Taj Mahal, India

Don’t get me wrong, I have no objection at all to us helping out other countries, even though we’re in pretty dire straits ourselves here in the UK.  The thing that gets my goat is the fact that India have said they don’t want the money but the UK have insisted they take it!

The good, honest people of India, instead of grasping it with both hands, actually turned down the offer that had been foisted upon them and India’s finance minister, Pranab Mukherjee even went so far as to say it was “a peanut” that wasn’t needed as India’s economy was growing with some speed and would, in all likelihood, overtake our own in the not too distant future. 

Pranab Mukherjee

There are people here desperately trying to make ends meet; homes are being repossessed, our public services and our forces are being cut back, our government benefits are being “trimmed” which means that the less well off members of our society are suffering which, in turn, affects the disabled, lesser paid adults, particularly those with families to support, and the elderly. 

It’s also been revealed that this year we’ve set aside a budget of £8.1 billion for foreign aid in general and this is due to rise to an incredible £11.5 billion in 2015.  We’ve always been inclined to help out other countries in their hour of need but, with our coffers almost down to rock bottom, it’s utterly ludicrous to give part of this budget to a country that’s already said it doesn’t need it, thanks very much.

As you can imagine, the revelation has upset numerous MPs and, of course, us hard strapped tax payers.

By all accounts, the Indian economy is growing by 10% a year and, within the next 10 years will overtake that of the UK.  In fact, India has set up its own aid budget to help out struggling countries so presumably in a couple of years time India will be helping to dig the UK out of a financial hole!

The International Development Secretary, Andrew Mitchell, has said, in defence of the “donation” to India  “there are states the size of Britain where half the children suffer from malnutrition”.  That may well be true, but if the Indian government have stated they now have plenty of money in their bank vaults I’m assuming some of this will eventually find its way to support lesser well off people.  If that isn’t the case, then rather than pump more money into an obviously financially stable government, wouldn’t it be more sensible to filter some of the money through to charities such as the Red Cross, Oxfam, Save the Children, Age Concern, etc etc so that they can actually get the money direct to those people that need it most?

Somewhere in the world, someone is thanking you for giving them another day in the world.  Go save a life today. 

Red Cross is all over the place and most likely, there is one near you.  They are constantly taking blood in public places near you. 

I’ve given blood two times so far, and it is so easy and only takes fifteen to twenty minutes of your valuable time.  I think we can all afford to give up some of our time to help someone in need.

All you have to do is go in, read some material and answer some questions.  Be accurate, as they don’t want bad blood.  And be aware they will check.  I would imagine someone would get a phone call if their blood is no good.  You can’t give blood if you are on antibiotics for anything.  And today I was going to give blood, but I have a cold so couldn’t give blood this time.  It would be devastating to someone who has cancer or lukemia.

The process is very easy though once they start.  They prick your finger first to see if your iron is good and they make sure you will be able to give blood.  Then, they set you up and start taking the blood.  This part takes anywhere from five to ten minutes.  They only collect a pint.  It doesn’t really hurt that much, and after a little bit you don’t even notice too much.  And before you know it, you are done.

Some cool benefits from giving blood, is that they usually give you coupons to stuff.  Sometimes it could be a free ticket to go see a movie, a coupon for a pound of Dunkin Donuts coffee, ski or golfing tickets, and coupons for many local places.

And another cool perk is when you get there, you can have a can of orange juice, grape juice, water and a snack.  And when you are done, you can have a cup of coffee and another snack.  Kind of fun.

And the most important thing is that you have done your part to save someone’s life.  If that doesn’t make you feel good, I don’t know what would.

Jennifer Jo Fay

Copyrighted January 25, 2012

Sweet peas from my garden

Cover of Giving in

Cover of Giving in

Image via Wikipedia

Image via Wikipedia

Today the 3rd of October- Red cross was going around knocking on doors trying to get people to give a little to people who has next to nothing.

I had contacted Red Cross to see if i could get a route to cover .And I was going to take my 2 girls ,in order to teach them that sometimes you have to do something for others -without getting any thing in return. But unfortunately we did not get a route, so we could just give today to the person who came to our door.

I think me and my family are not having the easiest time at the moment, my husband being unemployed, but we do not live in the street or are in a shelter. We do not live in a country where there is bombs going off all the time. So I try and appreciate what we got .We have each other , the children are healthy ,I have a good job, we are fed everyday,and the children goes to school.

However I believe in tithing, and you can tithe in many ways, it does not necessary have to be money ,it can be listening to someone, shopping for an older person, or holding the door for someone.But you will see when you start giving ,in small ways .New doors will open for you -and you will receive more things/love/ friendships.So if you feel things are a bit stagnated in your life ,start giving- in order to receive.

The thing is when we do something for someone else without thinking about what we get back, we feel good about ourselves too.

Agnes worked as a nurse with the American Red Cross during World War I. Here, she met Ernest Hemingway. Sparks seemed to fly between Ernest and Agnes. Hemingway and Agnes made plans for marriage. However, Agnes backed out of the marriage. This said, she did marry later on. She married a man named Howard Preston, divorced him, and then married William Stanfield in 1934.

