Jarndyce, over at The Sharpener blog, makes an eloquent point about the G8 and the Price of Protest. Go and read it. Now. I’ll wait until you get back.
So, I hope it’s made you think. Particularly the closing argument:
Eight Men in One Room can change the world: the economic structure of it, anyway. But they won’t. These eight men didn’t get where they are by helping the world’s poor, but by pandering to lobbyists and agribusiness, and sending pork home from every international shindig. Ordinary people like us aren’t constrained. Given the choice between some very expensive awareness-raising plus a police baton charge or two, and 6,500 childhoods, I know which one I take. Every time.
It got me thinking. I donate on a fairly regular basis to AIDS charities, and, like millions of others, was shocked into donating to the Tsunami relief fund. But it’s not enough. Perhaps the answer is, as Jarndyce suggests, to sponsor a child – and contribute to his or her education and healthcare. He suggests World Vision‘s scheme. But the way that it works – in exchange for your money, you get letters and photos from some poor unfortunate child in some far-off land thanking you – always struck me as slightly icky. I much prefer the anonymous benefactor route. I’d personally also prefer to be giving my money through a non-religious agency. So, time for some research into how to do more, and do it more effectively, preferably without religious trappings. Fortunately, I see that the practical Dutch have set up an organisation (the Donateursvereniging) that has already measured the charities and aid organisations missions and effectiveness against a plethora of attributes, to help undecided donors, such as me, make up their minds.
The G8 leaders, as Jarndyce predicts, almost certainly won’t do a damn thing of any practical value. I really don’t know how they square it with their consciences. It’s that thought that spurs me on to take direct action via the aid agencies.
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