I guess the problem is that I have a fundamental issue with charity and, as some of you will know, I absolutely despise a number of specific charities.
I really don't think that today, in the 21st century, that charities should have a place in a modern, civilised society. Why would any modern society allow some of their fellow citizens to get food from food banks or allow essential life saving research into killer diseases to be funded through charitable donations rather than being funded by the state? Why do the British sit back and accept that lifeboats are paid for through putting money in a collecting box instead of by the same method that funds the police, fire and ambulance?
And it gets worse - why does petty nationalism (that's a tautology, nationalism is always petty) mean that some Little Englanders think that help should go to people with whom they share a geographical accident of birth rather than those in foreign countries dying from starvation and awful illnesses which cost so little to sort out?
It's fair to say there are many charities that I abhor because their "cause", to me, is wrong; I find the hugely profligate Royal British Legion and it's pointless shadow Help for Heroes both deeply offensive. Likewise, I would never donate to any charity linked to any religious organisation - as far as I'm concerned all religions should lose their charitable status, and all charities who are nothing more missionary organisations in disguise. And, similarly, I don't think that things like Donkey Sanctuaries, etc. should get special financial benefits when they are far more worthy and urgent causes.
So what good does charity do?
Surely charity, and the good heartedness of all those who put their hands in their pockets, or do challenges, or dress up as chickens, or do whatever give those doing it a warm glow but, sadly, let governments off the hook?
On an annual basis, if you added together the amounts donated to both Comic Relief and Children in Need the total comes to considerably less than half that paid out to have Liz Windsor and her cronies laud it over the nation. And while Comic Relief spends half its money overseas to save lives, the amount it raises is a drop in the ocean to the amounts of money spent on the arms trade to ruin and destroy lives, often in the same countries.
The next Comic Relief is in about three weeks time. It will be a major media event and the amount raised will be praised across newspapers, television and radio, and yet it will raise less than £1 per person in this country - less than 2 pence per person per week.
If we accept that charities are needed (a very sad state of affairs) then charities that I feel are worthwhile include UNICEF, Save the Children, Shelter, Amnesty International, Medicins sans Frontieres... I approve of Comic Relief's overseas help but wish they didn't have to include a percentage going to UK projects just to appease the racists and xenophobic brain deads that make up so much of the population (and the fact that Children in Need makes such a point of all monies going to UK projects make it a very dodgy, UKIP/BNP type organisation).
Instead of charity, shouldn't the British (and other developed nations) just pay a sensible amount of tax?
And then I start thinking that the system isn't going to change overnight, and there are people out there who do need help - they need food and shelter, they need medicine, they need cures. Maybe I should be doing something to help?
It is a dreadful dilemma. What should I do?
Should I be raising money for charity?
No comments:
Post a Comment