For more than thirty years, humankind has known how to grow enough food to end chronic hunger worldwide. Yet while the ""Green Revolution"" succeeded in South America and Asia, it never got to Africa. More than 9 million people every year die of hunger, malnutrition, and related diseases every year - most of them in Africa and most of them children. More die of hunger in Africa than from AIDS and malaria combined. Now, an impending global food crisis threatens to make things worse.In the west we think of famine as a natural disaster, brought about by drought; or as the legacy of brutal dictators. But in this powerful investigative narrative, Thurow & Kilman show exactly how, in the past few decades, American, British, and European policies conspired to keep Africa hungry and unable to feed itself. As a new generation of activists work to keep famine from spreading, Enough is essential reading on a humanitarian issue of utmost urgency.
Click on this link to read the e-book: http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=ExRCABR5ic8C&pg=PP2&source=gbs_selected_pagesa&cad=3#v=onepage&q&f=false
Everybody donates to charity…
Whether you know it or not, charities don’t pay tax, their operations are subsidised by you because even though they don’t pay tax they still have access to all services you would have as a tax payer. When charities receive Government grants and investments these are paid for by your taxes. Your taxes are already paying for the unemployed and homeless through benefit payments. In the UK today (2010) there are probably over 500,000 voluntary organisations but fewer than 180,000 of these are registered charities. So who do you give to...the national charities who have income in the millions or the local charities that can't afford to advertise and are dependant on local support only ? It's not an easy choice and it's not easy to say no when approached by collectors.
Teach a man to fish
The old maxim of teaching a man to fish has and always will be true. “Give a man a fish, he eats for a day. Teach a man to fish and he eats for a lifetime.” Far too many people are reliant on charities, are we really helping them? Do we continue to feed or teach?
All charities have running costs
Most door to door collectors or charity workers will tell you all your money will go to charity… this is incorrect and misleading, all charities have administrative costs… some more than others. The bottom line is, not all your money will go to charity. E.g. The British Red Cross disclosed an income of £243,548,000 and spending £239,755,000 (Taken from The Charities Commission - May 2010). As you can see local charities are not in a position to promote themselves on this level. You can check other charities incomes and spending from this link: The Charities Commission
Anyway, it’s easy giving money
It’s easy to donate money to a charity, but have you ever considered giving your time to a charity. You’ll have a greater impact because you’ll probably volunteer somewhere local. Those local organizations don’t get nearly as many monetary donations as the national organizations because they don’t spend as much on publicity. You’ll also be serving the community in which you live in.
Finally
One final comment: I don’t think, giving or not giving to charity makes you a good or a bad person, it is a good thing to help others but you should not feel manipulated or pushed into making an ill informed decision. A person should only give to a charity if they truly feel it is the right thing to do with their money – if it doesn’t feel right, don’t donate.
When you do give... give for the right reasons, not just to promote your social standing amongst your peers or to be seen as a charitable person.
Please do look into the links on this blogsite before giving to charities... you may find you no longer want to give to charities that have no intention to benefit humanity.
Just as donating to charity does not make you a saint… not donating does not mean you’re a bad person either.
Wednesday, 26 December 2012
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