When I returned to this thread and made my post I (possibly mistakenly) had it in my head that people were donating to famine relief in Africa, so that's the angle I approached from. I'm not talking about any other charities/situations, only West Africa, as I don't know anything more about them than anyone else here.


Excession:

"presumably you would still see more 'utility' in giving some % of our winnings to charity than to a 'hookers and blow' fund for MVP?"

Not necessarily; it depends which charity you're talking about. Let's not be naive about the nature of some charities working in the developing world. I'd much rather donate to MVP's hookers and blow fund than to a well-meaning organisation that over a period time has unwittingly become a major source of funding for a corrupt and oppressive regime.


"I'm all for idealism but it's important to differentiate between the way the world IS and the way it OUGHT TO BE. "

Exactly. Money given to a charity OUGHT TO go to the intended recipients, but the way the world (or some parts of it) IS means you often don't know where your $4, $40 or $400 is going.

In countries where you can barely take a piss without having to bribe someone (bribery being a custom that pre-dates the earliest White settlers, incidentally), the idea that local charities can organise relief for people without having to pay large sums of money to and therefore prop up the very forces who control and profit most from the appalling situation, is preposterous.


"if I think (as I do) that the the amount of aid given by my government IS too low then that doesn't mean I can change it in any way"

If it means enough to you, it can influence your vote.



ED:

See para 1



JUSKIMO:

"NV, as I see it, you make two distinct statements in this thread.


1) talking about giving charity is bad and people should not talk about it."

False, false. I find all brag posts here leave me feeling much the same way - puzzled as to why the bragger feels they need to up themselves so much - but when it comes to bragging over how much money you're donating to worthy causes, I despair. It's sick. DUCY?


"2) peoples efforts are not good enough and if they want to do something to help, they should do what YOU have already done, then then might understand what is going on, because they obviously do not and you do, therefore they cannot possibly help because what they want to do is stupid and not as good as what you want to do (despite the fact that there is a 99.999999999999999999999% chance that the people here could never do what you are suggesting (Get their governments to give more money) in the time it will take them to ship $100 a week or whatever to charity).

Hypocrisy ftw. DUCY? "

False again.

As you asked (in a roundabout insulting/patronising sort of way that I've learned to expect from the legal fraternity in particular )... My stance is people should either do fuck all and be honest about it ( Sham), or do something other than shoving a few dollars at a charity that means nothing to the donor anyway (oh how noble!), and which often does nothing to alleviate the problem and is possibly even counter-productive...such as spend some time working in the affected area when you could leave feeling you'd made a genuine difference.

I've chosen the former, though I'd like to think the times I've spent arguing the toss over the causes and remedies of famine etc with clueless but arrogant people, haven't always been wasted.

In short: go ahead and give to famine relief for that warm/fuzzy feeling (and come and brag about it afterwards!), but don't kid yourself it's done anyone else any good in the long term.

er, but didn't I donate to a UK charity for kids with terminal diseases?
I know some of the local organsiers of it - I'm pretty sure it isn't being siphoned off for corrupt purposes.

I think you are getting a little tied up on some bad experiences with governent or NGO aid going into parts of Africa.

Godlike isn't suggesting anything other than encouraging poker players who are often young, have a lot of money for their needs and have never thought of giving to charity of doing just that on a regular basis.

I give something to some charity most weeks probably, but I'm not going to pretend that I give enough to affect my standard of living - the only reason I posted proof of giving in this thread was to show folks that I'd given a pledge and carried it through - I kind of hoped that by the time we got to page 4 on the thread we'd have had a few more similar pledges or confirmed donations..rather than getting into a semi-flame war about the evils of charity donation to west africa ('trade not aid' etc)

When I made my post I had it in my head that NV was living in reality, but clearly things reality only exists in NV's head. Thus, anything not in existence in NV's head must be wrong.

For those looking for hard information on where charitable contributions may make the most difference ....

http://www.givewell.net/

http://www.givewell.net/cause1 (focus on Africa)

Thanks K3nt.

Sorry for letting this drop everyone - I took a 2-3 month hiatus from all things poker, including this forum for the most part and this project was one that I didn't follow through with. I still have every intention of setting up a website to do something about it, or, at the very least, organise some sort of BTP system like I propositioned in my original post. I haven't donated to a charity in a while so here's my part:



And as I said in my original post I'm going to be donating 10% of my Monday winnings each week.

Who else would like to be a part of this? It doesn't matter what day, what %, what stakes, what amount. Every tiny bit helps. Maybe if everyone who wants to partake can post their name and what they'd like to pledge and how frequently, then we can make a list and this might help people remember to donate and also might get others involved who might not have been before.

So this may or may not progress into something larger than a BTP drive but either way hopefully we'll be able to track how much money we're donating per week/month and where it's going and just what that money is doing to help others around the world. I'm sure it will make a lot of people feel good to know that they're helping, and it will certainly help those in need, so it's a win-win situation.

Anyway - The List:

Roy: Pledging 10% of Monday earnings.


Post if you want your name added, after we get a few I'll make a new thread and hopefully get it stickied which I can then update each week.