Charity adverts showing impoverished children annoy me

I can't stand those charity adverts that show impoverished children in third world countries who are at risk of malnutrition or disease or something, and try to guilt us into donating to save them, without putting any blame on the people who are actually responsible for it: their parents. Those parents are the ones who had so many children in the first place, despite knowing that they won't be able to take care of them. They consciously decided to put their children through those conditions, and they're not even mentioned in those adverts. Or worse, they'll be portrayed as poor innocent parents who are doomed to watch their children suffer, without pointing out that it was their fault for having them in the first place. Those parents have purposely decided to put their own children through that torture, they're evil. And it's so annoying how the narrator will speak in a heartfelt voice about the conditions of these people, as if this is all the result of some unavoidable natural disaster or something, rather than the deliberate actions of people.

These places have been in a state of poverty for decades, with no sign of improvement. These charities do nothing to try to solve the source of the problem, they just keep trying to cover it up with a band aid.

All this goes through my head everytime I see one of this adverts and it really pisses me off.

Voting Results
80% Normal
Based on 10 votes (8 yes)
Help us keep this site organized and clean. Thanks!
[ Report Post ]
Comments ( 12 )
  • litelander8

    I find people who can’t type whole words REALLY fucking annoying.

    Comment Hidden ( show )
  • SwickDinging

    It depends on which specific areas you are talking about. In some cultures young girls are married off and routinely raped by their husbands, abortions are illegal and so they end up having a bunch of kids whether they want to or not.

    There are also places where religious leaders have huge amounts of control and influence so contraception isn't possible to obtain, having as many children as possible regardless of your circumstances is what God wants and education can be seriously lacking in any actual science, so you get young people who genuinely don't properly understand sexual reproduction and sexual health.

    There's a whole bunch of other scenarios that you come across, these are just two examples, but I'm just pointing out that you're applying a very western first world argument to cultures that are totally alien to this way of thinking. It's more complex than you have stated here.

    For what it's worth I do agree with your principles - the world would be a better place if only those have could actually provide had children.

    Comment Hidden ( show )
      -
    • JellyBeanBandit

      Ok you make a fair point there, I hadn't thought about that. Still though I think any charity that just deals with the effects of the poverty, without actually trying to solve the cause of it so that it won't happen anymore, are kinda wasting their time. And those ads still annoy me because of that.

      Comment Hidden ( show )
  • olderdude-xx

    I believe that you have a poor understanding of the world and how much of it operates. I would not hold the parents to blame either in most of the world.

    The leaders of the countries or the "religions" in the area... perhaps.

    Many times the issues are long term cultural in nature. Having a successful society where there are adequate resources to take care of almost all of the population well is beyond the abilities of individuals to solve.

    It takes organized structures to solve those issues. National and Political leaders, Religious or Cultural Leaders, etc. have the ability to make those changes.

    A key problem is that far to often they are focused on their own personal power and wealth accumulation instead of lifting up the people they represent.

    Now there are exceptions that pop up now and again (and you probably know the names I could cite). The other thing is nothing ever becomes 100%. You can reduce the % of people in poverty; but, you cannot eliminate poverty entirely. Same is true for the middle class, the rich, etc. You can change the percentages. You cannot eliminate any one segment and still have a functional society as there must always be room to move up and down.

    I hope that you gain better understanding...

    Some of these "help" organizations do a much better job than others. I believe that World Vision does the best work overall. They are also the only Christian based organization that is welcome and allowed to work in many non-Christian nations in the world as they do not insist on an opportunity to convert people to Christianity as a basis for providing help. They are there just to help; and if asked why they may simply answer that its our religious belief that is what we are to do in the world.

    Comment Hidden ( show )
  • raisinbran

    If the child’s parents can’t support it, it should die. Shouldn’t have been born in the first place.

    Comment Hidden ( show )
      -
    • FromTheSouthWeirdMan

      Its not the child's fault the parents are evil. That's a evil way of looking at the situation too. Sounds psychopathic on your end. Hopefully you dont have children if you lack empathy.

      Comment Hidden ( show )
        -
      • raisinbran

        Yeah but why should anyone else support someone’s mistake? End its misery early.

        Comment Hidden ( show )
          -
        • FromTheSouthWeirdMan

          Because its a human being, and it will suffer. And most humans that are in a good place like to help children that are in pain and dying.

          Comment Hidden ( show )
  • have_a_good_day

    If you don't have the ability to THINK and KNOW you can't support a mothafucka but decide to make 10 of them then fuck you. Die.

    Comment Hidden ( show )
  • Sanara

    I normally am against people having children they cant afford. But here there are some important things to consider against that (we still should try to fix but its more complicated):
    1: the woman could have been raped, that's also more common in third world countries.
    2: they may also lack access to birth control and proper sex ed. People are instinctively driven to have sex so its gonna happen (those things becoming more available is part of the solution).
    3: they often need the children to take care of them when they're old because there usually aren't official solutions for that, of course people don't wanna die slowly from neglect (getting elderly homes would be a good step in the right direction).
    4: I think things actually change when its almost the entire nation that cannot afford to care for their kids and they would risk practically extinction if nobody had children despite or hard circumstances
    5: high child lethality may mean people have like 8 children to ensure at least one of them survive, which they otherwise would not need to, there is to much uncertainty in who will live to grow up (in the long run I think it would lower or reverse population growth if they eg. got diseases more under control)

    Comment Hidden ( show )
  • rocketdave

    When I left the UK (3 years ago today) the tele in the evenings had nothing but charity requests on the ad breaks. There are too many of them and the managers of them are all taking huge salaries.

    Comment Hidden ( show )
      -
    • SwickDinging

      Yeah. The big ones are mostly corrupt as fuck. It's really depressing. Charity is big and lucrative business, apparently.

      Comment Hidden ( show )