Yesterday I wrote a post about donating for the relief effort in Japan or for any of the beleaguered countries suffering because of natural disasters.My attitude about giving is best expressed by a young girl, doomed to die, who wrote in her diary long before I was born: "Riches, power and fame last only for a few years! Why do people cling so desperately to these transitory things? Why can’t people who have more than they need for themselves give that surplus to their fellow citizens? Why should some people have such a hard time during their few years on this earth?"
Anne Frank, who wrote this in her diary in 1944, had wisdom beyond her years.
Takeaway Truth
In giving, two are benefited: the recipient and the one who gives.
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ReplyDeleteAbraham Maslow
"Maslow took this idea and created his now famous Hierarchy Of Needs. Beyond the details of air, water, food, and sex, he laid out five broader layers: the ..."
North Koreans, and Republicans like Joan Rivers say things like
'after I have slaved hard to earn $2 I'll be damned before I give $1 of it to somebody who has done nothing to earn it'.
I just read a 66-page report on 'charitable giving' in Australia and the stats show that the most generous are middle-aged women earning less than $100,000 per annum. According to Tax Office records, the highest paid industry - mining- is inversely the least generous, giving only 0.03% of their taxable income.
Hello, Ann. Thanks for dropping by.
ReplyDeleteYes, I'm familiar with Maslow's work.
I hesitate to stereotype an organization (and lump them in with a dictatorial regime) because 1 member of it makes a crass statement about giving. Besides, Joan Rivers is a comedienne with a heavy-handed sarcastic style so I think her statement, if she indeed said that (one never knows in today's world) was meant in jest.
You see, we're Republicans who have many friends and family who are also conservatives. No one I know is so callous and lacking in compassion that they don't believe in lending a helping hand.
Interesting report you cite. Reflects an opinion I hold: women are the givers and nurturers, and they give what they can regardless of income level.
Nobody admires Ms Rivers more than me and Ann O'D. She gave me a gift at one of her shows in the 80's.
ReplyDeleteThe comment was in her first biography, so she made it before she was as rich as she now is.
When I was rich I shared it around so much that now I am not.
I am astounded that an actor receiving millions for a film role, would cram 3 into one year, year after year, yet we never hear of The Nicole*Kidman Home For Battered Women (insert any name, except not the heroic Ms Sandra Bullock who gave million$ on day one of the Indonesian tsunami a few years ago, and again later of course to cyclone Katrina victims in New Orleans).
re Katrina - the unfortunate remark by Mrs CIA Bush about the Astrodome evacuees will take some living-down. We have 'republicans' here in Australia, hilariously titling themselves 'the Liberal Party' and they despise the poor.
peace and love from
Old Hippie O'Dyne
PS re despotic Nth K: my friend the professional aid worker whose degree major was Anthropology, saw the villages there, with babes and others, starving to death without aid due to 'not being Productive Members Of The Village'.
ReplyDeleteHe is a veteran of Rwanda and Haiti, has worked (over decades) for the UN, Red Cross, Save The Children, CARE, and eventually for Crown*Agents, who are the people that all the above telephone when they need '10 thousand tents' fast.
He has become deeply cynical.
Many years ago I visited the DMZ between N and S Korea. Scariest place I'd ever been because of the North Korean guards who drilled you with eyes of hate. A week before I'd been there, they'd kicked to death a western photographer.
ReplyDeleteNever forget how they looked at me. Gives me shivers still.