I know it has been a few weeks since i blogged but i have on my desk maybe 5lbs weight of mailshots. Bad for my back to carry them around, and not doing much for my spirit of altruism.

Despite mailing me twice, and my having sent in an order for  a number of virtual gifts, Oxfam have just sent me two reminders that their catalogue is available. So do they think i might say ‘oh what the heck i’ll spend another £150 since you ask so nicely’? Guess again…

 PDSA have mailed me twice too and i don’t even support them.  The Red Cross actually sent me a carboard envelope conatining two cards, a batch of stickers and a sheet of wrapping paper. Plus the usaul bumpf. Did someone just discover the problem in Brazil is that there is just too much rainforest & the faster we log the trees for paper the better for the planet? It’s just that i had imagined there was a connection between the floods & cyclones in Bangladesh (oh alright, Tewkesbury too) and the gross degredation we are inflicting on the planet. Or is it part of a cunning scheme to keep themselves in work? You would have thought there was enough for the Red Cross to do with man-made disasters (eg Darfur, Iraq and Afghanistan) without contributing to the likelihood of ‘natural’ (ha!) disasters for them to mitigate.

 As to all the other envelopes i really don’t have time to go through them all here. It would bore you & send my BP sky-high at the waste of resources. But the other culprits are NCH, The British Heart Foundation, International Animal Rescue, World Villages for Children, Amnesty International, Sight Savers, Arthritis Research Campaign, Royal National Institute for the Deaf, International Fund for Animal Welfare, Breadline Africa (x2), Help the Aged, Age Concern, Pet Rescue, St Mungos, Woodland Trust, Cats Protection League, Friends of the Earth, Bread & Water for Africa.

Now just looking at that list i’d say we are duplicating our efforts here people. So i want the PDSA & the Cats thing & the Pet Rescue people to merge;  Age Concern & Help the Aged can get into bed together, St Mungos can cosy up to Shelter & Crisis & the Big Issue Foundation; Greenpeace & FoE can have a civil ceremony; Barnardos & NCH are twins parted at birth; Action Aid  & Plan can hold hands nicely…..etc etc. Get my drift?

As to all the African-focused charities, aren’t you like the little boy with his finger in the dyke? Combine forces & use all your resources to educate the whole world that  if the IMF would stop telling them how to run their countries (privatise water if you want a loan – be like NatWest et al saying you can have a loan for x model of car but not y), the World Trade Organisation should insist international trade is fair (no more subsidies for western farmers), the UN should stop western governments selling arms to Africa, the west stops expecting african countries to stop supplying them with non-indigeneous water-hungry fruit & veg & flowers, we do airdrops of condoms so no-one has an excuse not to play safe, Nestle et al stop selling their powdered milk to impoverished mothers and open La Lecche clinics all over, and the west stops treating dictators as tho they are decent rulers which includes not allowing them to open bank accounts for salting away the money we give for their people. And if we only belatedly discover that is what they have done then  we don’t freeze the account we grab the money back & spend it all on Oxfam virtual gifts and the solar powered laptops which are probably the most wanted item south of the equator right now. Oh and maybe the west could stop taking more in interest from impoverished nations than we give back in aid. I mean how difficult is that….

 Next year i resolve the more a charity sends me the less i will give. In turn what you can do is stop sending me anything but barcoded Freepost address stickers. I will  use the sticker to recycle envelopes & when you get my donation you can read the barcode & only then you can send me another sticker. In a little envelope with no cellophane window. And no freebies.

 A bientot.

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