Random thoughts 6/27/11
Over at VA's again, this time it was how ''Christianity'' is warped into ''we must help the downtrodden of the turd whirled'' as in forever. In the comments I saw this from commenter ''cabbageroll''; Christian porn. The url itself was 'naked' (but not enough of it visible to determine what it was) but I clicked on it anyway.
It was the all too typical ''feed the starving africans'' crap. But without the bloated Sally Struthers:
How often have you seen those ads (and yes, guess what? They are paid ads) on TV that show the stereotypical 'starving african' that as VA so well put it, we have to keep digging them wells, over and over again?
The truth is these charities are often outright scams. Did you know that 90% of that dollar you send them can be spent on ''administration'' (salaries) and ''fundraising'' (buying and producing those insufferable TV spots)? And it's legit.
Guess what is done with the other 10%? In a sense, it too gets spent on ''fundraising'' as well. That's what pays for the planes, the boxes of food, clothing and medicine and the expenses to transport all that and the volunteers there. And don't forget the camera crew plus 'sally the hutt' to film a fresh ad!
That's the real reason they go there. The 'digging the same wells overand over again'? Two words: Photo op. {announcer:}''With your help we're bringing clean water to this impoverished village''. Guess what paid for 'Mr. Radio Voice'? The well will quickly be neglected or used to dispose of garbage because turd whirlders don't know and won't learn how to maintain it. Nor do they care, because like all members of 'cargo cults' those nice ''Christian'' white folks (notice they're always white? I did) will come and bring more magic cargo from magic cargo land where they make it with Jesus magic and bring it to them. Just like Jesus did with those loaves and fishes those nice white ''Christians'' told 'em about.
And when those nice white ''Christians'' leave they'll set the Saint Death shrine back up and praise him for sending those nice whites and to pray that those whites come back next year with more loaves and fishes (and to dig them a fresh well). Just like the chicken entrails predicted they would.
You're right, they're all scams. The most entertaining one I saw (I wish I'd saved it) was an ad where they claimed to be buying oxen to plough in Africa. (Sorry, I can't bring myself to type the American "plow". In English, there's no such word as plow, and if there were it would rhyme with blow and flow and glow and slow. Yes I know about cough and though and through. Humour me, I'm old).
They started by explaining that an ox is a cow that has been trained to pull a plough.They showed pictures of one of their beneficiaries, an African woman for whom they had bought two oxen, one male and one female ox, which had enabled her to become self-sufficient in food by cultivating the land. Then they begged for contributions to buy oxen at 250 pounds ($400) each, and finally reserved the right not to buy any oxen at all but to use the money as they saw fit.
I figured anybody who actually sent them money could hardly claim he wasn't warned.
Kevin Myers wrote a couple of good articles about this stuff in the Irish Independent a few years ago. You can read them at
