Comic Relief

[Doon frae Troon]

Sir Trever Bayliss has saved hundreds of thousands of lives in Africa with his wind up radio.
Mobile phones will work in the same way.

I think Europeans generally have no idea of the scale of the size of Africa and the problems it causes.
Ask our kids to walk 10 miles a day to and from school and I wonder what the response would be.
Many are so overweight that the would struggle to walk one mile.

 

[stevie_r]

I don't know why, but I am getting the impression you didn't like my post. Nobody on TV is desperate for cash or publicity. But it doesn't do them any harm, does it? As said on a previous post, why is Lenny Henry always dragged out for these things? If you are so keen on Comic Relief, I think there is a free pair of shoes somewhere that could be sold for a good cause.

meooww

 

[Hacker Khan]

As some may have worked out I have been personally and professionally involved in this. Hence my rather testy replies. I take on board that everyone has an opinion. But I get very frustrated by comments that at best are driven by misinformation and at worse downright cynical and bordering on morally offensive (to me anyway).

Trust me, we have heard all the 'if you are so bothered why don't you sell all your belongings, things never change so why bother, why can't the government sort it all out (anyone fancy paying more taxes for them to do it then?) why can't the very rich pay sort it out arguments before, and if that is how people feel and it gives them a reason not to engage then there's not much can be done. Yes charities have to be accountable and can't just take money for no return. But it does make a difference to people's lives, easiest thing to do is look at the web site for examples. http://www.comicrelief.com/how-we-help

Comic Relief does make a difference to peoples lives in Africa and the UK, yes it is never going to solve the problems in the long run in places like Africa as there are so many factors involved. But I would say there are more deserving targets topics for cynical keyboard warriors to have a go than a charity that has raised hundreds of millions of pounds for people a lot less fortunate than us.

 

[Doon frae Troon]

Well said Hacker.

 

[MashieNiblick]

With regard to the amount of money raised and the impact, you have to bear in mind the problems are huge. Beyond what we can imagine.

Just take access to clean water and sanitation, basic essentials which we take for granted but which have a massive impact on health.

According to WHO/Unicef

783 million people in the world do not have access to safe water - roughly one in ten of the world's population.

2.5 billion people in the world do not have access to adequate sanitation - almost two fifths of the world's population.

Whether Comic Relief is or isn't the best way of raising money or awareness I don't know but I'm pretty sure that a huge amount has been donated and lives saved that otherwise might not have been.

 

[Slime]

I'd like to know what they do with the money, since Comic Relief started they must have made near a Billion pound? Plus all the other countless charities that ask for £2 a month. Whats happening with the money? Surely that much would make a difference, yet it doesnt seem to have changed much in 20 odd years.

I get the impression that all our money is just prolonging the agony. Unless the money can be used to change the weather or educate them to stop having so many children, I fear for them. Between 1990 & 2008 the population of Africa increased by 55%, more than anywhere else in the world!

The biggest 'crime' to me is that there are some that would rather see their money go to animal charities ahead of being used to better or save the life of a child...
I live not too far from a dog charity establishment... It simply does my head in to have seen the MILLIONS invested in this place whilst kids are dying of starvation in OUR world...

Please don't condemn someone as a criminal just because their charities of choice differ from yours.

What are you expecting to see? Golf plated roads in Africa? African teenagers driving Fiat 500s and walking round with Ipads? Have you tried to find out what difference it has made, did you see the features last night on projects it has funded? It's such a huge issue that the money donated by charity will make a small difference. But making a little difference in a country where 100s of thousands are dying of preventable conditions such as malnutrition and malaria is always better than doing nothing.
It's not the fault of the children and families that they were born where they were. As was mentioned last night, all of us on this board got lucky and a lot of people in other places did not. Some people worry about if a shirt is tucked in and the length of socks worn with shorts when playing golf, others worry about if they will have enough food to eat.

'Africa, the world's poorest continent, also has it's highest birth rate. A woman in sub-Saharan Africa will give birth to an average of 5.2 children in her lifetime. Africa's population of 1 billion is predicted to MORE THAN DOUBLE in the next forty years (http://www.prb.org/pdf11/2011population-data-sheet_eng.pdf) to 2.3 billion, accounting for about half of projected global growth over that period.

Africa is growing fast because it is young. The top 10 youngest populations in the world are all from the continent, led by Niger (an estimated 48.9% below the age of 14), Uganda and Mali. Many will have big families, knowing that despite ongoing efforts to combat malnutrition and HIV, there is a strong risk many of their children will die'.
They need to be educated as to how to become self-sufficient with the resources that are available to them, and that means they must just stop having so many children.
I don't think we're helping as much as we think we are.

If I couldn't feed the kids I already had, I certainly wouldn't be having any more

:thup:

Slime.

 

[drawboy]

Not many of these charity chief executives starving
Check the wages.
I will never give my quid to these people so they can live in luxury. End of.
http://society.guardian.co.uk/salarysurvey/table/0,12406,1042677,00.html
See for yourself.

