BEWARE THE SELF-SERVING 'MONGO's'*.......Natural / 'man'-made disasters , scenes of 'famine' (whether real or enforced) , television pictures of thousands of hungry , homeless people fleeing vast areas because of on-going strife and/or so-called 'civil war' , adult and child survivors of forced amputation etc - all accompanied by a serious-sounding voice-over person pleading with the readers/listeners/viewers to 'give generously...'
-but perhaps by so doing you could be prolonging the suffering ?
'A vast industry has grown up around humanitarian aid: a cavalcade of organizations--some 37,000--compete for a share of the $160 billion annual prize, with "fact-inflation" sometimes ramping up disaster coverage to draw in more funds. Insurgents and warring governments, meanwhile, have made aid a permanent feature of military strategy...'
(Here and here.)
"In case after case, a persuasive argument can be made that, over-all, humanitarian aid did as much or even more harm than good..."
-Philip Gourevitch, 'The New Yorker'.
However : not all those asking you for financial assistance are intent on ripping you off : CABHAIR is a charitable organisation, solely dependant on public subscriptions, which was established in early 1987 for "...the relief of cases of distress arising out of republican activity.." and can be contacted here.
As our regular readers know , we never ask for money and this post is no different : we are not looking for funds for ourselves but are asking you to donate whatever spare funds you can afford to the CABHAIR organisation to help the families of Irish Republican prisoners to meet their financial commitments. All monies donated will go directly to those families , with no administration costs being deducted.
Thanks for reading,
Sharon.
(*My Own Non-Governmental Organisation.)
