I’ve Done My Bit.
It would be very difficult to find someone who thought this world is perfect. If you are this person then don’t bother reading on.
One reaction to our imperfect world is charity and my oh my don’t we have enough of them! This has happened because we identify a problem in society, in a community or even a nation and usually a charity is started which can be defined as a movement or an effort to try and solve this problem. The next requirement in any movement is money and from this we see charity boxes scattered around be it Cancer Research (all twenty of them) at the supermarket or Children in Need at McDonalds. Many of these are successful and recently we saw the success of Children in Need despite the recession. However why is it called success? Just because they raised money doesn’t mean all the children that are in need are fulfilled. In addition we release our pennies into these boxes and gain a sense of contribution towards a good cause. Great! Charities got what they need and people who do take the effort to take their wallet out of their back pocket feel good about themselves.
But then what? What’s next? Who knows. Im sure readers of this have donated to charity but how many of us have followed this up. We assume our money is immediately used to buy food or the hungry or shelter for the homeless. Ever received a receipt for this? A photo? Now in no way am I discrediting charities but rather accusing charity givers as selfish and violent! The gentleman who started the international krishna consciousness society defined violence as an action we do for our own benefit (OWTTE). This is applied here because we give money to charities to feel good about ourselves – but we just don’t realise it. Whilst I think this definition is completely ridiculous it makes sense in this situation. My ideal world would have one charity who allocates money to other charities who are all credible and return with proof that this money is doing positive work. Some could say this exists and is called a government and so it should be. Regardless of your wage, I think 1% of it should go to charity and Africa would be out of debt at this point.
In no way am I saying to stop giving money but rather give your time which is way more valuable and there are more charities out there who would prefer your time then money or if you are giving money then ask for proof as to where it went, then show others what 1% of their wage can do and progress will begin and form this we will reach a world where charities do not need to exist.
