to think comic relief is a manipulative millionaire sleb lovein?

[glasnost]

After watching most of last night's nth comic relief can't help thinking it's ever more hypocritical in laying a guilt trip on us poor folk to get us to part with some of the dwindling cash we have whilst never getting to the root of the problem.

Political corruption, greedy pharmaceutical companies etc. Without addressing these core problems we'll keep on having comic relief as an annual salve to people's consciences while poverty and injustice continue.

Jonathan Ross et al who earn vast amounts have alot of front in standing there emotionally blackmailing us when the obscene wealth he and others like him earn is part of the problem. AIBU?

Yes.

So instead of trying to help the people living under those regimes, what do you suggest instead?

It can be all of those things, but I've just seen a heart-breaking re-run of some of the people in absolute poverty.

I don't think they can wait.

There is a quote from an economist (can't remember who sorry) which goes something like "aid is about transferring money from poor people in rich countries to rich people in poor countries".

I haven't watched Comic Relief since 1988.

I don't have a problem with any of that to be honest. If it takes £10 to do £5 worth of good, then that's the price of at least trying to tackle unsolvable problems.

My problem is that is just isn't funny. On any level.

Yama, I like that quote very much.

I can understand your viewpoint if you're donating to charities that are addressing the core problems. Otherwise YABU.

Don't donate if you don't want to but don't make Comic Relief into some kind of villain when it isn't.

But if it helps even a few people live a better life it can't be all bad surely?

YANBU

Such an inefficient way to donate. BristolJim I'd rather find a charity that could use a greater proportion of the donation.

Total sleb feel good love-in. And not funny!

I disagree with the concept of charities per se. Why should it be left to ordinary, struggling folk to foot the bill created by corporations, dodgy governments inc ours and capitalism....don't buy it and the nauseating likes of Ross et al who has too much moolah for his own good wheeling himself out again on the beeb to be unfunny and sneering at us poor types who refuse or can't donate is unbearably offensive.

Donating a fiver or whatever is a drop in the ocean that means the root problems will never be addressed or remedied.

Ok, Glasnost but what else do you suggest?

You still havent said!

Wealth redistribution bogeyface. I asked AIBU btw not thread to proffer my solutions. What do you suggest?

So how can ordinary individuals in this country help people in absolute poverty in a country far away? How can we address the root of the problem?

I think we need reminding sometimes that not being able to afford music lessons for our DC isn't really, in the big picture of things, that dreadful.

So yes, YABU.

But surely a fiver is a drop in the ocean here, but could potentially save lives in poor countries.
AFAIK, CR helps continually, where LiveAid took food and medical care but didn't carry on the help.
Slebs front CR, because if a bunch of nobodies did they did last night, no-one would have watched or donated.
It's charity, if you don't want to support it, don't. If you can't stand those pesky manipulative slebs, don't watch it.

Well I dont think you can post AIBU for thinking its a pile of shit and a waste of time without adding what your alternative would be because based on that alone, yes YABU. Giving an alternative solution adds weight to your opinion and argument.

And I do think that in a perfect world charities wouldnt be needed, but we dont live in a perfect world. And as Lynette said, being reminded of what is really important is a good thing. As westerners we are guilty of being smug and taking a hell of alot for granted, so these campaigns are as much to do with educating us about the world beyond our own front doors as they are about raising money.

There will always be corruption, there will always be political bullshit and there will always be those at the very bottom of the barrel. If giving a fiver on a Friday night helps just one of those people, that makes it worth it to me. And no, I wouldnt have watched it if it had been fronted by ordinary people. I donate but dont watch Children in Need because its boring! CR is entertaining and can be very cleverly done and thats why they raise more.

Giving a fiver is to salve your conscience but doesn't eliminate the problem. It's done for US not for THEM. And seeing as comic relief pops up every damn year it's not helping. Those who reckon chucking a fiver every year at such an immense problem should be the ones to offer alternatives seeing as blatantly this aint working. As I said wealth distribution is the key.

Agree with Glasnost.

Being participants who benefit from the suffering of others makes us culpable whether we like it or not.

Throwing an annual fiver at the problem may make us feel better but it changes nothing.

And a "bunch of nobodies" presenting comic relief faverolles surely couldn't be more tedious, fake and grating than the slebs doing it last night. And would have an income less embarrassingly inflated compared to the worthy "entertainers".

Comic relief exists to allow us to feel better about poverty for a bit when it's often our everyday lifestyle that contributes to it. That lifestyle is imposed on us quite often by a political system that then refuses to give enough in international aid so they come a-knocking on our (soon to be repossessed) homes. They can go swivel.

Those kids dying of malaria can be saved by having immediate, blanket access to nets and then anti malaria drugs which are often witheld by pharmaceutical companies. Jo or Joanna Brit bunging a fiver here and there isn't gonna remedy that now are they?

So in an ideal world, how could this be solved?
I ask because I really don't know .
These countries have a history of corrupt leadership. What can be done for them?
I'm happy to see these programs, as without them, it would be far too easy to bury our heads in the sand and pretend that the whole world is a lovely place with no problems. I'm happy to donate, if that money can help one person, it's worth it.
It also makes it worth it that people like you question the system that makes these people so poor in the first place.
So what is it we should do to help?

So if everybody took the stance that they didn't agree with charity, and stopped giving, what would happen?

I'd really like some answers.

As I see it, my children (and I) would stop being educated about people less fortunate than themselves. Or would we still look at video clips of children who have eaten nothing that day saying "my body hurts so much I could cry" and sit back and do absolutely nothing?

Did Bob Geldof have it all wrong? Should he have approached the African famine situation differently?

It seems to me Glasnost that you have the opinion but not a workable solution.

I could sit on AIBU slagging off the evils of the world and saying what should happen, we all could. But its all just hot air without some kind of solution being suggested!

Support political parties whose main aim is wealth redistribution. Boycott pahramaceutical companies complicit in witholding life saving drug (and worse),not vote for politicians interested only in furthering corporate interests, not vote for parties that support corrupt regimes, boycott BP and Shell et al who cause untold poverty in Afican countries they plunder for oil. There's a loada stuff. But I think the most important thing is to just be conscious and not wilt under the inanity of this charideee biz.

I understand totally the emotional impact of comic relief and I was sobbing at the story of benta who died of tb caused by being hiv positive and whose illness caused her baby to die a few days after her. But instead of throwing a bit of cash at the tragedy and expecting it to go away let's prevent it from happening in the first place.

Yanbu