Charity begins...
...or does it?
I always think of Scotland when I think about charity. The Scots are well known to be very generous to charities, with the people who can least afford to giving a fair bit. Charities like SCIAF, Mary's Meals, the Trussell Trust Food Banks, Combat Stress - they are all well-supported.
This year, I've decided not to send Christmas cards. I've also told the grown-ups in my family they're not getting presents - just the children. And I don't want presents either. As my sister said this week: There's nothing I need. So a bit of my fuel allowance and a wee donation from my family will mean about £150 going to the Food Bank in Ibrox Parish Church in Glasgow. They can decide what to buy - they know their clients.
I'm not making myself out to be special. Like many people, I try to give money to charity all year round. Last year at this time I gave to Mary's Meals, which feeds and educates children in Africa. I used to give to Oxfam, but stopped after about 30 years. I support a school in Gaza for children who are orphaned or victims of what I can only call the persecution of Palestinians by the state of Israel. I expect - and get - criticism for the last one.
But this year, for the first time, I've noticed online some pretty nasty, carping comments from people in the UK who feel we should not be supporting children in places like Yemen and Syria and Palestine at all. They are not our concern, it seems. We should start our charitable work 'at home.' Look after the homeless, children living in poverty, families 'sanctioned' by the Jobcentre, etc. (Actually, I haven't seen much reference to the last group).
So here are a few of my own thoughts on these awful comments, which now appear after every single ad for a charity:
The UK - like the USA and all the other western countries which backed civil war in Iraq and Syria - owe a debt to the people of those countries, who have lost everything. We also owe a huge debt to countries like Lebanon and Turkey and Italy, which have all stepped up and taken in millions of refugees - and have just been left to get on with it.
Refusing to send aid to poor countries will not bring any more funding to poor people in the UK. The Westminster government doesn't work that way: they have made treaties and agreements with their allies and will stick to them - even if the government changes from Tory to Labour, this will still go on. You could always try joining a charity like Amnesty International in hopes of changing things.
I always think of Scotland when I think about charity. The Scots are well known to be very generous to charities, with the people who can least afford to giving a fair bit. Charities like SCIAF, Mary's Meals, the Trussell Trust Food Banks, Combat Stress - they are all well-supported.
This year, I've decided not to send Christmas cards. I've also told the grown-ups in my family they're not getting presents - just the children. And I don't want presents either. As my sister said this week: There's nothing I need. So a bit of my fuel allowance and a wee donation from my family will mean about £150 going to the Food Bank in Ibrox Parish Church in Glasgow. They can decide what to buy - they know their clients.
I'm not making myself out to be special. Like many people, I try to give money to charity all year round. Last year at this time I gave to Mary's Meals, which feeds and educates children in Africa. I used to give to Oxfam, but stopped after about 30 years. I support a school in Gaza for children who are orphaned or victims of what I can only call the persecution of Palestinians by the state of Israel. I expect - and get - criticism for the last one.
But this year, for the first time, I've noticed online some pretty nasty, carping comments from people in the UK who feel we should not be supporting children in places like Yemen and Syria and Palestine at all. They are not our concern, it seems. We should start our charitable work 'at home.' Look after the homeless, children living in poverty, families 'sanctioned' by the Jobcentre, etc. (Actually, I haven't seen much reference to the last group).
So here are a few of my own thoughts on these awful comments, which now appear after every single ad for a charity:
The UK - like the USA and all the other western countries which backed civil war in Iraq and Syria - owe a debt to the people of those countries, who have lost everything. We also owe a huge debt to countries like Lebanon and Turkey and Italy, which have all stepped up and taken in millions of refugees - and have just been left to get on with it.
Refusing to send aid to poor countries will not bring any more funding to poor people in the UK. The Westminster government doesn't work that way: they have made treaties and agreements with their allies and will stick to them - even if the government changes from Tory to Labour, this will still go on. You could always try joining a charity like Amnesty International in hopes of changing things.
When it comes to poverty at home, you need to understand a couple of things. First, as the UN Special Rapporteur on Poverty said on his visit to the UK: 'Poverty is a government policy.'
Since the banks collapsed in 2008-9, a policy of austerity has been in place in the UK. The people who have suffered most are the low-paid, the poor, the unemployed and the disabled. Local authorities and devolved governments can't help these people because they too are being deprived of funding. Whatever you may think of the Labour Party under Gordon Brown (and I wasn't a fan), we didn't have pensioners and people in wheelchairs sleeping on our streets. Who is responsible for the shortage of housing in England and Wales? Put the blame where it belongs: on the Tory Party.
The Tory government is quite happy for people like us to support charities. It saves them having to do anything. Besides, it's not that government ministers don't care about what happening. They just don't see what's happening. The UN Rapporteur said it: they are in denial about the levels of poverty in the UK.
Finally, and some of you won't like this: if you complain about aid going to foreign countries (and no, they're not building space programmes with the money, for heavenssake) - if you object to aid going abroad and say you want money spent at home, put your hand in your pocket and start supporting people at home. Because this government isn't going to do it. It's quite happy for us to go on supporting people through charities.
And if you know this is what's going on, understand you can't change it till another election comes along, and refuse to donate, then you're an idiot and a hypocrite.
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