#1 21-12-06 18:52:55

wonder

Member

Registered: 31-10-06

Posts: 6

Act of Kindness

What would your act of kindness be before christmas or before the end of the year...

I usually try and donate a gift to one or more kids on this big boat that they have at the mall here so we can make some kids christmas alittle brighter.   

I remember last year taking my kids and getting some gifts for this and they couldn't understand the concept of just giving some thing away they wanted LOL.  I  said that was the whole idea behind this to give something special to some kid there age.  So they have a good christmas as well.

What would you give???

As always,

Wonder

blissed

Member

From: The bus station of the future

Registered: 17-03-06

Posts: 5,622

Re: Act of Kindness

These are someone elses kids, so I'd get thema bean bag puppy because their cute. premote positivity and their religously and philisophically nuetral.

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(Self made tycoon and independant financial advisor to the stars)

Arielle

Member

Registered: 20-10-06

Posts: 90

Re: Act of Kindness

I usually go to our local Community Aid abroad store and donate to their "Buy a Goat for our Village" campaign they have. The goats go to villages in Cambodia, Thailand and other impoverished SE Asian places. They are used for milk and then for breeding, the kids sold off at a profit to the village. There are lots of other programs they have aside goats, like tree planting, or school books and stuff like that, but I'm born in the year of the Goat so it fits for me. Plus I like giving people cards that say I bought a goat in their honour for Christmas, its in a remote village in Cambodia if they want to write to it.

The_Elfman

Member

From: Yorkshire & Imladris

Registered: 17-07-06

Posts: 1,028

Website

Re: Act of Kindness

They are used for milk and then for breeding, the kids sold off at a profit to the village.

When I first read that I was appalled. I sat here for five minutes reading and re-reading it because I couldn't believe what you were saying.  Then finaly the penny dropped and I realised that you were  talking about the goats kids.  I can be so dense sometimes.

I suppose the slick answer is that I would like to give them 1st World governments and financial institutions who actualy cared enough about their plight to do something about it.  My practical contribution is that for the last few years I have bought children's woolen sweaters which I give to one of my local church groups for re-distribution through the N.S.P.C.C.

Elfman

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Honi Soit Qui Mal Y Pense

nihpuad

Member

Registered: 24-04-06

Posts: 696

Re: Act of Kindness

I suppose the slick answer is that I would like to give them 1st World governments and financial institutions who actualy cared enough about their plight to do something about it.

Sad to say, but you have to be very careful which 1st-world governments you give them; there are some that would definitely not be any sort of act of kindness.

I have devoted a significant portion of my time this year to trying, in my small way, to make my own 1st-world government more humane -- or at least, less inhumane -- in its dealings with the rest of the world, and I plan to do so in the new year as well. It's not quite the same as giving a village a goat, but I'm trying to attack root causes.

That said, I'm off for the holiday family voyage. I wish you joy in your midwinter celebrations (well, it's midwinter here, anyway! ), whatever they may be, and I wish us all peace in the new year.

-Bill

dyslexius

Member

Registered: 27-09-06

Posts: 234

Re: Act of Kindness

A couple years ago, while my ex was still my pre-ex, we volunteered for an organization called Little Brothers – Friends of the Elderly.  We'd go to the dispatch point, load up the car with hot meals, and deliver them to old folks. We did this on three of the major holidays: Christmas, Thanksgiving, and Easter.  These were not necessarily poor folks (they seemed to range through a big spectrum of social strata), but they invariably lived alone. These were full fledged visitations, and it was gratifying to see the joy these people experienced by our simple willingness to sit there while they talked our arms off.  At first I was not excited -- Estela sort of dragged me out there the first time, but after having gotten into it I felt a rise in my own self-esteem.  Since then, I've been toying with volunteering for the  Big Brothers Big Sisters organization (a year-round commitment, of course), but with Estela no longer around to exercise my social consciousness, I've become rather torpidly scroogish, it seems. I think there is hope for me, but it doesn't look like I'm going out there this year!  Scrooge-like or not, I wish everyone a happy set of holidays and both kinds of wealth for the coming year.

--dyslexius

Last edited by dyslexius (22-12-06 07:16:37)

msnevil

Member

Registered: 18-03-06

Posts: 330

Re: Act of Kindness

We tend to send barrels of "stuff" to third world countries, as well as send toys to GI kids. (As well as other acts of charity not limited to what has been mentioned, nor respectfull to any special holiday.)

As to the "First, second, third world" countries. There is no difference. A few people hog most of the resources, and the rest starve. For exp. In Somalia, the Warlords and local Islam leaders commit genocide on the native animists. While the First world countries like China, Russia. And the USA. Pay the Warlords\Islam leaders for somalian "oil". And ignore the genocide or like the UN give lip service while secretly reaping the wealth from illgotten oil.

As of now, Al quida has conquered about 80% of Somalia, and the US remains silent. D\T our love of "oil."