Bull-shit days
Peter
Wu
Not wishing to mince words, these are all
bull-shit days, a means for merchants to flog their merchandise, sell more
stuff and try emptying or lightening our wallets.
Before the Community Chest came along, we
were pestered to death by school kids in uniform selling flags at busy street
corner. People got so sick of them that the Community Chest was born. It was
supposed to supersede all these pushy and chaotic fund raising activities. But
has it stopped these ‘highwaykids’ at street corners?
I very much doubt it.
Here in Kiwiland,
the marketeers have come up with so many ‘days’ to
raise funds – Red Rose Day, Daffodil Day, Poppy Day, Pink Ribbon Day… you name
it. But at least these people are not pushy. They don’t come right up to you
and plant a flag on your chest. They wait quietly at street corner for
volunteer donations.
What am I trying to say? My point is this:
I am fast reaching ‘compassion fatigue’ and ‘charity-resistant’ because I am
also the target for many solicitations of donations by mail. In the office,
hardly a week goes by without somebody trying to raise fund for their own
cause.
I don’t have much to give monetarily but I
help out in the community in my own way – blood donations - so I believe I have
been helping our via ‘blood sweat and tear’.