h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Sorry to interupt but I'm in Saturnines camp...well at least part of it.
1) The media does what it is paid to do... report and sell media.
2) We, who should know better, eat and drink at its table, whilst disecting their gorssness with as much finesse as we afford a chicken leg at a bar b que. Finally exhausting our hot air exhallation we return to our safe secure lives, pick up a coke or a pepsi, suggest Mac Donalds or a Big Mac for supper and wash the dishes in Proctor and Gamble products.
You could make a difference if you wanted to. I bet you have a 'Ali' not two hundred yards from where you live.
Sorry...not personal just cross.
Take care
Boots

Think global, act local huh ?

The cute kid factor occurs at a local level here too. There's a local charity that occasionally features a terminally sick child to raise public awareness. And funds. Publicising the charity's activities should be enough. It is enough for some. What bothers me most there is the personalisation of it. It's cringingly invasive of the family's private life. And yes, I know, the families in these cases will at least have consented and have very probably volunteered. That's part of their effort to make something good come of their tradegy. It doesn't mean it's good for them to do it.
Waz

Zagreb : By "OUR" I meant coalition. Although the actions of the US "soldiers" have been more than notorious...

As for the rest of it. I seem to remember having a conversation with you about whether war achieves anything. So I'll leave it at that. Suffice to say, we only know what we have been told.

Ok cute kid syndrome on local issues taken on board.
Not nice but it does work. 'beauty blackmail'. Another thing (stands on soapbox)
Did you know that the charity 'guidedogs for the blind' is awash with money AND that their constitution states that it has to be used for 'guide dogs for the blind' not 'ramps for the blind' or 'practical computers' for the blind, not even 'lets make your house easier to live in' for the blind...just guide dogs. They have enough money to give a guide dog to every person in this country whether sited or not. Makes you think.
Take care
Boots
PS Buy the record!

Really? Didn't know that. Hmmm. *ponders*

One more thing before I pack up the soap box for the night. I am totally against subsidising that which should be government funded! Why do we have Hospice charities? Children's hospice Charities? in fact Charities? Give aid to whom you wish but do not feel good because you are giving to charity...we should be funding it through our taxes even if they have to be higher. We owe it to those who can't because we can!
Think about it.
Take care
Night night
Boots

Yes, I'd heard that. But if they publicise it the funds dry up. I wonder what would happen if you sent them a donation specifically for use for ramps. They'd presumably have to return it.

"Not nice but it does work." It doesn't with me - not at a local level - I find it too distasteful. But as my nephew's severly disabled I see his image in the pictures so I'm not typical I know. What I'm wondering is why I didn't feel that with the pictures of Ali.

Waz

"we should be funding it through our taxes" I sympathise with that view very much. I've said it myself in the past. But I know that people running hospices would be very wary of being more than 49% funded through public tax revenues. They don't have faith that the people who write the regulatory framework, that would inevitably come with the funding, would have enough understanding of the hospice. That's putting it diplomatically.

They are even more wary of becoming part of the NHS and having to 'compete' with other demands.

Having worked for the local council and seen the effect of increasing central control there I can't agrue with them. Perhaps more local taxation, less central would work better. But then you get the service by postcode effect.
Waz

Mmmm OK wise one. I still think that if the money came from taxation with autonomy given to the various bodies who have to answer to whichever ombudsman (you know who I mean)they fall under, it would make more sense. We have two local children's hospices in our area and they are both chasing the same local goodwill. It seems barking.
'Cute baby syndrome', point one which is stupidly answered as point two.
For everyone who has experience of disabilty 'cute baby syndrome' is appalling, but for those who don't/don't choose to admit to/sighted yet walk round blind, 'cute baby syndrome' will bring out the pennies from their conscience...which shouldn't be neccessary in the first place. Taking it a step further it also gives us Kennedy, Bush and Blair...yes it is worrying.

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned the flip side of this cringeworthy media cowtowing to the lowest common denominator. I refer to the manufacture of heroes. Exhibit A: The rescued POWs, in particular that first woman who was rescued. I'm glad she's back, but I don't understand how she's a hero. Seems to me that she was simply a victim of bad luck, but managed to survive.

Since when is mere survival heroic? If that's all it takes, then all of you here are heroes, and I'll gladly sell your stories to the press.


As for charity being supported by taxes, I'm against it in ways I can't possibly begin to ennumerate. But I'll give a few. First, if it's compulsory, then it's hardly charity, is it? Second, the government can't even run a humane medical program, so how can it be expected to run programs for those with greater needs? Third, anything government does is horribly inefficient, and you'd find your dollars doing a lot less good.

