the bucket is filled with many drops, so too is it emptied a drop at a time.
Never enough drops. Perhaps drops is the wrong way to approach the problem.
(Lots of drips like me, though. 
)
djm
No one idividual make all the difference, but if everyone did a little bit, I believe that great headway could be made… and that includes education and training in skills these folks could use to help themselves. However, a country’s economy is also a massive influence on poverty.
Jimmy’s doing what he feels is right, and from where I stand, there’s nothing I can fault him (or anyone doing the same) for.
It’s one thing to criticize the efforts of others while doing something constructive to solve the issue. It is quite another to critisize others while doing nothing to solve the issue… which of these camps do you reside in?
At no time did I criticize anyone or their efforts. At the same time, I feel frustrated that no matter what gets done, it is never enough, so that I look for ideas about what methods might be more effective. Too bad people couldn’t have put as much effort into thinking up creative new solutions as they do looking for an excuse to be offended.
djm
Seems like criticism to me.
… more of the same.
It’s a touchy subject, and one some folks take to heart. With all of the damage that the past 2 years of hurricanes has done to my area, the gulf coast and the south east of the USA, I really cannot blame them.
Again, touchy subject. Speaking for myself, I am not offended. But so far I have only read your criticism of Jimmy Page and people who give money to the poor and hungry. What are your suggestions for alternative solutions?
Sorry you think that way. But if it is criticism, nothing is so sacrosanct that it is unquestionable. That would just be closed-mindedness.
Dunno. Someone who is doing okay, has a job, has food, housing, access to adequate medical facilities, etc. who is suddenly struck by a natural disaster is someone who needs help right away, but people who are perennially crammed together, no or inadequate food or shelter, no access to medical care or to steady employment, these are people for whom many missions have been set up all over the world for many decades with no great results.
There are lots of people in similar circumstances here in our own respective countries. Here we can at least help them to a point where they can take charge of their lives and get back on their feet, but for the same mission strategy in poor countries where there is nothing for them to get back on their feet to, I don’t know that we have done them such a big favour. We have been sending medical aid to these countries for decades, but that just means more people there survive, but there is not enough food, housing, jobs, resources, etc. for them to build a life from. I was hoping some of the well-read smart people here knew of successful strategies for taking people in such poor countries beyond mere subsistence.
djm
Soooooo… what are your suggestions for alternative solutions?
hmmm… ‘we can’t possibly help them all, so we shouldn’t bother to help any’… interesting perspective… And yes, there will always be poor … Luckily for some of us, there are still those who see the benefit of helping.
BTW - “…clever holier-than-thou. Oh well …” riiiight
Is it not obvious?
“Are there no prisons, no poor houses?” 
Here are some local facts about the homeless population in my state.
http://www.theroadhome.org/homelessness_facts.html
The reason for these numbers is that there aren’t enough people who give a flying f*** about their fellow man! Even here, where people so sanctimoniously declare themselves to be followers of Christ!
Judas Priest Fing Jumped an’ Fried a Chicken!!!
You know what really really gets me is those people, and not just the rich mind you, who take everything that their society has to offer them in their particular station therein and never give one good gawd damn thing back! It’s these kind of people who are the ones taking the hand-outs, not the ones that need help, the ones that need a hand-down! It’s these people who refuse to help out the least bit those that they deem less than themselves who have made out society so fing rotten from within, and it’s these same people who have caused the “only a drop in the bucket” attitude to thrive. We are all drops in one great big f***in’ bucket, and we’re responsible, each and every one of us, for what our bucket is filled with, and you know what? Our bucket is filled with horseshit sometimes, because there are not enough people giving back in relation to what they have been given.
If everyone were to do just one thing to help solve the problem (and I’m not talking about just opening your cheque-book, I’m talking about rolling up your sleeves and working) we could make a significant dent in the problem. Those of us who are able to help in some way or form so vastly outnumber those who cannot help themselves that there is a significant and plausible chance that we could irradicate some of the graver problems in our society.
It boils down to pride and selfishness.
I’m not going to say that if you’re not part of the solution you’re part of the problem, because that would be innacurate. I would venture to say, thought, that if you are able and yet unwilling to do anything to help beyond pontificate as to the uselessness or futality of helping you definately are part of the problem, even the very key and root of the problem.
