Every day 30,000 people die due to extreme poverty. Think about that for half minute.




Done it?
10 people have died in that time.

Please, visit http://www.whiteband.org/ and help make poverty history.

I got a band allready, had 1 for a while.

i have one as well. But also on the band thing i hate the way that company's have made a profit out of it by making nike n england ones. :o

SNOTLINGZ :thumb:

Thought you might like to see this:

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/050529/356/fk0uy.html

I won't get a band until they mean something rather than being fasion statements.

im with cal, kids here in the US dont give a damn what theyre for, they just buy them to be fasionable...

I asked a friend of mine at school (who has a new one each day) what his new one was for and he replied (in these exact words) "Who cares, it looks good though"

<sigh>

Well, thats america's youth for you <_<

<now there are SOME kids who care alot about what theyre for, kids who's parents have had cancer, or who's family members are in the military, etc...>


_jumba

I read about that too, Goblet.

It just goes to show how some companies have no scruples to make profit out of the naiveness of people by pointing out their "oh so great concern about poverty". Stating that so and so many people die of poverty each day is no more than a commercial trick to make people feel responsible and invest money in the company (e.g. by buying a white band). I can only encourage people not to fall for these tricks.

If you want to donate money, then give it to institutions like the Red Cross, which are not a company and have no interest in making profit.


However, if you really want to help solve the problems in the world, then dont just donate money, but DO something, by offering direct help.

This doesnt mean one has to fly to Indonesia and help the people build up their houses (though anyone who does that can be sure he earns the deepest respect). But, as harsh as it might sound, that is not our responsibilty. We can and should help where we can help effectively. We might think its terrible that so many towns and lives were destroyed in South-East Asia. But nobody can morally detest us for not going there to help.
There is no need to travel that far though. Start up small and help people in your neigbourhood. Help old and isolated people by visiting them and offering them some company. Go out and talk to the tramps living on the street and offer them food and drink. Be respectful to the drug-addict begging for money constantly. These things lie in our responsibility and are lot more helpful than buying any kind of white band, because it is direct help.


If the final goal should be not to decrease the threat of poverty, but to eliminate poverty completely (which, obviously, will never be achieved), then dont just look what you can do against it, but try to find its roots.
E.g. if you come to the conclusion that the neoliberal attitude of countries in the Western World with growing economical emphasis and dissolving humanism leads to large discrepancies in the social standards in society, then do something against it! (e.g. join political or semi-political groups that propagates against this trend).
If you feel that the mechanisms of economical globalization provide great benefits for the wealthier countries while poorer countries are shredded even more, then do something against it!


Donations, assuming they actually reach the people they are intended for, can help people too. But remember, they only reduce the threat of poverty and dont help to avoid it in the first place.
If everyone would offer just a bit of direct help in his surroundings, then the need for donations would become a lot smaller.

Yeah, those Oxfam people are a bunch of sickeningly greedy scum. As are Christian Aid the money driven gits. Cafod are even worse, I mean they'll do anything to get their greedy hands on as much money as possible. In fact all the "charity" orginizations are filthy, scheming, corrupt money-grubbing beasts. I wish I'd gone and bought my band from one of the nice generous, high street shops rather than the evil charity shop I got it from.



Anyway, I did notice that the article only talked the rubber/silicon bands and not the fabric ones. Who makes them I wonder?

Oxfam aren't bad thank you. As with Christian aid. Would you rather we didn't have those two? They gather one hell of a lot for charity and do some very good things. As for the wristbands, I personally do not possess one, but even if people don't believe in what they wear, atleast the money goes to charity.

Also you can't donate a chipped mug to the Redcross or a old footstool, but you can give that to Oxfam (or to a Redcross shop if it's near you).

The first paragraph of my previous post was sarcastic. I thought it was obviously so but evidently I was wrong.

Seemed pretty sarcastic to me.

Anyway, I'm not sure if Funky was referring to companies such as Oxfam in the start of his post (in which case he is wrong, as charities such as Oxfam, Christian Aid, etc are non-profitable organisations), but he's totally right about the rest.

The "Stand up, speak up" bands made by Nike really make me sick, though. How is that money going to help fight racism? It's not - they're just cashing in.

Sorry Dilandau, given I take this issue seriously I didn't really see it in a sarcastic manner.

As for the stand up speak up: It's Nike, what do you expect? They are a "all profit" organisation. Who give people ridiculously little money for working inhuman hours, I know they have meant to have got better, but when they start giving these workers a pension fund and other such things you would get in England I'll only truely then beleive them.

I know,I hate people who just wear bands for the fun of it.A boy in my class possesses about 5 of every band (even the crappy fake ones) was wearing the black and white racism band, and running down the school shouting racial insults at south asian people.I only wear bands that i think have a good meaning or reason behind them.