However, marriages and romances aside, the work that Agnes von Kurowsky did for the American Red Cross is beyond outstanding and selfless. We must remind ourselves to be as selfless as Agnes in these times. Agnes was buried at the United States Soldiers’ and Airmen’s Home National Cemetery in Washington, D.C.

First of all, helping poor people in Africa who are dying of hunger because of the terrible drought they are facing, is a good thing. Or let me rephrase it: The intention behind it is a good thing.

The problem with all this humanitarian help, all the money and all the relief goods is, that we deliberately destroy African economies. We destroy their businesses, we destroy their farmers.

Let me further explain this to you with three examples:

1. The European Union and the USA are sending wheat, corn and rice to Africa. This wheat does mostly come from a surplus production that we – the Western countries – are paying for with our taxes. The keyword here is subsidies. We give this wheat or rice for free in order to feed the Africans and to stop the hunger. Have you every thought about the local farmers who are trying to sell wheat, rice or other basic staple food? As soon as free food arrives, they can forget selling their harvest on the market.
2. The same goes for meat, especially chicken. Europe and the US export many tons of cheap chicken wings to to Africa. When sold on a market there, the price is lower than when you buy a chicken from a local farmer! So how should this help the farmer?
3. Second hand clothing is another huge problem. We donate our old clothing, e.g. to the Red Cross (at least we do in Germany). They sort the best pieces out for selling them within the own country, the rubbish goes in the bin and the average second hand piece gets shipped to Africa. When you have read number 2, you now know what happens: It is getting sold very inexpensively on local African markets and the local textile industry does not have a chance to beat that low price!

So what I would like to tell you here is, that we should rather concentrate on helping them building up their own economy instead of constantly pushing it down. Wouldn’t that be more effective?

What do you think?

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Women and men who begin a journey with, as I heard in one report, six children and have to leave behind the bodies of all but a few along the path to, what is supposed to be, salvation.  This is the horror that has been filling my television screen the past few weeks and it has become an image that pops up and haunts my mind at varied times throughout each day. 

It’s always the same thought, too.  I’m a mother, too.  How can I be sitting here and NOT be trying to help in whatever way I can?  How can I listen to one more tale of a mother’s grief?  One more story of a little one, possibly the same age as my own daughter, who had to suffer and die of starvation/dehydration when it IS possible for me to help.  Maybe not much, but by god I CAN help a little.  And if more of us stop to help “just a little”, it’s amazing how quickly that little can become a lot.

Now I know the argument that many are going to make.  I’m a middle or lower class American who’s got my own bills to pay and worries to think about.  I’m struggling to feed my own family right now, how can I afford to help feed one of those families?  No matter how hard I may want to help, I just don’t see how I can. 

Yep, ran through all of those myself and came up with the same response as what a lot of others, I’m sure, have come to.  It’s just too much for me to do, I don’t have enough to give right now.  Maybe when I come into some money, I can help then.

Then I watched another news report that reached out and took my breath away and left me stunned and in tears.  CNN reported that an estimated 29,000 children have died, in the last 3 months, as a result of the drought and famine in Somalia.  29,000 children…under the age of 5.  Gone.  Taken from their mothers and fathers, their whole family, because of starvation.  29,000 families ripped apart, never to be the same again.

And then my daughter, MY whole world and the reason that I keep going every day, said that she wanted to give the .25 cents she had found while cleaning her room to someone who could “give it to the babies there so they won’t be hungry”.  

Those words broke my heart as they made me realize that I was being a fool.  I could do something to help!  Because after my daughter said those words to me I realized that, at the end of every day, I did usually have something I can give to a higher cause. 

Think about this for just a moment, if you will.  How often do we find ourselves with a spare quarter, or maybe even just a dime, lying around with nothing pressing to use it for?  I mean, sure, I could toss it into the coin jar and hold onto it for MONTHS as I wait for it to add up to an amount I can use for spending. 

But if even HALF of the more than 3 Million people living in the U.S. today took a few seconds to text, type, or drop off that quarter into a Red Cross Relief Fund….oh the good we could do!  The math hit me like a ton of bricks.  At a quarter each, if 1.5 million people gave in ONE day then that would be $375,000 that the people who are fighting to provide for those starving children would have to help.  $375,000 if only half of us were to give a quarter.  One single quarter!

Now again I will point out that I’m a pretty typical middle class American.  Single mom, plenty of bills to pay, and a daughter with health problems that add up to a ton of medical expenses.  I make it from paycheck to paycheck and, yeah, I sometimes have to scrape up my loose change to put gas in the car in that final stretch between paydays. 

But a quarter on those days when I don’t have that pressing scrape on my shoulders?  The twenty seconds it would take me to drop that quarter off in the Red Cross Donation box that I walk by every time I go to my local Wal-Mart or Kroger? 

Even I, in all my busy “get it done so I can move on to the next thing on the to-do list and then get home” mentality, can manage THAT twenty seconds.  Especially if it means that I’m helping to slow the rising number of children, just like my little girl, who don’t have any means to fight off the hunger they are facing.  Those mothers and fathers have had their ability to provide  taken away from them by things beyond their control.  Wars that they may not agree with.  A drought that no man could stave off.  I don’t know how many more mothers have lost their child, their world, in the time it has taken me to write this article.  But that quarter my daughter handed me? 

