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

[Korak the Mad]

There was a comedian whho once said this about those commercials and the camera crews.

It might not be entirely accurate because I don't remember exactly what he said, but it goes something like this "You're already there. You have food, so, GIVE THE KID A SANDWICH."

 

[Vault101]

There was a comedian whho once said this about those commercials and the camera crews.

It might not be entirely accurate because I don't remember exactly what he said, but it goes something like this "You're already there. You have food, so, GIVE THE KID A SANDWICH."

I know it makes you wonder....

Im here suffering and some asshole is shoving a camera in my face, he should at least have the courtesy to give me some food

then again youd have to be careful, I mean one persaon cant carry enough food to feed everyone...

 

[Dimitriov]

I don't care. I just don't. Not emotionally anyway.

On a rational level I certainly agree that it's a bad thing, and in an ideal world it wouldn't be the case.

But, meh...

It's not me, and I just don't care.

 

[SL33TBL1ND]

Nope, I'm not much of a charity guy. Not in the sense of "People just need to work harder", but I just don't really care all that much.

 

[purifico]

"Sucks to be them" is exactly how I feel about this. I wish they would have better lives, but they are not my responsibility, so I don't do anything to help them, I don't do charity and I don't volunteer. Because ultimately I don't care for things that were not my fault. If I could just wish for their suffering to go away I would (probably, if there was no limit to the wishes). But unfortunately genies are not real. So yeah, instead I donate money to things that I care about - games for example. That's why I support Child's Play.
And anyone who says that I MUST feel bad for them and I MUST donate and everything in my power to heolp them, should get off his high horse.

 

[SpireOfFire]

yeah, its tragic. but hell, kids are starving EVERYWHERE. in africa, in america, in the phillipines, in thailand, everywhere. am i supposed to care about ALL of them? am i supposed to donate for all of them?

i barely care about the people in my life, let alone people i dont know, and even less about people i dont even know about.

the only way i would donate (to anything really) is if they're telling me the money is going to a singlular cause like building a hospital, a school, an effort to improve the situation in the whole region rather than just to sustain one child.

yeah, those poor kids go thru hell like i cant even imagine. but i want my money to fight the situation, not just survive it.

 

[CarlMin]

Reality you say?

- I am in perma-debt right now due to a student loan I keep adding to

Come back when you have a belly shaped like a basket ball due to protein deficiency and are literally dying from diarrhea.

- There are other things I can do to support people closer to me (like homeless people in my city for example)

Feel free to do both. Just make sure you're not doing neither. Only 10 dollars would make a huge difference. If you feel that you don't have the resources to support any organizations on a monthly or yearly bases, there are still plenty of things you can do to support people in your community. If you help homeless people in your city then that's already great.

- I am very skeptical about whether any money donated to these ad agencies that help these poor kids actually gets to them

Finding a trustworthy organization is not going to be difficult. There are official organizations you know you can trust like UNICEF, Save the Children, Red Cross - finding a legitimate organization to support is not going to be an issue. It just isn't.

Do you care about the starving kids in Africa? Why?

As a convinced utilitarian, absolutely.

Do you actually do anything about it? Why?

I support several organizations monthly. I'm 19.

 

[ActionDan]

I'm sorry, buy stuff like this needs to happen. Not in the same way, but the amount of deaths is keeping the population down. Just imagine if there were no problems in Africa, we'd have another 500,000 people in the world, in one year.

 

[Killertje]

The best thing I could do for those kids is buy a sniper rifle and shoot every corrupt government asshole in their country and keep doing that until they get a few good ones. But I don't have enough money for that many bullets, nor the skills to pull it off.

*Goes back to gaming, feeling good about my good intentions.*

 

[Tinkotin]

No. I never feel bad to be honest.

 

[TemplateResponse]

I donate sometimes. not as much as i could but nobody does.

I earn £5.03 an hour in my day job and i'm an actor doing free work on the verge of paid (hopefully)

Does it eat me up that there's so much misery and horror in my world? more than i could possibly describe.

 

[ChildishLegacy]

I support several organizations monthly. I'm 19.

I was just about ready to give up on this site as a whole, thank god somebody here hasn't convinced themselves that they either can't do anything, or shouldn't do anything about it. I also salute you supporting several organizations by the time you're 19, I really do.

For 1 thing, the people here saying "they can't do anything because charities just give money to the government which spend it on weapons" - do you honestly believe that? Really? You really think that all of these organizations like water.org decide that the best way of having the country get clean water is to throw it at their corrupt governments?, this just sounds like an excuse for not donating, a bad one at that. There are so many humanitarian organizations that take the dirty work into their own hands and give these war torn villages a supply of water, and food, demonstrably more than those that just decide to throw money where it isn't needed.

For those saying you don't care, and don't even sympathize with children born into poverty and disease, you are emotionally crippled imo, if you cannot even sympathize with a child, that is born into a world of pain and suffering, something is wrong with you, even if you don't feel it's your problem, how can you not feel bad for a child that is born to feel pain and die?

