Last month, Cyclone Sidr hit Bangladesh and killed thousands of people (one article reports the death toll is above 15,000) and of course, leaving tens of thousands of other people injured, left with nothing and/or grieving over lost loved ones.
Over here in Malaysia, I had no idea about any of this as I barely have time to skim over the news...until some folks over at the Accenture head office decided to organize a collection of funds from Accenture staff for MERCY, the humanitarian aid organization that's helping the people of Bangladesh. And so they elected a one or two people from each Accenture project to help collect funds from their project mates. As yes, as you might've guessed if you don't already know, I was the 'lucky' representative to be elected by them for my project two weeks ago.
When I got the email asking to help collect funds, my initial reaction went along the lines of "Argh!!! Not again!!!". This wasn't the first time I was 'volunteered' by the company or project to do stuff. First I was 'volunteered' to remind my project mates to register for some company forum...which fortunately I didn't have to do anything anyway as it was a compulsory thing for everyone and so they all registered without me having to bug them to do so. Second, I was 'volunteered' to help out with my company's bowling trip in September. And now, for the third time, they seem to think since I'm a newbie, I'm doing nothing but shaking leg everyday and hence I can help out with all these other side projects. Which actually isn't that far from the truth...I actually am quite free, which is rather strange for this company, I think... but anyway, I still wasn't too happy with the idea of having to go around asking for money from my project mates, like one of those annoying people who go around coffee shops asking to buy useless stuff, or donate to some blind men's association, or just give them money coz' they're too old/handicapped/poor. But since I honestly wasn't busy enough to use that as an excuse to not help out, I was 'stuck' with having to do the gold-digger dirty work.
Well, as it turns out, I decided since I had to do this anyway, I might as well try to get as much as I can from as many people as I can. Not just my project mates, but also my church folks. So I went all gung ho, emailing and urging my project mates as well as everybody in my church whose email address I had, asking for donations. I even asked my pastor if we could a collection in church specifically for this...but unfortunately for some reason this couldn't be done, and the next best thing was to ask the cell leaders to collect from their cells on friday and then pass it to me.
So tomorrow is the day when I have to pass my collection back to my head office, and how much have I gotten altogether? So far, I estimate a total of around RM250, from project mates and church people. Which, to me, is really quite disappointing. I guess I had the expectation that since Accenture people are paid quite well, as church mates do regular donations to the church too, I would get rather generous donations. Surprisingly, the highest amount I got from any of my project mates is a rather measly RM20...from one of the managers too, who probably earns more than RM20,000 a month or some ridiculous amount like that. And from my church, only 3 people donated, and two was because I asked them personally. So I'm guessing everyone else either conveniently 'forgot' to donate or just couldn't be bothered...which I can't help but find a bit sad and disappointing. But then again, my own initial reaction to having to help collect donations wasn't exactly the best either.
Which really got me thinking today about the question I used to think about a lot... what is the world coming to? I mean, here we are, so engrossed in our own lives, going to work each and every day, trying to earn as money as we can to buy more stuff and lead more comfortable lives...and for most of us, our lives are already comfy enough...but when it comes to giving something to help others who really, really, REALLY need help... most of us really couldn't give a damn. Ok, maybe not everyone doesn't give a damn...I'm sure some people actually do give a damn and want to help... but maybe we don't trust the system. Maybe people think there's no point in donating coz' we don't know whether the money will actually go into aiding the people who need it, or go into the pocket of one of the aid organization's topshots. Which is actually a valid concern, as it really does happen quite often...The miserable RM250 I got is probably not going to end up going to the right place anyway. But then again, if everyone thinks like that and no one donates...then how can we help the people who need the aid? Shall we donate other necessities like food and medicines instead of money? That's noble as well, but then considering the high cost of having to transport such goods all the way there, the transportation costs could be used instead to buy more supplies for the people. So people don't donate coz' either they're too 'kiasu' or afraid of funds being mismanaged, and donating other supplies is too expensive in terms of transportation, so what's the next best way to help? Volunteer to go there and try to help out the victims personally? Yeah right, how many people are willing to stop everything in their lives here to go some strange foreign country where there are little or no luxuries to help some poor folks. So in the end, little is donated, few people care enough to help, and the poor Bangladeshies are left to fend for themselves.
A depressing thought, I know...but that's not half as bad as the thought that the Bangladeshies are not the only people in the world who need help. In Malaysia, there are people who are poor, hungry, homeless, handicapped, abandoned, and so on and so forth. And they would need help from the more fortunate ones too. But again, most of us lucky ones are just too caught up in our own little worlds worrying about our own relatively small issues to bother to help others. And I'm not exactly proud to say I'm one of them... and as much as I would like to help somehow, the thing is...it's just so much easier to continue on with my life and worry about my own little issues then be go all out to help the people who need it. It's much easier to work and try and gain more luxuries than think about the people who don't even have the basic necessities.
So anyway, now that I've probably made anyone reading this have a totally sucky guilt trip, I have to apologize for that coz' I'm not intending to make anyone feel guilty...but rather I'm just reflecting on the fact that this is how people behave. When I was young, I used to feel sad about the very same thing I'm talking about right now, and I used to want to go all out and try and save the world...but over time, when I realized there's just too many people who need saving and one little person like myself really can't do much, I lost the gung-ho-ness. Also didn't help that my parents conditioned me to just take care of ourselves and my own family as nobody else out there is going to care about us. And so when it comes to giving to other people, even just a little RM10 note, we just couldn't be bothered. I guess it's funny how when we're young, we're so idealistic and wish we could do something to help make the world a better place, but we're limited by our lack of experience (and usually, lack of money too). But once we're old enough to actually have the ability to make some difference, most people are too jaded or overwhelmed with the amount of things that could be made better, that we just can't be bothered anymore.
So anyway, I think I've had enough of ranting about how sad the world is and I shall go back to worrying about my own little problems like whether or not I should buy a Sony Ericsson W660i or Motoslvr Red, or whether that guy I like really has a thing for me. Cheerio.
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