If the government does not give a shit about their people, then no matter how much money you give those people the government will continue to not give a shit and thus create conditions of inequality. When there are governments in this world who do not look at the good of ALL, but only at the good of SOME, then abuse will be re-created, in many various forms. I am talking about child prostitution, starvation, animal abuse etc...
Charity is so popular because it takes peoples guilt away and makes them believe they are contributing to a better world. It makes them ignorant towards what is really needed to change things. It gives them a chance, to stop the nagging feelings about inequality, and believe they are actually doing something about it. I am not saying that it is bad to help out others, what I am saying is that only doing this is not enough! It is temporaral guilt relieve while we continue with our own little lives - our lives lived at the back of abuse. Because your shampoo and make up is test on animals, your clothing and toys are made by sweatshop workers.
As long as this system is in place, abuse will be re-created and the inequality wont stop! No matter how much charity you do.
"When people receive donations, they are always temporary. I've seen the slums of India before, and quite honestly, it seems like donations don't make much of any difference whatsoever. Sure, they may give a family a day's worth to eat, but in the end, they'll still be hungry. Donations don't give a society jobs, steady wealth, or economic diversity. When it comes down to it, societies survive based upon 'the survival of the fittest', just as all animals do and humans did in [ancient] times.
Also, one should realize the Indian nation rarely ever does anything to help their slums alike, yet these donations go through them.
If one does not want to help their nation, how can others?
Another saying that you may have heard is, 'Give a hungry man a fish to eat, and he'll still be hungry. Give a hungry man the knowledge to fish, and he'll never starve again.' "
http://www.questionhub.com/YahooAnswers/20100305124036AAVCZfV
VAST amount of money have been give away, BILLIONS upon billions. Oprah, Gates and other "big" names have given huge amounts. Yet what is still happening? Same abuse, same inequality.
The money for the re-building of haiti, they say it didnt get there, people are still suffering. Where the fuck is it?
Governments are struggling to get by, the economy is fucked and als made to appear very complicated so that no one may ever find out what a load of bull it is.
When are we going to say that enough is enough? When are we going to stand up as a group that decides to no longer allow such a system to exist? We are to comfortable. And we dont care, until WE feel something, untile we feel sad or hurt. Then we suddenly care. When we would be in the shoes of the abused.
Its really a shame, and we cant be proud of ourselves for what we have allowed.
"
These charities have been going for many many years now, we have given away vast amounts of our money from our coffers, it has made absolutely no difference, people are still dieing of starvation in Biafra, Basra, Ethiopia, Niger and many other nations have received our money are in just the same position as when the charities first started, we have given eight million pounds in aid to China just two years ago, just before they spent 29 billion pounds on the Olympic games, (although that was not from charity sources, it was given by our government) go figure that one, most of these charitiy fund raising campaigns by celebrities are just a way of keeping up their public profile so that we can admire them for being so giving, (Bob Geldoff comes to mind here, now a multi millionaire) A list actors and rock and pop stars that have personal fortunes of at least As£100 million to As£500 million each, they give up a little of their time to raise a many thousands of pounds for charitable causes, when they could, if they were really trying to raise money could dip into their own pockets and donate millions of pounds each and they would not even notice that it had gone and in fact, the interest on their vast remaining fortune would soon replace it, plus the money that they could give would be tax deductable but then, they would not have all of us thinking how great they all are, the free publicity would also not be there, there is one exception to this as far as celebrities go, Michael Schumacher has donated As£50 million of his own money to various causes, I bet that not many people know about that, if he can do it, why cant all of the other multi millionaires and of course billionaires also.
All charities are run as a business, they have directors, managers, all on large saleries, office blocks, company cars and expenses that more than match our MPs, the bosses of charities never drive about in Ford Focuses or Renault Clio`s, they drive around in Mercedes, Jaguars, BMW's costing thirty or forty thousand pounds, their offices are decked out with plush carpets and high end expensive furniture, nothing cheap for our charity hero`s, they fly first class all over the world on fact finding holidays (sorry, Missions) they never think of travelling economy class and give the money saved to the fund, all in all, charity is big business, it raises money for saleries for thousands of employees, it pays large sums of money in taxes, it has a large property ownership and a widespread campaigning force, all of this is paid for with the money that you give to help others less fortunate than you, it does help the causes but it helps the charity business much much more.
"All charities are run as a business, they have directors, managers, all on large saleries, office blocks, company cars and expenses that more than match our MPs, the bosses of charities never drive about in Ford Focuses or Renault Clio`s, they drive around in Mercedes, Jaguars, BMW's costing thirty or forty thousand pounds, their offices are decked out with plush carpets and high end expensive furniture, nothing cheap for our charity hero`s, they fly first class all over the world on fact finding holidays (sorry, Missions) they never think of travelling economy class and give the money saved to the fund, all in all, charity is big business, it raises money for saleries for thousands of employees, it pays large sums of money in taxes, it has a large property ownership and a widespread campaigning force, all of this is paid for with the money that you give to help others less fortunate than you, it does help the causes but it helps the charity business much much more.
Lets stand up now, go to http://www.equalmoney.org/ and join the movement. We are only starting but every person joining is 1 more vote for world equality.
Isn't this an old discussion of the early '90s? Most anti-poverty organisations I work with are self-critial and very much aware of the charity problem. "Love is justice, not charity" (U2 song)
ReplyDeleteAnyway, there is emergency aid (e.g. Red Cross): they are very professional, run like an effective business, and that's good, because we talk about saving lives. And as long as there will be disasters (forever), these people will have work. Next, there is the devellopment cooperation. These are long term projects, and in cooperation with the locals. The third group are the campaigners (e.g. Oxfam), doing political work, so that governments increase development aid, reform trade, cancel depts, abolish tax paradizes,...
All of these are doing great work. I support and volunteer for a lot of them. And we have to support them financially and in other ways as best as we can.
The reason why those countries are still poor: because of unfair trade, financial dept, financial speculation, and a lot more mechanisms, greedy corporations,.... We know these mechanisms, and we do actions against those. But governments and corporations are powerful, and most people in the west make too many greedy choices.
The amount of money given to poverty reduction is nothing compared to the money that flows away from the poor countries.
About the famous philantropists: I would not judge their philantropy, but the other unethical things they do. Their philantropy is very good. And Bill Gates is most likely the only person in the history of mankind who has saved most lives. So it is not good to judge their philantropy, because you can't tell this to e.g. the HIV/AIDS victims who were helped.
Even if you can save only one live, it is already something non-negligible. And you can save lives by donating to organisations.
@sten
ReplyDeleteThere is so many charities and there is a complete devolution on the current placement of things, world debt is growing larger, more people are in poverty and debt, more forests are destroyed, more children are being raped and trafficked, more people are without shelter and education, more animals are extinct
Why all the people indulge in the fantasies of the deception of charity do not cross-reference their words with the physical facts of the world and see the simple common sense that charity is tacit agreement of accepting the monetary system as it is. The charities are supported by the monetary system and therefore they support sustainment of this monetary system. While thinking you are doing good you are actually just serving the masters of the this make belief monetary system. The more charities there are, the less will be the system questioned and less people stand up and say stop.
governments are corporations are powerful because masses who indulge in hope, god or charity give away their power by abdicating the real responsibility.
Investigate the proposal of Equal Money System - there will be no actual change unless the money (value) system change into a one that supports ALL LIFE EQUALLY.
http://equalmoney.org