Blood Money

A few months back, a man was sitting in our house at midnight, strumming a guitar. 7 years ago, he was sued by the CEO of the National Kidney Foundation, Singapore's largest charity organization, for saying that this CEO flew first-class anywhere he went.

Over the past week, our country was transfixed with shock, glee, and outrage as it discovered that not only did this CEO fly first class, he also:
1) Was paid more then half a million a year (with 12-month bonuses)
2) Installed gold-plated taps in his office
3) Led the public to believe that the organization could barely support its destitute patients for the next 3 years, so please donate all you can.

In reality, NKF had a few hundred million in reserve, enough to sponsor its recipients for the next 30 years. But I digress. This is not about an organization so prominently entrenched within our nation's charitable policies that no one would have even suspected its deception and excess. This is not even about its exposed, sybaritic CEO.

This is about the man who sat in my house with his guitar, who had to spend the last 7 years paying for a truthful remark. Yet there he was that night with my father and his friends, and he was singing as if he needed no such vindication, none at all.

I sincerely hope that the truth has given him some satisfaction, even if it came too late. Perhaps he will take a good long holiday, somewhere restful, luxurious and faraway. If I were him I'd fly there first class.