Inspired by my husband (From Bucks Free Press)
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The perfect wife and mother, Rebecca runs a home, a village magazine and is working on her novel. She does not visit the gym or jog but is in amazingly good shape. She enjoys photography, playing the piano and arguing with the TV. She lives in Amersham with her husband and youngest child (aged nine). Her eldest, now 26, lives and works in Buckinghamshire.
Why give to charity?
5:33pm Wednesday 12th January 2011
I currently donate to the RSPB. In previous years and decades I’ve given to the Lifeboats, the NSPCC, Oxfam… But I’m beginning to wonder why any of us do this?
I give to charity because I feel I should. Because the charities I give to are worthy and I want to help people. Aren’t I good?
If I’m honest I give in a fairly indifferent way. A standing order is easy to set up and I feel I’ve done something good.
But I’m now beginning to reconsider. Shouldn’t child welfare for example be the responsibility of society in general? So, shouldn’t we pay for the NSPCC’s services in our taxes? Shouldn’t we all contribute to ending child cruelty?
My argument on that evening’s discussion with my hubby was that the taxpayer cannot fund every aspect of society. ‘But we can fund wars’ was his reply.
Indeed. And I haven’t delved deep enough to know how much the NSPCC raised last year but I know that defence run into billions. Billions
What sort of place do we live in if volunteers have to stand in the street rattling boxes or buckets in the hope we’ll drop some coins into them?
Perhaps the fact that it makes us feel good is part of what makes us continue donating.
But imagine a world where instead of the woman selling the Big Issue, a uniformed chappie stood outside M&S shaking a bucket which read 'Weapons for Soldiers Collection' or 'Missiles to Kill Iraqis' – wouldn’t that be harder to donate to?
Can you imagine an arms charity campaign? ‘The army needs your help. Short of hi-tech guns and aircraft, we are being conquered by the enemy. Please give whatever you can… Every thousand pounds you give lets us buy essential weapons to kill people in faraway countries we know little of and care even less about.’
I just think we may have things the wrong way round. We give invisibly to wars and killing (’defence’) but have to be asked to help babies being abused, neglected and hurt.
The two might be connected. Cared–for children with access to support and with a strong sense of self-worth may not want to decimate other peoples. Who knows?
There at least needs to be some questioning of the status quo. Is it as it should be?
I think there’s not just room for improvement but for a radical re-think. Voluntary contributions to killing; enforced giving to care of our young.
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Comments(4)
Trip
says...
4:54pm Fri 14 Jan 11
All those years where the public can see no foreseeable threat to the UK, very little would be donated to the military and all the hardwear would have to be scrapped, personnel would be laid off and military expertise would be lost.
Then one day something would happen when would actually need a military to defend us, and we'd be screwed.
Rebecca Leon
says...
8:18pm Sun 16 Jan 11
:
"Who's going to defend me if I don't?"
:
Imagine of NO country had an army, defence budget, weapons; would we make more effort to get on? (Ugh, I realise I sounded like those abominable John Lennon lyrics...)
:
Would our citizens be better off, healthier because we had more money to spend on their care and welfare? I don't know...
:
The gathering of manpower in order to defend is ancient but seems to be inextricably linked to conquering other lands/people.
wisegirl
says...
4:55pm Wed 9 Feb 11
I'm sure less people would dodge their taxes too if they knew that there money really was doing good. The difficuty is there are so many charities, all of them valid, in some way, but not so relevant to each one of us. The obvious ones like Macmillan Trust, NSPCC, Oxfam and then ones that pay for an instrument for out of work musicians or any number of obscure issues. I am not happy at all that my income tax pays for rich arms and oil companies get richer creating guns to kill innocent people. However I'm sure if it came into law, I would also be dissatisfied to use my tax to pay for a charity that is more about making itself rich than the cause it fights for: Oxfam central London offices, Cancer trust working with pharmaceutical industry, helping to promote drugs that make these companies richer, when there are many people who believe there are simple , non pharmaceutical cures to cancer. At least by choosing who we contribute to we can choose who we really feel is deserving of our hard earned money.
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The perfect wife and mother, Rebecca runs a home, a bad temper and is working on her novel. She enjoys photography, playing the piano and likes almost anything that's out of fashion and uncool. She lives in Amersham with her husband and youngest child (aged ten). Her eldest, now 27, lives and works in Buckinghamshire.
tom.marlow says...
9:18pm Wed 12 Jan 11
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There's a lot of truth in what you are saying but unfortunately we live in a society where spending money on killing people (or at least maintaining the capability to do so) is seen as a higher priority then spending money improving peoples lives.
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I'm not going to enumerate the reasons for this - its all pretty obvious stuff and ultimately all you have to do is "follow the money".
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I take the view that I'm lucky enough to have just a little bit more money than I need, so I'm quite happy giving a bit of it to people who haven't. For sure I'd rather my tax was spent on these things but it gives me the opportunity to direct money where I think is important.
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One comment just to stir things up a bit. I really hate the epithet "Charity begins at home". It doesn't - it should begin with the greatest need.