Starbucks and Donations

I spent New Years day at the Borders bookstore at the Curve, Mutiara Damansara (close to the 1Utama shopping center). I forked out close to RM700 for books on chess, world history and some motivation books. What a nice way to start the year off.

Since I was with my wife and her brother, I thought I'd take them to Starbucks for some coffee. I rarely ever drink at Starbucks. I believe Starbucks is just an overrated coffee shop. Only pretenders drink there and I'll tell you why later.

I purchased 3 tall drinks (tall is the smallest size on the menu) and two muffins, which cost me close to RM50. Okay, why not, after all, I don't do this often. You can see the bill below.

Then I was approached by a young man and his lady accomplice. Apparently they were getting some donations for the orphanage in Negri Sembilan. They produced their identification card, their badge and some letters from some government agency showing their eligibility to go and obtain funds to help the orphanage. I shelled out RM10 for the car sticker, as shown below, which, according to the young man, is tax exempted.

But what surprised me the most was that I was the only one among all the Starbucks patrons who gave any support to this young man and the orphanage that he was collecting for. I mean, come on, I was not the richest person having their drinks at Starbucks that day. There were many wealthy people there - you could guess from two things: they were wearing expensive clothing and jewellery and the fact that they were drinking coffee at Starbucks and most of them had more larger, and expensive drinks, compared to what I was having. Couldn't any of them spare another Rm10 to help the orphans? Is this how the rich get richer? I was really disgusted and disappointed to see people brush off this young man. I know everyone was having a good time on new years day, but the least they could do was to think of the children that had no homes or families to go to, and provide them with some cheer. But you know what, what goes around, always comes around. Life always has a way of playing the same trick on you that you play on others at times when you least expected it.

This reminds me of someone I know in the Jesus Caritas parish who had a young child with a handicap. He came to church begging for some money. That's fine. What irked me was that he still lived in a large double storey house in Petaling Garden, Kepong and drove a big car. He could have easily sold off his car and gotten a Kancil if his child needed the money, couldn't he? Also, he was moving to a large home in Petaling Jaya. And yet, he had the cheek to go to church and ask for money from the poor. These are the worst hypocrites you can ever find. And yet, these people are more wealthier than the majority of us.

These people make me sick!