As a general rule I don't give to charity. I'm not a tightwad. I've given more money away to people who need it than I care - or dare - to think. Note I say people, not organisations.
The reason is I have never seen a charity that is actually effective at what they claim to be about. We can all relate to the Tsunami. Word is around 80% of all money donated to it was pilfered before it even left the UK. God knows what hapened to the remaining 20% after it hit LOS. hundreds of millions was raised altogether. That's a lot of cash. Anybody seen anything remotely worth these kind of sums make an appearance?
The Red Cross are on Radio Manchester at the minute banging on about some god-forsaken place or another. It sounds like a worthy cause. I'm giving them nothing. Why? Because I remember the Red Cross camp at Sangatte, France. It was costing millions to keep going & it's sole purpose was to house the refugees from Eastern Europe during the day to prepare for their nightly assault on the channel tunnel. The images of security guards with CS gas & nightsicks on one hand & the Albanians (or wherever they were from) with their bricks & clubs fighting their nightly battles on telly were gobsmacking.
This is what the Red Cross were supporting, while somewhere on the other side of the globe the Janjaweed are wiping out poor, villager-types & taking away all their stuff. Sure, the Red Cross have been over with a flat-bed or two loaded with rice but what happens? The warlords take the lot off them & create a food monolopy which feeds their army & leaves nothing for the people who need & deserve it. The RC then fuckoff home & make some whining noises. Great. Millions well spent, it's not.
The solution? What's needed aren't do-gooder hippies on a personal crusade to do the right thing who end up doing nothing. We need to tool-up a small army of Macattack-types, point to where the shit needs dropping off on a map & let them Rambo their way on in there. I'd give them my pound over Oxfam, anyday.