There are many different types of charities.
Those that help the poor, those that help people who need medical assistance, those that help street dogs, etc etc etc.
It's a long list.
I have a very different way of looking at all these charitable organizations.
You see... I have a belief that nothing is really good, and nothing is really bad unless you take into account the effect
Cause and effect. What is the effect?
Is the end result good? If it is then it's a good thing.
But if the end result is not good. Then it doesn't matter the intentions of how it started.
It's still a bad thing...
To elaborate more.
I don't like to donate to charitable organizations.
Well, mainly cos I don't have much money and I'm stingy.
But another thing is that. Many of these organizations are what they are... an organization.
Like every other organization, there are the workers and the politics. The product are the beneficiaries and the organization needs to sell the idea that the beneficiaries need help.
Let's assume that 50% of any donation goes to the organization and pays for all the resources, like staff salaries, rent, golden taps. And 50% goes to beneficiaries... (yea right)... usually beneficiaries get less than 50%.
So 50% of any funds goes to normal services and 50% goes to beneficiaries.
And following that, how many beneficiaries end up becoming reliant on these funds?
How many beneficiaries actually develop and get themselves out of the vicious cycle?
So maybe 50% goes to operating costs, 45% goes to beneficiaries who will forever be beneficiaries and maybe 5% goes to people who might end up improving their lives and getting out of their situation.
If you donate to a beggar, he will continue to beg. If no one donates to him, he will either die or find something else to do.
You see, to me, doing good isn't about just putting money in a tin. It's about, what's going to happen next. If my money is just going down the drain, then there's no real point in doing it.
We could easily reduce or eradicate poverty in Singapore if we had control over certain things.
Let's say we had a program, where rich people could "mentor" a poor person for a period of time.
In return of being "mentored" the poor person has to take up whatever job which is available, get cleaned up, and the mentor will dictate how the poor person is to spend any money earned.
How many poor people will want to sign up? Most people want the money to live the life they have been living. Not to take the money and improve and get out of their cycle.
If I donate money to him, and this results in him staying poor. Am I doing good deeds?
In my opinion, most charities don't fix the problem. If they fixed the problem, then there would be no problem then there would be no charity.
So to me, doing good or bad isn't so simple.
Some parents believe in spanking a kid. Others think that it will be bad for a child's development.
At the point in time, no one knows. Wait til the child grows up then we will know whether it was good for the child or not.
IF it were so bad, then there would be a whole generation of adults who have mental issues due to being spanked as a kid.
Currently, the only "group" I help is the freegans to collect excess fruits and vegetables from Pasir Panjang and they will send it to other organizations, which in turn cook them and distribute it to other beneficiaries.
It doesn't really change the cycle of things. The beneficiaries remain beneficiaries.
I help them cos of a few reasons.
1) I get fruits and veges for myself.
2) There is little financial benefit to anyone else. There's no big CEO who's going to take a big cut of any donations.
3) The main cost is the fuel for the truck to deliver the stuff to the other organizations. Which is likely less than $50 to transport around 1 ton of produce.
4) It reduces food waste which would have ended up in the bins anyway.
5) There is little loss to the donors (vendors) cos they would have dumped the stuff anyway.
So if we look at it from another point of view, there is little effort for a lot of benefit, also there is little room for people to abuse and unfairly gain out of this initiative.
Then there would be people who say, knowing that a poor person might be too foolish to change and improve himself and he WILL die, should we not do anything about it?
I have no answer for this.
It's something like asking if I would give money to a drug addict who is threatening to jump off a building unless I give him money for his next fix.
Anyway... this is how I view doing good or charity or helping people or stuff like that.
I think the way to help people is by change and coaching and mentoring. Not just as simple as giving money to someone.
That's not to say that people shouldn't help others and all that.
This is just my own opinion. Everyone does things that they want to do and whatever they choose to believe in. So if you think something is worthy for you to help or donate to, please don't let my opinion affect your decision.
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