This is a topic that has been bugging me for a while. Obviously it's ancient news to everyone that there are millions of people living in third world countries with literally NOTHING, but I really don't understand how it's still such a problem.
Right, I do realise how ignorant this makes me sound, but it's unintentional. I'm not going to go and do some extensive research into how the money is spent, how people help, etc etc, I'm just expressing my confusion and... I guess annoyance that this is still so huge.
I just don't understand how it's still such a problem, even with all the billions of pounds, dollars, euros, yen, won and whatever else that's raised each year. Where does this money actually go?!
In the UK alone, we do Comic Relief every year, I think, and each time we raise millions and millions, I think it was £75m this year, and each year the total increases, so over 25 years, since comic relief started, we much have raised a fucking crazy huge amount of money...
I mean, I know the situations in the third world are improving, but you know, every time I'm sat in front of the TV eating some ridiculously unhealthy food and an appeal advert comes on for the starving children of Africa, causing me to feel very guilty, I often think to myself that these adverts haven't changed one bit since I first remember watching them, around the age of six.
I guess that they aren't going to be like "Oh yay things are getting better, there is footage of their improvement for you to enjoy rather than the horrible images of them struggling to live", but like really as far as I've seen on TV, there's not been as much improvement as I believe there should have been.
I know that it's expensive to build wells and schools, and hire the builders and whatever but like I said, with the amount of money raised over the years I still don't understand....!!!
Maybe it's the fact that I personally haven't seen the effects of donations and help that these countries receive, as to be honest I don't go looking for it and there isn't really much of it shown on the TV. I guess that instead of sitting here on my ass complaining to a computer screen about it, I should get up and go do some charity work and find out for myself how it helps and how communities have been helped, which I do fully intend to do at some point this year.
Whenever I do see the guilt provoking TV appeals of half-dead children, it always makes me think one thing (besides "those poor kids"), which is -
Why don't they just give out loads of contraceptives, send doctors out and offer long term contraceptives, such as the implant or the coil?
Surely that's an awesome idea, that I'm sure others have thought of too?! All these kid's lives that are needlessly lost everyday could be stopped if the women used contraceptives. I know that it kinds of defeats the object of saving their life as they will never have been born, but surely it's better to stop the baby even being conceived and stop it having a potentially awful short life rather than it being born into a life that'll be cut short due to death by malnutrition and starvation? No?
I've no idea if this is something that charities actually do, so if they do, they need to do it on a larger scale, and if they don't, they need to do it. The thought did strike me for them to just quit having sex but I suppose it's not as easy as that, especially with all the rape that goes on which is horrible enough as it is, never mind becoming pregnant due to it.
See, I'm still here like, "charities need to do this, need to do that..." I want to help, I do, but even when I do, I doubt it'll even help a smidge. That's a bad way of thinking but... meh.
I'm just gonna stop not because I'm starting to feel bad by complaining when I don't do much more than donate a few quid a year to help, but I had to let my frustration out somewhere...
Right, I do realise how ignorant this makes me sound, but it's unintentional. I'm not going to go and do some extensive research into how the money is spent, how people help, etc etc, I'm just expressing my confusion and... I guess annoyance that this is still so huge.
I just don't understand how it's still such a problem, even with all the billions of pounds, dollars, euros, yen, won and whatever else that's raised each year. Where does this money actually go?!
In the UK alone, we do Comic Relief every year, I think, and each time we raise millions and millions, I think it was £75m this year, and each year the total increases, so over 25 years, since comic relief started, we much have raised a fucking crazy huge amount of money...
I mean, I know the situations in the third world are improving, but you know, every time I'm sat in front of the TV eating some ridiculously unhealthy food and an appeal advert comes on for the starving children of Africa, causing me to feel very guilty, I often think to myself that these adverts haven't changed one bit since I first remember watching them, around the age of six.
I guess that they aren't going to be like "Oh yay things are getting better, there is footage of their improvement for you to enjoy rather than the horrible images of them struggling to live", but like really as far as I've seen on TV, there's not been as much improvement as I believe there should have been.
I know that it's expensive to build wells and schools, and hire the builders and whatever but like I said, with the amount of money raised over the years I still don't understand....!!!
Maybe it's the fact that I personally haven't seen the effects of donations and help that these countries receive, as to be honest I don't go looking for it and there isn't really much of it shown on the TV. I guess that instead of sitting here on my ass complaining to a computer screen about it, I should get up and go do some charity work and find out for myself how it helps and how communities have been helped, which I do fully intend to do at some point this year.
Whenever I do see the guilt provoking TV appeals of half-dead children, it always makes me think one thing (besides "those poor kids"), which is -
Why don't they just give out loads of contraceptives, send doctors out and offer long term contraceptives, such as the implant or the coil?
Surely that's an awesome idea, that I'm sure others have thought of too?! All these kid's lives that are needlessly lost everyday could be stopped if the women used contraceptives. I know that it kinds of defeats the object of saving their life as they will never have been born, but surely it's better to stop the baby even being conceived and stop it having a potentially awful short life rather than it being born into a life that'll be cut short due to death by malnutrition and starvation? No?
I've no idea if this is something that charities actually do, so if they do, they need to do it on a larger scale, and if they don't, they need to do it. The thought did strike me for them to just quit having sex but I suppose it's not as easy as that, especially with all the rape that goes on which is horrible enough as it is, never mind becoming pregnant due to it.
See, I'm still here like, "charities need to do this, need to do that..." I want to help, I do, but even when I do, I doubt it'll even help a smidge. That's a bad way of thinking but... meh.
I'm just gonna stop not because I'm starting to feel bad by complaining when I don't do much more than donate a few quid a year to help, but I had to let my frustration out somewhere...
