Something On My Mind
av khan
"A bone to the dog is not charity. Charity is the bone shared with the dog, when you are just as hungry as the dog." -Jack London
Hundreds of dollars are spent by people in this very game. Not to mention hundreds and thousands people spend out of it but while some of us are living so big, spending so much for the sake of entertainment. There are others living on so less, striving just for the sake of food.
This is my fb status update from yesterday. And what I have mentioned in that status update is not exaggerated one bit. The price of that cellphone is approximately 60,000PKR~600USD. Which makes it 100USD per month. I have known families/people around here who earn less than that and still better off than many, at least they get to eat and live some. Plus the fact that Pakistan isn't even at the bottom of the list of the poor countries. So basically its worse out there than what I have mentioned and not better. You might as well have a look at this.
I understand and know fully well that we all have the right to enjoy our hard-earned money.But know that while we spend thousands of dollars in the game to save our virtual country. Six million children die of hunger every year. While we spend 600USD on a cellphone (which gives us almost similar thing to what we would get for half that money). While we buy clothes and watches not for their quality but their popularity. 925 million people suffer from undernourishment.
So while you are out there spending your money. Just stop and think for a second, buy something less expensive but as much useful and give the rest to charity. It won't make a big difference to you. But it would make a huge to those out there.
This is all there is about being human, isn't it?
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Charity is only survival as long as you and those people are stuck at 'poverty trap'.
There is no problem in donating money but it is not the solution.
Great stuff man
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@Luminara
I came upon something similar to what you are saying while looking into this yesterday. And I agree with you. I believe there are different ways we could help different kind of people.
1. The type I have mentioned above, the ones who are suffering from even food problem. They certainly need charity. Until at least they are at out of this starvation problem and we take them to next level.
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2. The second type those that don't have skill/education to work but they are not suffering from starvation at least. Charity might not be that useful to them they need education/skills to work. This level should be provided with education and not charity money.
3. The third type those that have the skill/education to work but not the resources. We can help them again not by charity money but simple interest-free loans.
These were my thoughts when I was thinking on that subject.
now i m feeling life in this game,it was boring without u my bro! u r saying absolutely right but we r might be expected to living in coco's land to do so....................at a personal level,few months ago i arranged a meeting for all well established landlords of my area,that was easy for me to do with the help of influence of my own family.....i present them with an excellent plan of development on self basis, i gave them idea of registering their construction companies,a self funding body
a plan to educate poor n orphan children, arrangement of combined wedding parties for poor girls...providing resources to talented persons......by helping each other we can grow much better....i told them...sacrifice was just to donate 1000 PKRs per acre not a big problem i know but was sufficient to address above problems
but in result i was severely disguised..............most of them blame me n sai😛now u r interested in politics (though it is severely prohibited in my family)
so imagine my position at the end of all this, i was facing criticism of whole family along with friends...to much heart breaking....i asked them even much less than what u r asking..... probably 20 times less or even more less......peoples can't understand each other....
if those idiots may have listen me,even we may have become able to control crime rate in our area...
this was part of ultimate objectives but sadly
Basically, shit's no going to get any better if all people do are donate money, you need people who are willing to help and put that money to good use for the people that need it. Otherwise the money could possibly just go to waste and nothing will have gotten better.
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Not everyone can be rich just like not everyone can be poor. In order to have balance in the World, poor and rich both must exist. You can give charities, but some might look it as something that will only increase poverty.
so bottom line: i do not believe in giving charities.
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Microloans: http://www.kiva.org/start
In my mind, these are BETTER than charity, I hope everyone would at least look into this/read the idea.
Av, you're a great guy and if thisgame has any positive attributes beyond entertainment, it's when some of these very real human thoughts get occassionally dropped in on a world full of real people.
Microloans are A solution, an easy step anyone can take to bettering the world with measurable and concrete impact.
I prefer to share with people than to give to organized charities.
Sometimes it might only be a word of encouragement or information. Other times, meeting a real physical need of clothing, food or help finding shelter or safety.
I do like the ideas of micro loans and crowdsourcing/crowdfunding and I follow some of those kind of projects to see the results.
and Candor just linked kiva - one of the micro loan projects I have participated in.
gogogo Candor ^__^
Educate and arm the women and girls of the world. Then things will change.
@Candor
Wow, thats a pretty cool thing you got there. I looked at it and its system and it quite good and most probably effective as well.
great article