Yes
No, but I intend to.
No, and I do not intend to.
Praying for peace in the Middle East, Ukraine, and around the world.
I've been Boo'd ... right off the stage!
Aaahh, I have been defrosted! Thank you, Bonny and Asiel!
Brrrr, I've been Frosted! Thank you, Asiel and Pomtzu!
"That's the power of kittens (and puppies too, of course): They can reduce us to quivering masses of Jell-O in about two seconds flat and make us like it. Good thing they don't have opposable thumbs or they'd surely have taken over the world by now." -- Paul Lukas
"We consume our tomorrows fretting about our yesterdays." -- Persius, first century Roman poet
Cassie's Catster page: http://www.catster.com/cats/448678
Thanks everybody who's helping
Thanks for the responses. Perhaps after taking in some of the attitudes from other threads, I jumped the gun on this topic.
I can understand donor fatigue, and the 'charity begins at home' philosophy. Still rather sad at the donor to non-donor ratio of the poll, but it is right for people to follow their principles with regards to their finances.
I've always believed that the best charity is action rather than hand-outs, and if opportunity allowed I'd be straight out to Pakistan helping with the aid efforts. Charitable fatigue is never an issue when you become directly involved, I have found. But of course when direct involvement is not possible, the only help we can often give is through money, and I can affirm it is not nearly as gratifying.
There was a speaker for the DEC on television a couple of days back who described the disaster as 'on the scale of Haiti and the 2004 tsunami, but with the complexity of the Middle East.' I'm still pondering what entirely she meant by that.
Freedom and Laura's Babies, the publicity issue is very interesting. So many celebrities jumped on the Haiti bandwagon - who can forget that god-awful rehash of 'Everybody Hurts'? - and for Pakistan? So far I've seen David Suchet in a very typical, Oxfam-style advertisement appeal, and nothing else.
There's a major difference between Haiti and Pakistan.
Pakistan chose to use enormous resources to develop nuclear weapons rather than pull the people in the rural areas out of the 7th century.
Haiti has not had a functional government for decades.
The one eyed man in the kingdom of the blind wasn't king, he was stoned for seeing light.
The United States gives hundreds of billions of dollars of foreign aid each year, to countries of all religions. Money better spent on our own people and problems, IMO.
"We give dogs the time we can spare, the space we can spare and the love we can spare. And in return, dogs give us their all. It's the best deal man has ever made" - M. Facklam
"We are raised to honor all the wrong explorers and discoverers - thieves planting flags, murderers carrying crosses. Let us at last praise the colonizers of dreams."- P.S. Beagle
"All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost. From the ashes a fire shall be woken, A light from the shadows shall spring; Renewed shall be blade that was broken, The crownless again shall be king." - J.R.R. Tolkien
US foreign aid is actually about 20-30 billion per year.
The one eyed man in the kingdom of the blind wasn't king, he was stoned for seeing light.
Being that school budgets are (or should be ) a local item, all that tells me is that we have school districts who can't budget.
The one eyed man in the kingdom of the blind wasn't king, he was stoned for seeing light.
Our economy's pretty bad right now and it's not looking like it's going to get better any time soon. A lot of people are out of work, and many are struggling to get by. I know that my local food bank is really hurting, and that's where I have been donating lately. Maybe others are in the same boat, either they can't afford to donate to Paskistan or they are choosing to help others in their own community.
There are probably some people who aren't donating because of Islam, but I doubt that it's the reason for many. I haven't heard about Pakistan nearly as much as I did about Haiti, but like someone else said, I haven't been watching tv hardly at all so that could be why. Pakistan is in my prayers.
Perhaps I shouldn't have used your quote specifically to hang my comments on. But, it was what I was thinking, so...
Communities generally budget very well for the funds (taxes,fees) they
collect, but with the bad economy & people out of work, budgets are much
tighter then they have ever been.
I've Been Boo'd
I've been Frosted
Today is the oldest you've ever been, and the youngest you'll ever be again.
Eleanor Roosevelt
Every Sunday afternoon there is a national call-in radio show on CBC called "Cross-Country Checkup", and the donating to Pakistan was the topic.
One young woman, a Pakistani-Canadian, said that so many people in her home country don't trust the government at all. However, she and some friends contacted family and friends in Pakistan, and after verifying that these people there could actually get to the disaster areas, they are channeling their money to those individuals. Then these people in Pakistan buy the supplies and take them directly to where they are needed.
Also, there are NGOs like Doctors Without Borders and the Red Cross...hopefully not having to deal with the government!
For those who wish, the show can be heard via MP3, podcast, or right on the site:
http://www.cbc.ca/checkup/archives.html
"Do or do not. There is no try." -- Yoda
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