Do you feel bad about "the starving kids in Africa" ?

[Torrasque]

I know you have all seen at least one commercial about the starving kids in Africa, or the parent-less kids in Africa, or some kind of "feel bad about these kids who have it pretty bad" commercial. What I'd like to know, is if you actually feel bad about it.

You'd have to be a pretty cold bastard to feel absolutely nothing or a complete dickwad to say "well they shouldn't have been born in Africa then!", and I am sure you are neither. But what do you feel about the poor/starving/destitute/homeless kids in Africa?

Whenever I see those ads/commercials, I feel a bit bad for them and think "well that sucks to be them =|" but then my realism kicks in:
- I am in perma-debt right now due to a student loan I keep adding to
- There are other things I can do to support people closer to me (like homeless people in my city for example)
- I am very skeptical about whether any money donated to these ad agencies that help these poor kids actually gets to them

I do feel bad for these kids that have it rough, I feel bad for most people who have it rough; it is a basic human emotion to have empathy for people suffering. But whenever I see these ads, my morality just shrugs and says "well, nothing I can do about it" and go back to doing whatever I was doing.

My questions for you are:
Do you care about the starving kids in Africa? Why?
Do you actually do anything about it? Why?

 

[Torrasque]

No, I'm completely desensitized to it.

It isn't my fault they have it rough and when we do send them aid their governments often spend it on weapons to fuel wars or just spend it on themselves while people continue to starve and die from disease.

Yes things are tough for them but me caring won't do shit.

I had one of those die-hard "think of the childrens!" types of girls in my high school who would always be talking about how much she wanted to go to Africa, and how we should all donate a dollar a day to feed a kid in Africa.
It'd always get the same reception: "shut up, we don't care", which is what it really boils down to. Yeah it sucks, but I'd rather buy myself a coke than donate the money. Is that insensitive? You betcha. Will my dollar actually do anything? No idea.

 

[sms_117b]

I couldn't care lss to be honest. Not in the slightest, I got enough of my own problems to think about theirs, whilst mine may not be so bad, they are more pressing to me. I'm selfish, so sue me.

 

[BathorysGraveland]

I do feel sorry for them, to have a bullshit life and not being able to do fuck all about it is pretty terrible, and I do hope they can eventually overcome it. That also makes me appreciate what I have a whole lot more. As for actively doing things about it, I'd rather spend my own money on myself, to be honest. There is no guarantee that the money I'd send would even be put to good use, on the contrary - my money might even purchase a new weapon to kill someone with.

So in short, I feel sorry for them but I don't really do anything about it myself.

 

[mad825]

Why I would have to say "oh dear".

It's sad but there's nothing really I can do so to speak, I can just get myself fed while on a uni course :/

 

[Wintermoot]

nope and nope I never experienced first hand and frankly I don't care.
It might sound cruel but I just focus on myself I would rather be honest then pretend I care by changing my FB status.

 

[JaceArveduin]

I basically go "Well, sucks to be you" and move onto worrying about my obviously small and petty problems which I care much more about. It's not my fault they're in that situation, so I feel no need to try and help them out.

 

[GoaThief]

/snip

I think you may be surprised by the amount of complete dickwads out there, plenty of them on this very forum no doubt.

Anyway, yes I do care but I never donate to the ones that advertise on TV. My donations are made to smaller charities, although donating to the bigger ones is better than nothing in my honest opinion. I'd pray that if my kids were starving and dying of illnesses they shouldn't be contracting, that people weren't big enough cunts to just shrug their shoulders and go, "meh". Becoming a parent can change a lot of things about a person...

 

[Vegosiux]

The place is messed up, no question there.

But, anyone who wants to tug on my heartstrings with it, can go stick it where the sun don't shine. And airing "give us money" ads starring "the poor children of Africa" is no way to fix the place.

 

[Edible Avatar]

I feel bad for them, but i feel its something that we have perpetuated.
How about Central Africa for example: we send millions in food aid every year, yet the situation never changes, and people don't feel the need to provide for themselves. If we were to stop sending food aid and somehow encourage their farmers to start producing food again, then naturally they would start providing for themselves and make a better living. Plus farmers are the basis of a organized society, so a local economy could emerge.

tl;dr: They need less food aid, more local intiative

 

[Jonluw]

I feel slightly bad for as long as the ad lasts.
Well, that's not really true. I normally close the ad or change the channel or whatever when I see that it's one of those downer things.

Then I go back to my usual routine of gluttony and internet.

 

[krazykidd]

Nope . Plus i think the media makes things out to be worst than they are . Yes there are starving kids in afrika , but thats the society that they live in , thats all they know , so they get used to not stuffin themselves like we do . I the great thing about the human species they can adapt to almost anything . You can compare a third world country to a first world one . Hell we can even help third world contries until we can help ourselves . There are starving childreb in first world countries , places where there should be none , yet we want to help the ones in less favotable countries it makes no sense .

 

[Scarim Coral]

Somewhat.
By all mean I do feel sad for them for having a rough and hard life but I don't know them as to me they are stranger.
I know this sound selfish but at the end of the day my priority is myself. I mean I don't have the cash to donate and while you can say "these kid got no money" so what, we have our own difficult time to deal with first.
I also don't believe in the whole one person can make a different unless that person is a billionaire which I must say if I do ever become rich I will donate.

 

[Craorach]

I was desensitized to it by the time I was five.

I used to regularly see Oxfam ads for Etheopia.. "For just 50p per week you can feed this starving child"... in my childs mind, it meant that if I didn't give my pocket money every week... I'd be murdering that child. It would be directly my fault.

Ever since then, I've come to one firm conclusion. No charity, at all, no cause, at all, should be allowed to appeal to emotion. They should be required to only state cold, clinical, facts and persuade people only using logic and debate. Appeals to emotion, especially when trying to leech money from people, are reprehensible in all situations.

 

[LilRock1976]

I bet the cameraman could have given those kids in the ads a bite to eat. Just throwing it out there.

 

[JoJo]

No offence to anyone in particular but most of the posters in this thread seem to be listing off excuses why they don't have to care and don't do anything about a situation they could change. These are other people no different from your friends and family we're talking about, even if you personally can't afford to donate then you should still care about them. I'm a poor student myself and so I only occasionally donate to charity on an adhoc basis, but I intend when I eventually get a job to pick a reliable charity to regularly give to.

That said, doing something silly like changing your Facebook status does nothing either, if you're going to bother doing something at-least make it mean something more that "slactivism"