John Smith vs. Mr Brown

http://www.mrbrown.com/blog/2007/03/prescreen_your_.html#comments

A certain "John Smith" commented that parents who knew their unborn child have defects should not expect subsidy or special aid if they choose to go ahead and have the child.

A whole lot of arguments this provoked, on attitudes and treatments towards the handicapped.

On the economic side alone: what is a subsidy supposed to be in the first place?

Why do governments give subsidies?  It is meant as an aid, not an investment to expect returns from.

And with some pride I say, Singapore is one government that can afford to give more financial aid.

How many governments can do that?  The major economies like US and UK got huge debts. Fortunately they got huge economies to help them sustain.

France recently passed a bill to make housing a "right".  I believe they are still trying to figure out how to pay for it.

A Psalm of Life (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow)

What the Heart of the Young Man Said to the Psalmist

TELL me not, in mournful numbers,
Life is but an empty dream!—
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
And things are not what they seem.
Life is real! Life is earnest!	5
And the grave is not its goal;
Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul.
Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,
Is our destined end or way;	10
But to act, that each to-morrow
Find us farther than to-day.
Art is long, and Time is fleeting,
And our hearts, though stout and brave,
Still, like muffled drums, are beating	15
Funeral marches to the grave.
In the world's broad field of battle,
In the bivouac of Life,
Be not like dumb, driven cattle!
Be a hero in the strife!	20
Trust no Future, howe'er pleasant!
Let the dead Past bury its dead!
Act,—act in the living Present!
Heart within, and God o'erhead!
Lives of great men all remind us	25
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time;
Footprints, that perhaps another,
Sailing o'er life's solemn main,	30
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
Seeing, shall take heart again.
Let us, then, be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,	35
Learn to labor and to wait.

I don't know why but suddenly I'm reminded of this poem I first read in Secondary Two.

Faced with so much stress in life, every little bit like this helps to cling on to hope and to appreciate all that I have now ... my family.