'Loose Talk'
By Benjamin Benedict

Thank You for Being There

Charity, I have heard it said is ‘The Queen of all Virtues’. That sounds fine, doesn’t it? It rolls off the tongue like a flying carpet on its way to Babylon. I am also told that it begins at home which conjures up something a good deal more solid. .But where else could charity begin, I ask myself?

Both sayings are way off the mark. Whatever is given at home is not charity and whatever is given away is not necessarily virtuous. In fact, it may be just plain stupid.
Are we supposed to believe that it is virtuous to throw umpteen billions into Africa and to have achieved so little? Can we not grasp that giving is only as good as the good it does?

This is not meant to discourage giving, just to give it focus. It is important that we give, but like many things at present, we must look for more accountability.

My mother used to give to anyone who tweaked her heart and the thanks she got was twice the number of tweaks from twice as many tweakers the following month. You would think that these beggars (lets call them what they are) would keep a good thing to themselves, but in the world of charitable beggary those ripe for picking are passed on to other beggars, not out of any sense of charity, but for more money.

These days, they don’t look at all like beggars. They are mostly older mums and grand-mums who sit in shops and offices helping to run these gouging enterprises. In themselves, they are tame enough. Just like the animals in the zoo, they are used to having it easy. Going that extra yard is certainly not in their vocabulary. In these times of recession, their shops are doing great business and we are told that they are desperate to get hold of more merchandise. So desperate that when I had four large boxes of clothes to give to them they were not prepared to pick them up. One girl said that her manager had a van and might help (I have a two seat car) but the lady in question would not oblige. She was quite happy to continue to be ‘desperate for stock’ and suffer falling sales. After two weeks of phoning around, there wasn’t one charitable organisation prepared to come and take these boxes off my hands.

My local hospital is another charitable money pit. It is pretty well equipped, but doesn’t yet have a ‘Pet Scan’ machine. This means that patients have to be sent on a half hour journey into town for this type of scan. It was therefore mystifying to suddenly see millions being spent on refurbishing the forecourt and parking facilities. I asked why such a mundane objective was placed before such a crucial need and was told that it was how the donation had been gifted. In other words someone’s gifted money is being used to create more parking (probably for the hospitals staff) rather than provide vital new equipment for the hospital, itself.

Charity is also good at espousing the impossible. If you are feeling uhh, ‘charitable’ this could be viewed as them fooling themselves. If you are not, the more likely interpretation would be that they are fooling you. Remember the wristbands that everyone bought ‘to rid the world of starvation’. When I bought mine, I expressed my doubts as to their likely success and as reported in a previous article they replied, “Oh no! Bob and Bono say so. And Annie does too!” At the end of the day Bob, Bono and Annie are just three more money chuckers - your money chuckers. Now, if it’s going to be chucked, why not chuck it yourself? Why let these bozo’s do it for you? Take a bit more responsibility for once in your life!

For my part, I see flesh and blood people as being the best charity. There is a recent story of a ninety year old lady who left around $750.00 to everyone in her town who was over 60 and who had lived there for more than twenty years. Now you can call that ‘charity’. I call it a ‘thank you for being there’ and that is what is really worth living for, not a misdirected handout.

 

   

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