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

[Vuljatar]

A little. But I never forget where my priorities are.

Myself > my family > my friends > people in my neighborhood > people in my city > people in my state > people in my country > people in other countries.

Starving kids in Africa are pretty far down the list.

(Seriously, these captchas are starting to piss me off. I've never had problems with them before, but now I have to re-enter them 2 or 3 times in order to get my post to go through.)

 

[Phisi]

Yes I do have sympathy for them but I do not do anything and I don't feel bad. It is not immoral to do nothing but amoral. Anyway, I just blame the Pope.

 

[Skullpanda]

Call me evil, but I don't care about the "starving kids in Africa" for 2 reasons.

1)The charity spends very little on the kids themselves, mostly covering the enormous operating costs it gathers up with things like constant commercials and a massively bloated staff.

2)I'm more concerned about the starving kids in 1st world countries that will probably not get help because some idiot buys the line that 80 cents of every dollar goes towards helping the kids in africa.

Maybe people should start attempting to fix poverty in the nations that they live in before fixing poverty in other nations.

 

[corvanjer]

Without a sense of hierarchy or a social food chain - the world would systematically break down in a matter of months. I do feel bad - but it's just the way it is...

 

[Yopaz]

I can't bring myself to care because I can't help. If I start caring about this, then I will feel bad about it, which leads to me wanting to help, but I don't have the resources to do anything. None of the attempts to help them haven't been successful in the long run so if *I start caring what will change except that I will be depressed over it?

 

[Flight]

I do feel badly for them. I donate to stuff like The Rainforest Site, and I also buy fair trade things from them when I can, but I don't believe that if I donated my money to them, it would actually go there. I don't feel guilty about it, however; it's not as if I'm responsible for everyone on the planet. And frankly, I believe that all those sanctimonious commercials with the slow, sad music accomplish nothing, save for an incentive to change the channel or hit the mute button.

 

[iLikeHippos]

If I ever become a part of the 1%, I promise I will build or finance a village in the most troubled area.

For now, I can barely keep on a budget, let alone donate. There's very little I can do that is actually efficient for now.

 

[Arakasi]

When I'm rich. I'll donate.
But I'll do it without the aid of other charaties, where you don't know what's being done with your money. I'll fucking go there and provide them with the infastructure they need to provide for themselves.

 

[KiloFox]

people should worry about their own problems before trying to fix the problems of others. i have a multitude of problems to deal with. that and this country's in some SERIOUS debt (what $300 Trillion?) people should be more focused on the troubles that affect them. if this country wern't in such debt, then there'd (most likely) be more jobs and higher pay. lets fix our own problems before dealing with those of someone else 'kay?

 

[Arsen]

I feel a sense of empathy, but am otherwise unmoved by a problem across the shores of my own country.

 

[Risingblade]

Nope don't really care at all, all my donations go to help fight cancer.

 

[Riki Darnell]

The kids in Africa do nothing for me....but I do donate to WWF. I'd rather save tigers from going extinct. Don't get me wrong I'm not a animal over human life person, I just feel like I'm making more of a difference by helping animals. Besides, baby tigers are way cuter than baby people lol.

 

[Thaluikhain]

people should worry about their own problems before trying to fix the problems of others. i have a multitude of problems to deal with. that and this country's in some SERIOUS debt (what $300 Trillion?)

$300 trillion? That's like 20 times the US's debt, what country do you live in?

Oh, hang on, how does your currency system work and how are you defining debt?

 

[ablac]

It is sad but I feal wary of giving to charities because they tend to pay themselves a lot of the donations as part of 'managment'. Many leaders of large charities have 5 or 6 zero salaries which is ridiculous.If its a charity then they should work for the bare minimum if anything at all. When you think that those images of suffering are used in such a way to guilt trip people into paying and then their money is spent like this. Another issue is what is actually causing all this poverty. It varies from place to place but many times it is due to war or dictatorships. If you give people aid then a lot of the time it is simply taken away and I believe that until these people are stopped then progress cannot be made. I prefer to give to homeless people on the street when I can because I know where that money is going. Until there are laws governing what charities can pay themselves and factors causing progress to be impossible to be removed then I will still be wary of overseas charities.

 

[ablac]

people should worry about their own problems before trying to fix the problems of others. i have a multitude of problems to deal with. that and this country's in some SERIOUS debt (what $300 Trillion?)

$300 trillion? That's like 20 times the US's debt, what country do you live in?

Oh, hang on, how does your currency system work and how are you defining debt?

Its probably more to do with a calculation considering he used dollars (US presumably otherwise they tend to state it). The US's debt is something like $10/$11 trillion overall which is still a huge problem. There isnt $300 trillion on the planet so id be impressed if you could rack up that kind of debt.

 

[Kolby Jack]

My attitude? Eh, somebody else'll handle it.

To those just itching to tell me "It's that kind of attitude that allows these children to continue suffering!" I offer this retort:

Good point. *goes back to watching TV*

It isn't so much that I find far away problems difficult to care about (though that is a factor), it's that I find happiness in the things that are in my life, and volunteering or really just ANY amount of work erodes at my happiness, so I ain't inclined to do it. I'm not selfish; I don't sacrifice the happiness of others to bolster my own (that's just cruel), but neither am I selfless; I won't sacrifice my own happiness just to make other people happy. I am simply self-neutral. I like where I am, and I see no reason to change that.

 

[Random Fella]

I did
But then the 2nd commercial
Then the 3rd
Seriously they just throw this stuff in your face way too much, trying to make you feel guilty, it has the opposite effect on me, now I just no longer care.

 

[KiloFox]

people should worry about their own problems before trying to fix the problems of others. i have a multitude of problems to deal with. that and this country's in some SERIOUS debt (what $300 Trillion?)

$300 trillion? That's like 20 times the US's debt, what country do you live in?

Oh, hang on, how does your currency system work and how are you defining debt?

Its probably more to do with a calculation considering he used dollars (US presumably otherwise they tend to state it). The US's debt is something like $10/$11 trillion overall which is still a huge problem. There isnt $300 trillion on the planet so id be impressed if you could rack up that kind of debt.

nope US... i just took a guess honestly all i knew is that it was astronomically high. the fact i'm off on a number i guessed at anyway dosn't change the validity of my point though

 

[omega 616]

I don't feel bad about it 'cos there is nothing I can do about it, if I was to feel bad about every bad thing in the world I would be overwhelmed and always depressed.

Do I feel guilty? Not really, I never did anything to be born in the UK and I never did anyting to them to feel guilty about.

I do get pissed when I read facebook statuses or hear people moan about first world problems, "omg, my phone is so shit, it hasn't got a forward facing camera so I can't do video calls".

Your phone can surf the net, take pics, take vids, organize your life, bring up maps, plays music, has an app for everything you can think of and you ***** you haven't got a forward facing camera!.

Also fuck them people who are ever put "FML" (fuck my life) or "my life is so shit!", you don't know what a bad life is. If you can read this post your life is infinitely better than millions of people. People who say things like deserve to be beaten till they need to go to A&E, just so they can experience a slightly shitty life for a week or two.

 

[Jadak]

No, not even a little. And why would I? We're talking about people that if every one of them died tomorrow, if they never existed at all, it would have no discernible impact on my life. It simply makes no sense to have emotional sensitivity to anything so completely detached from your own life. And that's hardly limited to starving African children, there's just only so far giving a damn can be stretched.