Written on 20 September 2002

Charity is a fad here in London. Most British celebrities support one or more charities. They also like creating new ones. Like the late Princess of Wales, they donate money and promote the institutions they support. The charities vary from whales, environment, and child abuse to cancer research. You read about it because the proponents make sure it’s publicised, maybe to gain more supporters for their group or maybe for their own image projection.

UK also has tons of commercials, ads and events to drum up support. They have people on the streets with pails asking for your excess pennies. They have billboards saying, “for £1 a day you can put a child to school” or variations of that. There’s always a new PR or “marketing” ploy out here every week. Most of the time, they depict the hungry children in parts of Africa. They show videos of the people living in garbage dumps, people of countries mostly associated with the British Empire years ago.

I always tell myself in occasions I see such ads, “Yeah, I can do that. I can give them a pound a day”. I wanted to make a difference because it hurts to see people live in such conditions. It hurts to know so many children do not stand a chance in this world and that most of them will never escape poverty. I feel guilty.

I can’t help remembering my own country. I can’t help remembering we are – I am from, the Third World. A European colleague once asked me why many Filipinos work here and I answered because UK pays better. Too many ignorant questions later, I finally told her “because Philippines IS a Third World country, people want to look for better opportunities abroad”. That shut her up; after all she also came from one of the poorer parts of Europe.

I wanted to bleed with cash whenever I see charities asking for support. But I’d rather bleed for my own Land. And rather than bleed for strangers, I’ll bleed for my own blood first.

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