Monday, 11 June 2007
Don’t we know it’s Christmas Time again...
Is it just me, or has anyone else noticed the increase in charity advertising on the television in recent weeks? It seems that every 15 minutes, another desperately appealing little face with huge eyes is staring out from my screen, whilst a familiar “household” voice like Joanna Lumley, Helena Bonham-Carter or Stephen Fry is entreating me to save their life with not just a donation, but a standing order no less (amounting, in some cases, to as much as £60 a year).
Whilst I do frequently give to charity, I find the timing and the tone of these ads cynical in the extreme. Guaranteed, as we gear up to Christmas and all the dreaded expense it entails, to make us feel guilty that we are spending so much money on frivolities for family, and on amassing our very own food mountains, whilst others throughout the world are dying with nothing at all.
The use of familiar faces and voices to nail the message home: “cough-up you complacent cosseted westerner, or kiss goodbye to your soul...” is frankly irritating. Comfy, cosy, well-off stars put on their best serious voices and compassionate performances for the cameras, and the rest of us, particularly little old ladies in forgotten corners of the frosty shires of England put the last of their winter coppers in the poor box and die of hypothermia.
I was once tempted to sponsor a child through a charity currently advertised by the urgently soothing tones of Jenny Agutter, and indeed, nearly applied for a job with them. However, when I received their application form, I was somewhat concerned to see in small print something about how they welcomed applicants from “other faiths”, but that all staff should be connected to their Christian mission. Underpinning their ethos, it seemed, lay a commitment to Christian “education”. I may have misunderstood, but as a former Roman Catholic, I am extremely sensitive to Christianity’s record of bargaining with indigenous peoples - the “bread in exchange for souls” policy - and it’s not a mission with which I care to connect.
I frankly wonder where these charities currently tearing at our hearts between reports on the Nasdaq and glossy holiday destinations get the money to mount such slick advertising campaigns at the most expensive time of the year. No doubt the stars they employ do each job for nothing and get a lovely warm feeling in return, but I would rather have a donation to charity removed as a chunk from my taxes than to have to stomach this endless round of emotional blackmail, coming as it inevitably does, from those who will certainly lack for nothing on December 25.
To those who have they shall get more
As long as none of my taxes are used to rescue Buy-to-Let specialist mortgage lender Paragon. Another financial institution in danger of going belly-up and hoping, no doubt, for a similar rescue deal from the Treasury as that which was recently unveiled to bail out Northern Rock.
Northern Rock had built up a long and trusted reputation as a decent organisation offering fair-deal mortgages and loans to ordinary people. Paragon however lends money to already-quite-comfortable-thank-you people to buy properties as investments. People who already have houses to live in. People who want an income from tenants, to charge exploitive rents to those who cannot afford one home, let alone two (or more). With a criminal lack of decent affordable housing in the UK, and more people forced to rent, parasitic Paragon will not be mourned by me if they go under.
Saudi Rape Case
Aid should certainly go towards legal reform and victim support in Saudi Arabia, that’s for sure. No-one can be unaware that last week a panel of implacable beards handed out a sentence of 200 lashes and 6 months in jail to the 19-year-old victim of a gang-rape. The victim. A sentence defended by the Saudi Government who are standing by their jurassic judiciary despite the protests of her husband and indeed the rest of the world. Apparently, she broke a law stating that a woman must never be alone with any male not related to her. This is how these twisted fossils have interpreted her abduction from a shopping mall and subsequent horrific attack at the hands of multiple assailants. Not only that, but the sentence was increased from 90 lashes to 200 when her lawyer dared raise his voice in protest.
There is no mention, of course, of any punishment for her rapists. Madonna’s favoured religious tome, The Kabbala, apparently states that “God counts the tears of women”.
I think it is about time He stopped counting them, and did something about stopping them.
First Published in Think Spain Today ©Emma Blake – 2007
Is it just me, or has anyone else noticed the increase in charity advertising on the television in recent weeks? It seems that every 15 minutes, another desperately appealing little face with huge eyes is staring out from my screen, whilst a familiar “household” voice like Joanna Lumley, Helena Bonham-Carter or Stephen Fry is entreating me to save their life with not just a donation, but a standing order no less (amounting, in some cases, to as much as £60 a year).
Whilst I do frequently give to charity, I find the timing and the tone of these ads cynical in the extreme. Guaranteed, as we gear up to Christmas and all the dreaded expense it entails, to make us feel guilty that we are spending so much money on frivolities for family, and on amassing our very own food mountains, whilst others throughout the world are dying with nothing at all.
The use of familiar faces and voices to nail the message home: “cough-up you complacent cosseted westerner, or kiss goodbye to your soul...” is frankly irritating. Comfy, cosy, well-off stars put on their best serious voices and compassionate performances for the cameras, and the rest of us, particularly little old ladies in forgotten corners of the frosty shires of England put the last of their winter coppers in the poor box and die of hypothermia.
I was once tempted to sponsor a child through a charity currently advertised by the urgently soothing tones of Jenny Agutter, and indeed, nearly applied for a job with them. However, when I received their application form, I was somewhat concerned to see in small print something about how they welcomed applicants from “other faiths”, but that all staff should be connected to their Christian mission. Underpinning their ethos, it seemed, lay a commitment to Christian “education”. I may have misunderstood, but as a former Roman Catholic, I am extremely sensitive to Christianity’s record of bargaining with indigenous peoples - the “bread in exchange for souls” policy - and it’s not a mission with which I care to connect.
I frankly wonder where these charities currently tearing at our hearts between reports on the Nasdaq and glossy holiday destinations get the money to mount such slick advertising campaigns at the most expensive time of the year. No doubt the stars they employ do each job for nothing and get a lovely warm feeling in return, but I would rather have a donation to charity removed as a chunk from my taxes than to have to stomach this endless round of emotional blackmail, coming as it inevitably does, from those who will certainly lack for nothing on December 25.
To those who have they shall get more
As long as none of my taxes are used to rescue Buy-to-Let specialist mortgage lender Paragon. Another financial institution in danger of going belly-up and hoping, no doubt, for a similar rescue deal from the Treasury as that which was recently unveiled to bail out Northern Rock.
Northern Rock had built up a long and trusted reputation as a decent organisation offering fair-deal mortgages and loans to ordinary people. Paragon however lends money to already-quite-comfortable-thank-you people to buy properties as investments. People who already have houses to live in. People who want an income from tenants, to charge exploitive rents to those who cannot afford one home, let alone two (or more). With a criminal lack of decent affordable housing in the UK, and more people forced to rent, parasitic Paragon will not be mourned by me if they go under.
Saudi Rape Case
Aid should certainly go towards legal reform and victim support in Saudi Arabia, that’s for sure. No-one can be unaware that last week a panel of implacable beards handed out a sentence of 200 lashes and 6 months in jail to the 19-year-old victim of a gang-rape. The victim. A sentence defended by the Saudi Government who are standing by their jurassic judiciary despite the protests of her husband and indeed the rest of the world. Apparently, she broke a law stating that a woman must never be alone with any male not related to her. This is how these twisted fossils have interpreted her abduction from a shopping mall and subsequent horrific attack at the hands of multiple assailants. Not only that, but the sentence was increased from 90 lashes to 200 when her lawyer dared raise his voice in protest.
There is no mention, of course, of any punishment for her rapists. Madonna’s favoured religious tome, The Kabbala, apparently states that “God counts the tears of women”.
I think it is about time He stopped counting them, and did something about stopping them.
First Published in Think Spain Today ©Emma Blake – 2007
