Why I hate charities

Now I know that after reading that line of you might be thinking, shit this Alex guy is a real prick because he doesn’t want to help anyone. But let me explain to you a little my thoughts on the issue.

First off, I don’t hate all charities, I just am against the ones that single out a specific segment of society. I am more than happy to, and personally do both financially and emotionally, support a charity that helps all humanity. Charities like The Red Cross, CANTEEN, MS Australia, Cancer Council etc are fantastic because they help all people, of all shapes, sizes, ages and sexes. These are charities that move humanity forward as a whole, addressing issues that can affect anyone, and therefore justify support.

What really gets me the type of charity that singles out a specific segment, like The Aboriginal Childrens Advancement Society or the parts of World Vision that specifically help all those people in Africa. I mean look, sure, they help people, that’s great, but life is about dealing with problems, working out solutions, and pushing yourself to survival. The whole evolution of humanity, both physically and technologically, was about someone finding a solution to a problem themselves and then moving forward, survival of the fittest. What I see these days is that the developed world is starting to become a teet on which the rest of the world wants to suck. They don’t want to deal with their problems. They don’t want to work hard. They don’t want to develop by themselves. For some reason, modern society has put into the minds of all that the fortunate have to help the less fortunate for no other reason but that “it’s the right thing to do”.

Now I take a page from my life. Oppressive government, poor standards of living, the question of “will we eat tomorrow” and more were all topic brought up daily. Life wasn’t easy, but then we didn’t just sit and complain about it, we grew the balls to actually do something about it and left. We didn’t expect anything to come to us, so we knew we had to work for it, and, most importantly, were prepared to do it. Arriving on Australia’s footstep with almost no money and a few suitcases, we were the typical poor migrant family. Somehow, 15 years later we are able to own our own house, drive good cars, afford what we want and live comfortably enough to feel successful. I am not here tooting my own horn, in fact, I am tooting the horn for the people in society that actually do something about their lives, with my story only an example. A vision they chase, with no other future in sight, and no hurdle too big.

My view is that anyone anywhere can make whatever they want of themselves. We are all born with the same potential, it is just up to us to make whatever we want of ourselves. So when someone stands in front of me, asking for money to help some aboriginal children, I ask them to please explain why these children with their two legs, two arms, ten fingers and one brain, which is no different to what anyone else in the world has access to, need my help to make something of themselves. Until the “less fortunate” can stop sucking on the teet of those “more fortunate”, I fear they will never feel the real pressure to actually take the reigns of their own lives, and the gap between these two socioeconomic classes will only continue to widen.

Maybe tough love is what we really do need…