Pick me, pick me!

Recently I was walking around aimlessly on Oxford Street and was approached by one of those charity fundraisers who emotionally blackmail you into giving money.

I did the typical thing of pretending I was busier than I was because 1) CBA 2) I give £10 a month to Christian Aid, which I can barely afford considering I'm no longer working at Tussauds (but was blackmailed into doing so) and 3) I recall this charity getting you to choose a child to sponsor based on their photo

This begs the question: what the fuck?!

How depressing is this? If I give money to a charity, I don't want to choose who it goes to based on their appearance! We've all seen 'Eastenders' - remember how shocked everyone was to find out sweet little Lisa shot Phil?

I don't want to be like 'yes, this adorable child with a nice smile by far trumps the munter. Therefore I shall endow them with £5 a month in return for updates on their progress at school where they bully others and pee in their teacher's coffee mug'.

The whole process just seems paradoxical: the moral act of charity is suddenly tainted by a disgustingly shallow way to go about it.

It reminds me of when we went to my granddad’s village in India after he had died. We stocked up on loads of stationary etc. to give to the children, almost to give him good karma. We gave stuff to every single mini Indian there. Some of the kids would pretend they didn't get anything so would come around again but we refused. That's not cool. Don't be that person. I remember no individuals from this afternoon - just a vague cloud of brownness - and believe that's what charity should be about.

Who are we to say one person in a given community is more in need and more worthy of our help?