hearts and its operation in Singapore.
 
From different accounts, it appears that the food preparation operation is planned and supervised by a small group of dedicated people while the food is prepared by one-off volunteers. On the other hand, the food is being delivered to specific locations where the recipients of the food packets are waiting.
 
It is heartwarming to know how much joy a packet of food can bring – something that most of us take for granted. However, after thinking deeper, two things struck me. First, the issue of manpower for the food preparation operation. As the preparation is done mainly by one-off volunteers, it is possible that there are days where there are no volunteers or days where manpower is abundant. Second, from the short video, it seems that there is no proper system for the food packet distribution. The food is simply dropped off and anyone is able to grab a packet.
 
Regarding the first issue, we can use a new media platform (e.g. website) to indicate the number of people who have volunteered for that day. For example, if the kitchen only requires around 20 people, the website can indicate how many out of 20 have already indicated that they will be helping on that day. Thus, those who are keen can choose another day to help with the food preparation. In addition, we can also use a SMS reminder system to remind volunteers the day before their actual volunteering service. However, this should not be a form of restriction; anyone can still help out regardless if they have indicated that they are volunteering or if the number of volunteers has exceeded 20.
 
On the second issue, we can consider using a new device to ensure the people that need and requested for help are provided with that help first before others. Thus, we can probably create a device that is able to indicate how many packet of food a person have requested for. The recipient of the food packet will simply present their Identity Card (IC) and the volunteer will key the IC number into the device. The device will immediately indicate how many food packet the recipient has requested for. If there are leftovers, the volunteers can then distribute to others who need it. In addition, the volunteers can also add any new recipient through the device if they have requested for food packets. This will also allow the food pantry to have a better sensing of the number of food packets that are needed at a specific location.

Popular posts from this blog

Zionist hate mongering, the race/terror trope, and the Free Speech Union: Part 1

March 15, 2019. It was a day of terror. Unleashed by a white supremacist far-right terrorist. Driven by hate for brown people. Driven by Islamophobic hate. Earlier in the day, I had come across a hate-based hit piece targeting me, alongside other academics, the University of Auckland academic Professor Nicholas Rowe , Professor Richard Jackson at Otago University, Professor Kevin P Clements at Otago University, Dr. Rose Martin from University of Auckland and Dr. Nigel Parsons at Massey University.  Titled, "More extremists in New Zealand Universities," the article threw in the labels "terror sympathisers" and "extremist views." Written by one David Cumin and hosted on the website of the Israel Institute of New Zealand, the article sought to create outrage that academics critical of Israeli settler colonialism and apartheid are actually employed by universities in New Zealand. Figure 1: The web post written by David Cumin on the site of Israel Institute
Read more

Whiteness, NCA, and Distinguished Scholars

In a post made in response to the changes to how my discipline operates made by the Executive Committee of the largest organization of the discipline, the National Communication Association (NCA), one of the editors of a disciplinary journal Rhetoric and Public Affairs (RPA), Professor Martin J. Medhurst, a Distinguished Scholar of the discipline, calls out what he sees as the threat of identity (see below for his full piece published in the journal that he has edited for 20+ years, with 2019 SJR score of 0.27). In what he notes is a threat to the "scholarly merit" of the discipline, Professor Medhurst sets up a caricature of what he calls "identity." In his rhetorical construction of the struggles the NCA has faced over the years to find Distinguished Scholars of colour, he shares with us the facts. So let's look at the facts presented by this rhetor. It turns out, as a member of the Distinguished Scholar community of the NCA, Mr. Medhurst has problems wit
Read more

Disinformation, Zionist propaganda, and free speech: Far right cancel culture

Thursday October 12, 2023. The settler colonial occupation had unleashed its infrastructure of violence over the Palestinian people over a period of five days. Gaza was being indiscriminately bombarded, with mass civilian casualties that Amnesty International noted " must be investigated as war crimes ." At 3:32 p.m., my office phone rang. I was occupied and the call went to the voicemail. "Dutta, you are a murderous, f***ing, racist c***. Go back to where you belong...I will see to your termination in New Zealand." A couple of hours before that, an email had gone out from the Zionist Dane Giraud to the email listserv of the Free Speech Union, performed as a supposed apology for attacking my academic freedom. In the email, Giraud referred to my earlier b log post on the interlinkages between far-right Zionism, attacks on academic freedom, and the free speech union, noting how he had been enraged by the following statement on my blog: "I was therefore not surpri
Read more