 

[JustOne]

I will never give my quid to these people so they can live in luxury. End of.

What are you going to do.... spend your life running the British Red Cross for £30/year and sleep on the street?????




I have no issue with someone earning 70-120K for taking the responsibility, after all that's not exactly lottery sized earnings for the job they are having to do.

 

[drawboy]

True but then again it is a damn sight more than the people in Africa will ever see before they die. If you are working for a charity and asking people who do not earn 100K or more to give a portion of their earning you do not take massive pay yourself. I do not nor ever see myself earning 100K a year so I will not fund someone elses extravagent lifestyle with the little money I have.

 

[Kellfire]

so I will not fund someone elses extravagent lifestyle with the little money I have.

Your tax money does that for you.

 

[JustOne]

True but then again it is a damn sight more than the people in Africa will ever see before they die.

Sure but then it doesn't cost them the same to live does it? 150K for a very modest house here in the UK, the mortgage interest alone would feed a small family for a year. It's like comparing apples and oranges.


70K in this country ISN'T a lot of money, it's enough but not exactly CEO type of salary, a train driver can make close to 70K, a pilot probably makes more than that and all they do is sleep with stewardesses, not head up a national organisation

 

[drawboy]

70K in this country ISN'T a lot of money, it's enough but not exactly CEO type of salary, a train driver can make close to 70K, a pilot probably makes more than that and all they do is sleep with stewardesses, not head up a national organisation

Several times on this forum I have been accused of talking rubbish, mainly about Rugby Union granted but I have never come out with a statement like that one buddy. The difference is the pilot and train driver do not ask other people to give so they can earn their wage. The CEO's of these charities take their wage from other peoples donations to buy their detached 6 bedroom houses BMW's and weekend cottages in Cornwall or wherever they are, all the while whilst also funding tv ads to make us feel guilty and give our money.

 

[Kellfire]

The difference is the pilot and train driver do not ask other people to give so they can earn their wage.

Really? So no one pays to be on a train or a plane?

You're very narrow sighted here DB.

Without the people doing these jobs for charities, no one would be collecting for them at all. It's ludicrous to expect only volunteers or minimal pay for people holding senior positions in such organisations; they deserve their pay because without it the charities would've raise what they do.

 

[drawboy]

Your tax money does that for you.

True mate very true but I have no say in the amount of money I am taxed or indeed how it is spent regardless of how I vote. I do however have a say in how I use the money I have left after my wage has been robbed by our and the European governments.

 

[JustOne]

The CEO's of these charities take their wage from other peoples donations to buy their detached 6 bedroom houses BMW's and weekend cottages in Cornwall or wherever they are, all the while whilst also funding tv ads to make us feel guilty and give our money.

I think you're mistaken with the quality of life you can have on £70K, besides, what's ONE HOUSE or family living an OK life compared to the work they do for the charity? Put the right person in charge and you might have a charity that raises millions upon millions.... pay someone peanuts and you might have a charity that raises nothing.

I wouldn't want to run the British Red Cross or Cancer Research charity even if it DID mean I could drive a Mercedes.

If you don't think you'll ever earn 70K then that's your prerogative.

 

[drawboy]

Good luck, well said keep giving mines staying firmly in my pocket funding my own lifestyle.

 

[Kellfire]

I don't give to Comic Relief either, or any charity for that matter, but your logic is random!

 

[JustOne]

mines staying firmly in my pocket funding my own lifestyle.

There's nothing wrong with that, I take my hat off to you for having the balls to say so too :thup:



Charity is a very emotive subject and often leads to disagreement. Give a child a vaccine and it will live long enough to starve to death, if the infrastructure isn't there then what's the point?

How much money has been donated to Africa over the past 25yrs worldwide... billions of billions, yet the water supply hasn't even been sorted out yet, but I bet there's more AK47's per capita than cows, so by all means keep your money to yourself, it does make sense.

 

[drawboy]

There's nothing wrong with that, I take my hat off to you for having the balls to say so too :thup:



Charity is a very emotive subject and often leads to disagreement. Give a child a vaccine and it will live long enough to starve to death, if the infrastructure isn't there then what's the point?

How much money has been donated to Africa over the past 25yrs worldwide... billions of billions, yet the water supply hasn't even been sorted out yet, but I bet there's more AK47's per capita than cows, so by all means keep your money to yourself, it does make sense.

:cheers:

 

[stevie_r]

I only donate to charities aimed at benefiting UK citizens and in the main charities supporting ex servicemen and women.

I find the amount of charity cash that leaves the country bound for the bottomless money pit quite irritating; that and our level of foreign aid. Next year we will donate more through foreign aid than we will spend on policing our own nation. This includes aid to a particular country with huge extremes of wealth and poverty despite a rapidly expanding economy, oh, and obviously a fairly advanced space programme. It also includes fairly hefty donations to the next host nation of the Olympic games

You couldn't make it up