JK Rowling matching donations to Ukraine appeal

[JustJam4Tea]

It's for lumos charity helping orphans.

Lemme see...

She was an ordinary woman born into an ordinary family. Got to university, did temp jobs then her mum died after a long and protracted battle with MS.

I can't see anything to hate there. Maybe the going to university thing!

Anyway she decided to throw caution to the wind and hooked up with a young journalist - who turned out to be an abusive husband. He eventually threw her out, keeping thier daughter. JKR returned with police and brought her daughter back to the UK.

Nothing much there to hate - except maybe she had the strength and police support to keep her daughter.

Then she was jobless, a single mother, relied upon the kindness of relatives and friends to get by and continued writing.

Nope. Unless you begruddge her having people who cared about her.

Ex arrives in UK, tries to force reconciliation, JK finds herself despondent, thought about taking her own life. Has therapy, starts a teacher training course.

Nope. Unless you begrudge her finding help and a career opportunity.

And then the first book got published (1997)... she became a billionaire within 10 years (2007 ish)... Years before that she had alreadyt up her first charity, Volant (2000) then a string of huge donations for various medical and childrens research culminating in Lumos.

So in about 25 years she went from temp work, abusive relationship and relying on handouts to being a billionaire philanthropist who uses her fame and money to support and highlight the plight of others.

Yeah! Such an irritating bore! Having thought it through, ignoring all the hand wringing bollocks about women and girls, I could easily dislike the annoying, irritating, [add your perjorative her] myself!!

Or would that be a step too far, do you think?!

I have no idea why anyone thinks passed - I don't really like the books, I may even find her Twitter utterances annoying but my God she has chosen to be such a philanthropist I find I have to admire her moral choices.

Now what was that about Meghan or Harry, or even Kate and William (loving the even in there) and whomever?

This thread is about the charity Lumos and the children in orphanages and institutions in Ukraine who desperately need our help.

How tone deaf and self-centred do you have to be to blatantly use a thread about raising money to help some of the most vulnerable children in the world - orphans, the disabled, the abandoned, all trapped in a war zone - to post negatively about JKR? Please, start your own thread or post somewhere more appropriate. Shame on you.

As has been said @TheOnlyMrsMac it doesn't hurt too much as it keeps the OP high up the visible Active list. o, depsite the curmudgeons posting, and the drivel some of us are responding with, the link to Lumos is being seen by many

I used to work with a woman who always banged on about hating JKR, and how bad her writing was.

She was an unpublished author whose 'romance' novels were utter drivel.

Lumos has done amazing work for children in many different countries.
I'm so glad to read here that JKR is supporting them so generously. It really will make such a difference matching donations. Great news.

I can’t think of any other person who is that wealthy who puts as much back into helping others as JKR.
She hasn’t forgotten her early experiences and hasn’t got a massive ego. That’s a rare thing.

God I love her. I could not have more admiration and respect for JK Rowling. The work that Lumos does is absolutely amazing.

@FlyingGeeseAgain

I can’t think of any other person who is that wealthy who puts as much back into helping others as JKR. She hasn’t forgotten her early experiences and hasn’t got a massive ego. That’s a rare thing.

To be fair the Gates Foundation has donme much more - it's had longer to give and more money to disseminate . But we might not want to mention him...

Its a wonder a temple hasn't been erected yet to the Great Goddess Rowling. Maybe some of you could start a go fund me.

It really is pitiful to post such bile on a thread about donating to a charity trying to help vulnerable children trapped in a war zone. Seriously, step back and have a think about why you feel the need to be so hateful.

@SamphiretheStickerist - yes to be fair he has donated much more via his foundation - good on him

But we won't mention him by name...

Fantastic, wonderful woman.

@Clymene There is no doubt that she's done some absolutely fantastic things, no doubt that she came from a difficult background and worked hard and made her life infinitely better, no doubt that she wrote a series of books that people the world over (myself included) cherish and always will. But people are allowed, and do, dislike people despite their fantastic achievements. You can dislike people, whilst simultaneously commending them for the great things they've achieved and done for others, both of which JKR has done plenty. But yes, you're still allowed to simply dislike her whilst recognising the above.

Yes of course you are @DragonSnapCrimson. I'm just wondering what the grounds are. I dislike some celebrities for entirely spurious reasons. I'm happy to admit it

I suppose I'm just wondering why it's relevant on a thread which isn't actually about JKR but is about her match funding donations for Ukraine.

And I've concluded it's not remotely relevant or interesting but does keep the thread bumped so no bad thing

[quote DragonSnapCrimson]@Clymene There is no doubt that she's done some absolutely fantastic things, no doubt that she came from a difficult background and worked hard and made her life infinitely better, no doubt that she wrote a series of books that people the world over (myself included) cherish and always will. But people are allowed, and do, dislike people despite their fantastic achievements. You can dislike people, whilst simultaneously commending them for the great things they've achieved and done for others, both of which JKR has done plenty. But yes, you're still allowed to simply dislike her whilst recognising the above.[/quote]
@DragonSnapCrimson So why do you dislike her? Disliking someone for no reason at all, is simply irrational. So surely there must be a reason why you dislike her?

@Clymene Absolutely fair enough to wonder. I agree it's good that the post is getting boosted, the charity will hopefully really really help some people in need.

@TheRealBoswell I didnt say that I dislike her, I'm just stating that its entirely possible to dislike her whilst commending all the great she's done. Essentially because it doesn't go down well at all on MN whenever someone says they don't like her (without giving their reasons) and those people tend to then be on the receiving end of some quite unpleasant posts from other posters.

Thanks for the heads up. I have donated and will set up a monthly direct debit.

She’s an amazing woman isn’t she. I didn’t know all the stuff about her background in such detail so thanks to the poster who highlighted all of that.
Clever, compassionate and unafraid to speak out where others would hide. What’s not to love about her?

The opinion of someone who will match a 1m donation with their own money is more important than your opinion.

Sorry, I don't agree with this. I'm glad JKR is giving money to charity but it doesn't make her opinions any more important than anyone else's.

@Viviennemary

I just don't like her. She seems to think her opinion is more important because she is rich and writes children's books. And adult ones now too. I find her an irritating pain in the neck.

Bollocks. Having opinions is not the same as thinking your opinions are worth more because you’re famous (which is not something I’ve seen any evidence of in JKR’s case). Other people might value her opinion more because she is famous, but that’s not the same thing at all.

Because she's a wonderful woman.

I've just told my daughter this thinking she'd be pleased and she was shocked. School have this for one of their charity weeks and she hadn't realised it was JKR. She thinks they might change their mind because "she's not nice to trans people." 😔.

@DaisyTheUnicorn I'd be telling your daughter JKR is perfectly nice to trans people and has said they should have their own safe spaces and be protected. She just also happens to think that women's safe spaces should also be protected. Many (most?) people agree with her! I honestly think this "fake news" era and spreading of misinformation needs to be nipped in the bud.

Absolutely - have told her but she shuts off completely as if old people dont know anything 😔 i don't know when this happened.

I told small child very loudly how amazing jkr is!

I think Im just a bit shocked how prevalent the anit-jkr sentiment is amongst girls her age. Huge bandwagon I guess. She pretty much said that her friends would all be horrified to be associated with jkr (completley missing the money raised for ukraine etc etc aside from the misrepresentstion of jkrs views).