in the name of charity...

here's my usual ramblings after a long break. as mentioned in the previous entry, i have been pretty busy with work last week since sharon was out of town (somewhere in the mountains of philippines). next week would be a bit less hectic. a bit more time to cool down (literally, since the weather has been so hot and stuffy!).

as my topic suggests, i am going to give me two-cents (maybe fifty cents, if i write too much) worth of what i think of the NKF charity show that has been on over the last two weekends.

caught it by accident last week at auntie ann's place during family dinner. we were all talking over dessert and i noticed everyone's eyes started looking in the same direction. if my memory serves me well, it was the sharon au's stunt. when she have to climb up a ladder made from unsharpened knives and sit on a throne of knives after that. and just now, i caught a glimpse of zoe tay smashing paper tubes that had a 1 in 3 chance of a knife in it.

my point is why are these celebrities taking the risk of hurting themselves in the name of charity? one of the first few times i came across the word "charity" in the Bible was in 1 Corinthians 13, the famous love chapter. in the king james version, "charity" was used in place of the word "love". so being the non-Bible scholar, i assume the two words to be equal. God did instruct us to first love Him, then the people around us. but i am sure He also meant for us to love ourselves. so if charity is love, then why are people "self-destructing" themselves for charity?

consider this: the local and foreign artistes make a substantial amount of money. the sponsors pour in a substantial amount of money (in terms of discount vouchers, advertisements, etc). mediacorp spent a substantial amount of money in organising this event. if we pool all these funds together, wouldn't we be getting a large amount of money as well? it could well be comparable to the funds they collected through telephone calls. instead of doing all these mindless acts, why don't the sponsors just pledge a certain percentage of sales to charity?

if people have the heart to donate to charity, will it matter if these artistes bang their head against the wall or walk through fire? at the end of the day, what would be the motive behind people making calls to donate money? are they donating to NKF or the artistes? if you could grab a copy of the newspapers (not sure which day) where there were full-page advertisements for this show... my dad pointed to us although it was the "NKF charity show", the only glimpse you get of the NKF logo is this small blob of red at the bottom right hand corner. it was an interesting observation of his and it was that which set me thinking.

after all, if anyone wants to do their part of the poor and sickly kidney patients, a word of motivation and encouragement from the artistes and whoever would be sufficient to convict people to donate. showing snippets into the real lives and daily activities of these patients would be good to show people what they go through and that dialysis is a costly affair. but what message is the media sending out by showing people doing dangerous stunts because they want to "do their part for charity"? if it is that dangerous, then why are they still performing them? according to the millions they received, i'm sure many people were watching the show at home. and in any family, children are a part of this. and being a tv-oriented society (just read in the papers today that many families eat dinners around the tv), there would be children watching the show with all the knives, hammering of stone or something on the chest... not sure what else they had this year. but that matter about children is a whole different story.

so, my stand is that i am totally against self-inflicted pain. regardless whether it is in this instance, suicide, slashing of themselves, over-straining of muscles, over-exerting of their bodies... we were all created so uniquely. God took the effort to craft each and every one of us. why are people still not embracing their opportunity to breathe and live, and choosing to waste their lives in irresponsible ways? yesterday, i heard two different incidents of friends' friends' attempted or considered suicide. and these are young lives. why are people giving up on their lives so easily? just when they go over a hump and lose their balance and fall, they search for the easy way out -- giving up. that is such a selfish act. why don't they think of those people who have no opportunity to fight for their own lives, even if they want to stay on this earth a bit longer? what about those people who contract unknown diseases and die without having the chance to say one last word?

although death is planned by God (when, where and how we die is planned by God), premature ending of life is as good as saying that you are better than God. you can control your own life. but can you really do that? can you control when the rain falls and when the sun shines?

sorry for digressing into this morbid topic. it was a thought that just struck me as i type. back to the topic, what are we doing in the name of charity and love? as Christians, are we abiding by the "love" commandmants? do we love God, our family and friends, our bodies, and "our neighbours as ourselves"? as people in general, do we have the spirit of love as we communicate and relate with each other?

as the verse in 1 Corinthians 13:13 says...
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

love emcompasses everything. if we have love in everything we do, all things will fall in place. so let me encourage each of us, to take some time and ponder on the people we love. have we recently expresses our love for those people? have we said a prayer of gratitude to God who have loved us so much? why not give a squeeze to those whom we love? what about a little note to say how much you appreciate someone who has been kind to you? these are all gestures of love.

and the S$189 million reserve is another issue..... left for another day...