Charity

That Kony2012 video has been spreading all over the world lately, and the Invisible Children has been asking everyone to share the video. I've watched it and shared it the minute I finished it.

And then because it was so famous, some people have their different opinions and views on it. And I've been reading them and watching the videos from different people on this issue. You know, everything, when they're like super famous, will have a lot of criticism towards it. I've read article on the White Man's Burden , blogs and videos from people who support Invisible Children and then comments from people who said that IC only uses 30% of their funds for donations. And then they're also people who defended the IC and said hat 30% is enough to make major changes and how IC needs to pay for their costs and hiring of workers too. And some people have been saying that this issue is so overrated and what happened had not been that serious afterall. And we also got the news that Kony has not been in Uganda for the past 6 years and the IC gave the wrong information. There're also people saying that not many people even know where Uganda is on the map and we're all  acting high and mighty like we know lots of stuffs.

There're like so so many views on this whole Kony but that's not what I'm gonna say. I've just read Xiaxue's blog post and once again, she has her points so naisely done.

A lot of times, I don't even know why I want to help people. Because they're worse than us and that we have this obligation to help them? Who are we to say that they're worse than us? A lot of issue's in life comes from comparison. In life, when we don't compare things, we don't actually feel bad. But once we start comparing, there's always gonna be the best and the worst. Even if the worst is not that bad anymore, it's still the worst and people are always gonna think it that way. Have you ever thought that some people we want to help so much, they themselves do not actually feel that they're pitiful? They might feel that they're just fine. I think in life, a good life means having the 3 basic needs: clothes, shelter, food. Just because other kids do not have an iPhone or a phone for that matter, means that they're worse off than use and then we have to go like, "omg.. you poor little child". You know, a lot of kids in the poor countries enjoy their life too. Not like us, maybe, but they too have their own entertainment and their situation is not as bad as we think they are. It's like, not all kids in Africa are poor and have sad life. Yes, maybe their proverty line is much higher than ours, but that doesn't mean ALL of them have miserable life. Probably is the media that keeps reporting and saying how sad these people are and then National Geographic magazine will have famous pictures of the poorest kids in Africa and then everyone in the world think that that's how Africa is. Look, the entire world is moving in advance. We now have lesser and lesser poor people and it's an amazing thing. Countries are moving forward, some at slower pace and the future is not that dark.

I'm not here to judge those people who does charity. In fact, I respect them and my sister went to Cambodia to help kids there. I really do respect these people and I have no rights to condemn them, saying that they're hypocrites. And sometimes, I think I AM the hypocritical one. But so many people have this perception that if you don't have a gold heart, then they have a black heart. I hate it when people go like, "If you don't share this, then you're just heartless". Or some people go keep condemning how others are actually abusing animals and there they are, wearing real furs, idolising the high fashion so much. Sometimes, I think this world we live in, we give too much credit to people who help around, to the extend that people who doesn't help kind look like the "bad person". Helping, and doing charities doesn't make you heroes, you're not supposed to take credit for what you've done.

You know all those things that are shared on Facebook? Like, they always have an ugly picture of a child having cancer and he has so many tubes poking through his body and then urging everyone to share so that he recovers and that Facebook will donate 1 cent for each share. Like.. those are bullshit. Seriously, why bother sharing? If Facebook is serious about donating, they don't need the number of likes and shares to determine how much they're donating. So if there's only 10 people sharing, Facebook will donate only 10 cents but if there're 1 million people sharing, they'd donate a million? Like, seriously?! Besides, posting pictures like this and then asking people share will not really help the condition of that child. All these awareness, they're pretty meaningless sometimes/

I used to have a very conventional opinion towards doing good things, until last week when after I've watched the Kony video and read opinions and views from so many different people. Sometimes, we want to help, but helping can go wrong too. This world is a very realistic and complex world. I'm not saying that we should not help these people. What I'm saying is that helping should be left to everyone's discretion and that if you decide not to help, you shouldn't feel bad about it and that you also shouldn't judge others who do not help. Because a lot of things are not what they seem to be and sometimes, there're a deeper issue that can't be revealed to the public. I'm pretty sure Kony 2012 is not as simple as it seems to be. For Kony to gain that much power just by killing people, I'm pretty sure there's a deeper issue into it. Also, people need to stop having the mindset that "these people NEED my help", or "We're the stronger countries, we NEED to help these people". We do not have to make these our obligations and once again, it's left to everyone's discretion.



This blog post might have lots of contradictions because I'm a lazy ass blogger who wouldn't arrange her thoughts nicely. Like I've said before, I'm a compulsive blogger ... not a blogger who would arrange her post naisely. But anyway, the main point of my post is that, we can't feel obligated to help others just because the society is putting a pressure on it. This, should be left to our choices and if we feel like doing it. Of course, it's good to help but it's not bad if you don't. Like, we need to stop playing the hero role.

And it's bloody 3 am now and my eyes are half closed already... T.T