Hail Doctors Without Borders!
1.07.2005
In a surprising news - a fund-raising humanitarian organization asked it's sponsors to STOP donating to the Asia Tsunami cause. Doctors Without Borders stopped their donors from contributing anymore, saying they have more than what they need to do the best they can in the region. Having raised 50M (dollars or pounds)? they expressed that it is their ETHICAL duty to advise their patrons to recognize other humanitarian emergencies other than the Asian Tsunami Disaster.
I hail their organization and have to say I admire them all the more for doing this. Having raised enough money - in fact bigger than some states have contributed, I am certain they would be able to do what they can. See, as I have previously posted, the bandwagon effect of being charitable is a pissing contest between governments. Do we honestly need Media Mileage all the time to start believing we need to help other people needing the most urgent humanitarian assistance?
back in July 2004 I have posted about stories the world needs to hear more about. It's a list of the forgotten wars and neglected humanitarian emergencies that the media has not been able to cover more. Let me repost this:
- Uganda: Child soldiers at centre of mounting humanitarian crisis
- Central African Republic: a silent crisis crying out for help
- AIDS orphans in sub-Saharan Africa: a looming threat to future generations
- The peacekeeping paradox: as peace spreads, surge in demand strains UN resources
- Tajikistan: rising from the ashes of civil war
- Women as peacemakers: from victims to re-builders of society
- Persons with disabilities: a treaty seeks to break new ground in ensuring equality
- Bakassi Peninsula: Recourse to the law to prevent conflict
- Overfishing: a threat to marine biodiversity
- Indigenous peoples living in voluntary isolation
My point again is, here is a good and respectable organization, refutable and have won the Nobel prize for their efforts seeing this same point I made in my previous post. The pissing contest has to be stopped - let somebody out there who can pull more strings than I can say: Hey prosperous countries! Can you please duplicate the same intention to help those in Aceh and Sri Lanka, etc. to those in Africa? Raise $4B too for the orphaned kids, the AIDS problem, the hunger in Sudan, in other war-torn places!
If altruism is the end goal and indeed humanity's goal is to further humanity, then help those without being called for it, sans the need to do something only when there is media milaege. And helping people is not just helping by dole out for god sakes. So to the MSF - RESPECT to your organization. You got it from me. RESPECT.
Labels: Musings
posted by Jdavies @ 1/07/2005,
0 Comments:
The Author
J.Davies
Jdavies lives in Quezon City, Philippines and has been blogging since 2002. A brand manager in a leading technology company and a freelance new media/web strategy consultant, he has refocused his blogging from personal, political & sociological observations, to marketing-related efforts and Internet trends that are relevant to his career and branding advocacies.
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This blog is a depot of thoughts and observations on marketing trends which remain personally relevant to the Author as far as his marketing career is concerned. Having evolved from the personal blog of Jdavies, much of the earlier work contained herein are laced with personal speculation, political views, and similar advocacies. These posts are being kept for posterity's sake and for no other reason. No effort is being made to claim that the author will not contradict himself from his previous positions or that such advocacies are absolute.
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