Karma H. Christ

So I was trying not to watch Idol Gives Back last night and I was sucked in as they donations came in upon images of the desperate and poor. I am, by no means, uncaring. I give money to charities regularly and almost gave last night as part of my duties as a human.

Then my mind spiraled out of control. I started thinking about all the benefits from years past. Band-Aid, Farm-Aid, Comic Relief, Christian Miracle Network, and countless of others since the '80's that flaunt actors and musicians as salesman to karma. These events each earn close to $20 million a piece that I hear of. Over the course of the past 20 years, that's at least $400 million from one charity. Then you have the smaller charities, individuals and fundraisers that may pull in, say $2 million. You are looking at, over the course of the year, charities making $40 million a year (this is my uneducated guess). Lets say that number carries over for the course of 20 years. That is a total of $800 million. So then you figure that there are 900 million people in Africa. You count out the "rich" nations like South Africa and Egypt and the nations that are doing well on there own, and you probably can say that 50% of that population is poor and in need of aid. With $800 million you are telling me that the proper hospitals, farm tools, farm supplies, medical supplies, or educational material can not be provided? I find it hard to believe that this money is not enough, along with all the volunteering people from almost every country, to help make this country a better place.

What am I saying? I think that the charity organizations are not fully using or giving the money to those who need it. Those who run the organizations should be investigated for where this money actually goes. Don't tell me that there are administrative fees or wages of any sort. There are volunteers willing to work and I know that a lot are, so anyone being paid should not be considered as "doing charity work."

I hope that the day comes when all this money finally makes it to whatever country and whatever child needs it, and those who are holding this money or redirecting it into non-charitable dollars wind up catching the malaria that they say they wish to eliminate.

"Karma is God's evil twin sister. She hates you more than he does." --hb