One noble purpose, One bad idea
Several of my friends and my church have gotten involved with the One Campaign to "Make Poverty History." And when I say involved I'm not really sure what I mean, because I'm not sure how deep my friends or church have gotten involved. All that I'm sure of is that my church has sold a few t-shirts and my friends have worn them. I'm not a part of the One Campaign and I would even go so far as to say that I'm not a fan of it either. I wouldn't really say that I'm against it, after all how can you be against an organization that wants to feed hungry kids, but I would say that I'm uncomfortable with it. There are many reasons I could list, but it basically comes down to two.
Numero Uno: One wants the US Government to give an additional 1% of its budget to the poor in Africa and elsewhere. Trouble with that is that the US Government already gives billions to foreign aid, much of it in Africa, and without much success. That is because the only way a government can effectively give tons of money to another country is through that other country's government, but just about every government in Africa is corrupt and only a handful of nickels on every dollar get to the people. Thus this seems an ineffective way to attempt to eridicate poverty.
Numero Dos: Just the whole fact that there is a public movement to bug someone else to help out poor people bugs me. If the organizers of One really wanted to help out poor people why don't they take up a collection of money and then take it to the poor people. It just strikes me as wrong that thousands of people would waste their efforts shouting at the US Government give more money when they won't give any themselves. It just seems to me that the energy would be better spent education people on the situation of the poor and encouraging them to give what they can to help the situation. But that's just me.
Anyway, like I said, not really against One, but not a supporter either. Just my dos centavos. Hasta luego.
Numero Uno: One wants the US Government to give an additional 1% of its budget to the poor in Africa and elsewhere. Trouble with that is that the US Government already gives billions to foreign aid, much of it in Africa, and without much success. That is because the only way a government can effectively give tons of money to another country is through that other country's government, but just about every government in Africa is corrupt and only a handful of nickels on every dollar get to the people. Thus this seems an ineffective way to attempt to eridicate poverty.
Numero Dos: Just the whole fact that there is a public movement to bug someone else to help out poor people bugs me. If the organizers of One really wanted to help out poor people why don't they take up a collection of money and then take it to the poor people. It just strikes me as wrong that thousands of people would waste their efforts shouting at the US Government give more money when they won't give any themselves. It just seems to me that the energy would be better spent education people on the situation of the poor and encouraging them to give what they can to help the situation. But that's just me.
Anyway, like I said, not really against One, but not a supporter either. Just my dos centavos. Hasta luego.
posted by Radioactive Crow at 9:34 PM
1 Comments:
I've stopped wearing my ONE bracelet because really...what does that mean? If I care so much about the poor in the world and what's going on in Africa, then I'll go and do something about it.
That being said, I think the awareness the ONE campaign has brought about is good. More people are being educated about the problems in that part of the world and that's why I support it...but it's not the solution to the problem. And wearing a white bracelet on my arm sure as hell isn't saving those poor people.
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