Also, if the amount of people on this thread that say "they have just enough money to get by" are all insinuating that they cannot spare £5-10 a month, then they are lying. They all have the internet, they all evidently have games as they use this site, meaning they clearly have some extra cash to spare after their essentials are paid.

After I'm out of education, I'm pledging a reasonable % of my income to charity, because the choice between giving the money saving lives and a slightly better car is a pretty fucking obvious one to me.

 

[Ammutseba]

I don't give a damn about anyone in miserable countries, and here is why:

The country can't provide for a lot of people, so stop thinking that having 4 children or more is a good idea. You don't need a higher population, and by having children you're simply sending more people into a world of suffering.

I'll start feeling anything at all for them when they start using their brains.

 

[AstylahAthrys]

Of course I feel bad for the kids, but my band director turned it into one big joke. He used to go off on these gigantic rants when we weren't playing well enough, and one day he just started talking about how we're ungrateful for what we have. I don't know why. Anyway, after about five minutes, it led to how we should be practicing our instruments more because there are starving children in Africa. I don't understand the logic either. Needless to say, it became a gigantic inside joke among band members at my high school. Now it is all I think of when I hear about the starving kids in Africa and I'm completely desensitized to the situation. All I can do is laugh and go "Oh, you are a crazy little man, former band director."

 

[mgirl]

I've been to africa, and I've seen how bad it is, so yes, I feel bad. You have to be careful which charities you donate to though, since a load of money gets wasted on admin, or making those damn adverts in certain charities.

But, if you do it in the right way, money sent can do a great deal. We've directly caused a school to get a fresh water well that the whole village uses and they now have actual buildings and desks, mosquito nets, that sort of thing.

Not been able to do much for a while, being a student whose loans dont cover the cost of a place to live, tuition fees and food.

 

[sumanoskae]

I feel bad only on the most basic level. Over time, you kind of get used to the idea, especially since once you begin to acknowledge the suffering in the grand scheme you realize that untold agony has already befallen millions of people before you were even born.

Then it occurs that every second you waste thinking about it, someone else dies a horrible death, and that even if your generation succeeds in conquering the very nature of the planet, and creates a world where the innocent aren't victimized, that millions more will have died not only in the time it took, but maybe even in the name of creating such a world.

AND that such a utopia would not only be a virtual impassibility, but that it could by no means last forever, and that it's fall will herald the rebirth of the cycle all over again, and that it will only ever end with the extinction of the human race or the destruction of earth itself.

The madness we see before us isn't the result of a freak accident, humanity has known this endless tragedy since it's inception. It is in the very nature of life to suffer, escaping that suffering is what drives it forward. Humanity couldn't have evolved as it did without the threat of starvation, the fear of death, or the resistance to pain, and it is through these things that we create works of beauty, that we learn to show compassion, however little it may ultimately do.

I gave up on the grand entropy a long time ago, and if I were to connect personally to all this, I'm pretty sure it would drive me insane.

Constantly looking at the big picture would rob me of all the beauty the world has to offer right in front of me. Maybe it's only so beautiful BECAUSE I know all the pain that hovers around and through it.

It's all entropy, endless shades of every color in the spectrum, and a short flash of light is all we have, and if we can't find something there in spite of all the dark, we either die in sadness or have all of eternity to regret it.

If I felt as bad as I should about every bit of suffering that surrounds us, the world would be a dark, empty place.

 

[Jegsimmons]

Nope.....there are starving kids all over the world but people only focus on africa when you can make more of an impact else where.

 

[bojackx]

I should feel bad about it, but I don't.

Obviously it's a bad thing, but I don't feel guilty that I don't donate to charities to help out.

All I would offer them right now is advice: Stop having lots of kids. Africa's population is only getting larger and larger as the years go by, so they're just preventing any kind of improvement in the lives of the people currently living. It's silly really, but more money means more people which just means less money for everyone, which is just crazy. Obviously it's not as straightforward as that but it's a valid point.

 

[Dogstile]

I give not a fuck. Don't see why I should either. Sure, the first couple time's I saw the adverts I was like "well that sucks" but its gotten to the point where the adverts are shown so often I end up just thinking "seriously, fuck off, I was having a decent day until you tried to ruin it".

Besides, after hearing stories of how plenty of people in Africa are happy to sit around and do nothing until the handouts come around from people who used to live there, I care even less. I would much rather give my money to the homeless guy outside who sells the big issue for a living than give it away to a charity and hope they actually spend it in a way I want them too.

 

[Paradoxrifts]

The realist within me has long since hunted down every last shred of compassion I have for the poor huddled masses of the developing world. Every unfortunate child that dies from starvation, civil unrest or what have you is but one half of the battle to prevent five more deaths occurring later on when that child grows up and starts a family of their own.

And the current problems are merely due to localized shortages, globally we haven't slammed into the wall in terms of food production yet but with the world's population increasing exponentially it is only a matter of time before that threshold is crossed and the real problems begin.