Yeah, I took those extra twenty seconds to drop it in the donation box.  And who knows, fate willing, that .25 cents and those 20 seconds might, hopefully, help keep another child from being added to that growing total from above.

In the 80’s, donated blood was screened only for hepatitis B and syphillis. Not until 1985 was testing for the AIDS virus implemented on a nationwide basis.Most blood banks did not launch efforts to screen for AIDS prior to the availability of specific testing, arguing that the risk of catching AIDS from a transfusion was slim and the cost high. In the 1980’s, up to 2% of the units of blood transfused in most cities harbored HIV. Thousands of people were needlessly infected,including the late Arthur Ashe and Ryan White.

Today, the Food and Drug Administration keeps close watch over blood banks. Over the years they have not hesitated to close down those that don’t follow regulations.

At one time, blood banks tested only for the presence of antibodies to HIV and not the virus itself. The problem was, it could take a while after infection for antibodies to form, so there was a window of time when a person blood is infectious even though the virus wasn’t detectable by the conventional antibody testing.Now the FDA has licensed a test for HIV itself.This test, which is mandated for use by all blood banks, shrinks the window for infection.Blood banks now screen donated blood for the two strains of HIV, syphillis, and hepatitus B and C

My friend’s father had a warehouse where he stored carpet near the river and it was flooded. Enter the Red Cross to help the victims of Denver during the flood. To their credit they did help clean up the mess, but they also presented each and every one of them with a bill for their services.

My father was stationed on Tenian in the Phillipines during World War II. One day a plane landed on the island from the Red Cross and a score of women got off the plane. One of the men asked how many women are there on that plane, to which was replied two, the rest are prostitutes.

The Red Cross was providing the officers with hookers. Now I don’t think that is a proper use of the funds they collect.

Throughout there long history the Red Cross has been linked to many misuses of the position. From Wikipedia this paragraph can be found. ‘In Canada, by the time blood tests began in late 1985, about 2,000 people were infected with HIV and up to 60,000 with Hepatitis C. Three suits were brought against the Canadian Red Cross by people who had received tainted blood, two of whom subsequently died of AIDS and the third HIV positive. In April 2001, the Supreme Court of Canada found the Canadian Red Cross guilty of negligence for failing to screen blood donors effectively for HIV infection.’

During the 1927 flood of the Mississippi Delta prison like camps were set up by the Red Cross for the African Americans survivors. There they were beaten by white, rascist National Guardsman and any food was given to them after the white people were fed.

Throughout their history the Red Cross has been a blight on humanity even though they have done a lot of good, but in 1989 only $10 million of the $50 million collected was given to the victims of the San Francisco fire. In 1995 and 2001 similarily only a portion of the money that was earmarked for the Oklahoma City bombing and a San Diego fire ever got where it was intended.

Even as recently as Huricane Katrina misdirection of funds has been proven. Now, if this is the kind of organization you want to donate money to, go ahead, as for me any donations I make are going to be made to organizations with a lot better track record than the Red Cross.

Impressed with the tragedy, Dunant organized services to meet the wounded from both sides. Three years later he published the book Un Souvenir de Solferino, in which his experience and had suggested the formation of voluntary societies and to help protect the war-wounded. The book aroused European public opinion to the problem.

“The development of the Red Cross is a typical product of 19th century Europe. The war was then seen as a necessary evil. Therefore, the proposal to do everything possible to limit human suffering became popular,” says British journalist Kim Gordon-Bates, a spokesman for the Red Cross.

In 1863, Dunant was appointed by the Swiss authorities for a committee that spent their proposals to enable humanitarian. Thus was born the Red Cross.

Dunant sought to expand his idea to other countries to convene a conference on the issue with representatives of various nations. And in 1864, has signed an international treaty – the first of the famous Geneva Conventions – which, among other measures, guarantee neutrality to medical personnel who worked in war. “Today, the entity acts based on its legal recognition under the Geneva Conventions. In theory, any government can prevent the entry of medical staff in a prison camp, for example,” said Gordon-Bates.

When he began organizing the creation of the Red Cross, Henri Dunant was a millionaire businessman. But he ended up going bankrupt to devote more time to humanitarian activities than to their business, getting to become a beggar in the street in a small Swiss town.

Patient, was rediscovered by an admirer, who managed to put him in a sanatorium. In 1901, Dunant regained international recognition and had his humanitarian efforts rewarded by becoming the first winner of the Nobel Peace Prize

In Muslim countries, a moon identifies medical teams

The Red Cross was chosen as a symbol of medical volunteers in an international treaty signed in 1864.

Muslims questioned the cross as a symbol. In 1906, they adopted the Red Crescent as a symbol and as the name of that organization.

We as American are doing all we can to help settle the termoil that will ravage Japan for the next few generations to come. But we can never do enough to mend such a tragic situation. 

Image via Wikipedia

Please help the RED CROSS to mend this horrible disaster!