Apologies to all non uk posters - I forgot to qualify what I said before as being from a UK perspective. Interesting differences - I'm not aware of much coverage of the rescued POW's nor of them being regarded as heroes (but I'm not watching that much tv). And it's difficult for me to appreciate what it's like not living within the welfare state we have. I really wouldn't want the NHS run by charity, I don't think it could be done. The sheer uncertainty of funding...never mind the amount they'd need. It's mind boggling.

Over here I don't see that charities are intrinsically efficient. Not even within their own remit. Some are, some aren't. Take the guide dogs charity already mentioned. Very efficient in its own terms - plenty of resources to provide exactly the service it sets out to do. But hugely inefficient in national terms in tying up available funds. Take hospices - individually they may be efficient, within their own areas but there are parts of the country where there is still no hospice within reasonable reach. The services they provide vary - some providing everything from home care to beds in wards, others only day care. At present, in my area there's an over provision for day care. Charities are fighting for their share of clients. Horrible thought.

One thing having some level of recurring government funding does is let the charity plan ahead more effectively.

Going back to Ali, the flood of funding probably coming in for him is unlikely to be a particularly efficient use of resources given by the public.

Well off to work, to see what I can do about at least one charity's efficient use of its resources,
Waz

One of the richest charities in the UK is a donkey sanctuary in Devon. Each donkey has several hundred thousand pounds allocated to it per year theoretically. Charities that can offer up case studies and pictures of wide-eyed children (preferably facially intact but with some other horrible disability/injury) and sad eyed puppies (or donkeys) are always quids in. People react to those images and dip into their wallets accordingly. Charities know this and market themselves accordingly (I worked for many years in the charity sector, so know this to be true).

In the case of Ali, while I feel terrible for what the poor kid has gone through and will continue to go through, I am deeply concerned that thousands of other kids (and the general population over there) are being sidelined. In the news last night there were reports of 20 young children per hour being brought into hospitals with chronic diarrhoea due to ingesting polluted water which can be just as fatal as any injury. As alarming are the number of kids still being injured by unexploded bomblets from cluster bombs.

Mugwump : Agreed. I thought the qualifications of a hero were that you actually do something, save someone, sacrifice yourself for something. All she did was...shoot a gun, get captured, get found, get sent home. Ooh. Impressive. Sounds like a pretty hero to me...

And the fact that they are thinking of making a movie about it.

I was in the States when all of this rescue stuff was going on and the coverage on CNN frankly made me feel a bit . Frankly on that night CNN was less like a news channel and more of a made for TV movie to be honest.

S9: As near as I can tell, she didn't even shoot a gun. She was a part of a maintenance company, which means they were mechanics. Some Iraqis just appeared in ambush. The whole thing might have happened too quickly for them to do anything about it.

Napnod: That's why I was watching Fox News channel.

I was in an airport at the time so I didn't have much choice, though as an International politics student, the attitudes on CNN were fascinating...

The whole "cute kid" thing is to give us a monumental guilt-trip as if somehow it's our personal fault. It's emotional blackmail.

We all probably know more about our personal preoccupations than we do about important events in the world. I set aside time to watch 24 but cant ever remember turning on the news to find out what was happeneing int the war not since the Falklands and I was 12 and had been fooled into believeing that war was not merely necessary but good. Its all well and good to say think global act local and whinge on our soapboxes about cute charities and their inefficiences but until we do start ACTING locally or anywhere these problems will persisit.

Any help or attention that Ali gets is good he sure as hell would not be getting as much without his "cute" image on our screeens. With a bit of luck some of the cash and goodwill might get spread around.

There are things we can do about issues dicussed oon this thread. Mther Teresa did nurse people back to health she improved peoples lives. If an aristocratic twit like Diana could make a difference then why cant we.

Are you buying a new DVD with money you could spend on people who are starving, consuming the crap that News corp spews out or weeding the flower beds this weekend instead of doing something really useful.

I am no saint in this area but its no good coming on here just saying how badly every one else is dealing with these things.

A recovering consumeholic

The really interesting thing about the Lynch case was just how much coverage was given to the blonde slim one that was captured as opposed to the non-slim, non-blonde native American member of the unit who was killed in the attack.

Or for that matter the non-slim, non-white African-American woman captured and "paraded" on television early on. She had the misfortune to be more Whoopi Goldberg than Halle Berry...

Can ANYONE here name her, without going and looking it up first? Or any of the men she was captured with?

H.