It’s been a long damn time since I’ve been up on a soapbox here, but I’ve always been extremely bothered by people’s insensitivity toward their fellow beings. It bothers me right to hell when it only gets worse around the hollidays. It’s one of the reasons that I don’t participate in christmans celebrations very much; people use the holidays as an excuse to be down right mean to each other.
Aight, I’m off my soapbox now, but I’m still mad as hell.
I’m right with you, Tyler. There’s little excuse for the degree of poverty in our own backyards, and if I’m asked to give of my time and money, I am more tempted to do it here, rather than somewhere overseas.
But that’s where this started, with overseas missions. I’m sorry I don’t know how to explain myself well or how to articulate my concerns better. I don’t intend to threaten others, but to me its not enough to just drop a couple of coins in the bucket as I pass by and say to myself that I’ve done my part. There are things that bother me about sending money overseas and then the stories I read, or things I hear about on the news, like:
Many of the countries receiving foreign aid refuse to allow foreign aid workers to distribute the food, medicines, goods that have been donated to the people who really need them. Result: these things end up going to those who don’t need them, get sold instead of given to the poor. That’s not what I was donating for.
Christian missions say they are helping people in 3rd world countries, but then I read things about Christian missions in Thailand setting their converts to beat up Buddhists and tear down Buddhist shrines. That is not what I was donating for.
Now I am getting requests for donations from several charities who are trying to out-vie each other as to what percentage of every dollar donated actually goes to the people who need help. What, am I supposed to investigate each charity as if I were researching a new stock? This just doesn’t seem right to me.
My government (and probably yours) gives millions of dollars each year to developing nations, yet nothing seems to improve in those countries, and they are perennially in debt, and the peoples’ suffering goes unabated.
As to alternatives, I don’t know any. I am stymied. That is why I asked the question as to whether anybody here knows of a better way. Obviously people need immediate help in the case of natural disasters and I have no intention of trying to deny aid to anyone, but it bothers me that I can’t seem to find an outlet for donating that will have a permanent positive impact, as opposed to seemingly continually shelling out money into a bottomless pit. It tempts me to restrict charity to just my own backyard, but that doesn’t help people overseas.
So I ask again, has anyone come across a way of donating that makes a real difference overseas?
djm
The best way to help overseas is to help and heal our own internal problems the best we can so that we can better contibute and act as an example to developing and/or impoverished nations. It’s still critically important to keep small donations going to overseas opperations in order to keep the good efforts going that are happening there.
Sites like http://www.charitynavigator.org/ can be very helpful; i think there’s no other short-term solution, there needs to be long-term thinking but people are suffering now.
From Charity Navigator’s site:
Are you willing to make a long-term commitment to your organization?
We like to think of giving to charity as a long-term commitment, more akin to marriage than dating. Intelligent giving is motivated by altruism, knowledge, and perspective, not a knee-jerk reaction to a television commercial. You are an adult. You have a budget. You have the means to help others. You want to help. Ask yourself if your charity is the type of organization to which you’re willing to make a long-term commitment. When you do this, you agree to support them through good times and bad, and provide the funding it needs to weather economic downturns. In return, it promises to continue working toward addressing the issue you both think is so vital. Look hard and find an organization you can support for many years to come. When you find that charity, give it your dollars, tell it you’ll be there through thick and thin, and then continue to support it. Only then will long-term sustainable change take place.
Thanks, rh. That’s the kind of positive feedback I was hoping to get. I wasn’t aware of this site, but I will certainly give it a good read.
djm
Wow!.. You do a good job when you get up there though! 
Well… and powerfully… said!
One of the best ways to help is simply to look at each person as a worthy human being who may just be in some tough straits right now. That goes a long way. No, we can’t just go trusting each and every person who puts their hand out, but we can still give - money, time, morale… and sometimes even ‘tough love’.
Look at the long line of great people who have come out of some pretty darned low beginnings. History is full of them - another bit of evidence that circumstances and station don’t allways mean much at all. In fact, the ‘haves’ have more oftern made life more mizerable for the ‘have nots’ than the other way 'round.
Try this guy’s approach…
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_52/b3965025.htm
Wow! This guy rocks! Great article, Annie. Thx.
djm
Thought you’d like that. 