I am blogging about this because yesterday my friend whatsapp to complain about how he had given money to them and it is now all gone. Myself I have also seen money wasted on the wrong people at least half the time. If I had not learned to turn down some requests, the record would be even worse.
I learned long ago from the futurologist Alvin Toffler that the means of deception is running ahead of the know how to catch them. You can still identify them but it is often more costly in time and coin than the money you are giving away.
The long term worry is that the donating public becomes cynical. But if you believe sometimes you have to be brutal to be kind then give the problem time to reveal if it is a genuine case. Perversely this should discourage people from their recklessness and foolishness because a safety net is too easily available. Elsewhere e.g., European societies have too many hypocritical bleeding hearts. See where they have landed themselves in? 50% of government spending go to welfare.
Update: June 15, 8:40pm
Just came across this from the NYT video. Big time orphanage scams in Cambodia
It is like throwing pearls to swine. Many people are easily moved by the call to donate and being kiasu they wanted to be associated with it. I remember when typhoon haiyan struck and people were going around with tin cans collecting donations. My friend gave a dollar and felt he had done his part. I asked him whether he actually knew if the collector was genuine, whether the money actually go to the victims and .... I believe charity begins from the heart not from the mind. People give because they don't want to be seen as "not with the rest". That goes for all those calls for donations when I was in the corporate world and I always wonder whether the organisation or HR dept gets all the credit of the act of donation and whether the money actually had gone to the proper cause.
ReplyDeleteTo help is good but to help in this "kiasu" only help to perpetuate the crime committed by those who prey on human sentiments.