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Society
The Tsunami of Charity
I have
always believed that disasters – whether natural or man made bring out
the best and the worst in human beings. The Tsunami tragedy has been no
different. It has brought out the best in your common man and woman.
There are numerous examples of the members of the middle class, the
lower class as well as those who defy all demographic labels dipping
into their tiny, often air cooled pockets and giving whatever they can.
These selfless individuals have not given from the surplus they have,
rather they have cut into their meager incomes and spared for their less
fortunate brethren elsewhere. These donors are faceless, nameless. Their
faces will not appear on TV channels and their names will not adorn the
sacred space of news magazines. They will be denied even the thirty
seconds of fame.
In sharp contrast there are nations like the Big Brother and other
little and not so little brothers who have engaged in a ‘healthy’
competition in the Tsunami auction. The biddings have been climbing
steadily with each ‘power’ trying to ‘out-fund’ the other. The attitude
is clearly one of ‘more charitable than thou’.
My dear friend Costas from Canada has done some research on the altruism
unleashed by different nations and has come up with some startling
findings. The top fifty odd countries of the world have contributed on
an average just .0132 per cent of their GDPs for the Tsunami victims.
The money pledged is approximately 4380 million (4.4 billion) dollars.
Had these countries contributed even 1 per cent of their GDP the Tsunami
hit countries would have been benefited by a whopping 331108 million
(331 billion) dollars. Is 1 per cent contribution really too much to ask
when most of these nations would be spending much more on defending
themselves against imaginary attacks or launching vicious onslaughts
since they suffer from an overdose of paranoia.
Then there are the business organizations, news channels and media
houses milking the tragedy to its last drop. Costas has this interesting
vignette to offer, “A few days ago I went to buy something from a local
department store – a multinational company with stores in many parts of
the world. I was told if I wish to make a donation for the Tsunami
victims and the company would match dollar for dollar. I did and came
home. Later the offer set me thinking. Now the local department store is
a Canadian company and as such is subject to all concessions that the
government is providing. If a company or an individual in a higher
income group makes a donation, at the end of the year he gets
approximately 50% back from the Government. So now that store will
donate the dollar for the dollar given by me as well as others, it will
also get back 50%. So in effect this store will be eventually listed as
one of the "big" donors with zero or minimum contribution of its own.
What an ingenious way of taking credit for a good deed and not even
having to pay for it.
Like the big nations and the big companies our big celebrities are not
far behind in using Tsunami to their advantage. The Indian cricketers
have donated the fee of one match and have pledged to play two matches
in aid of Tsunami relief. How generous of them! A country which has made
these underperforming, vain, selfish and incompetent fools in flannels
national icons deserves nothing better.
Our film stars too have brandished their cheques and made the most of
every photo-op. Our politicians have used the disaster for indulging in
a sickening game of one-upmanship. Not to be caught napping the
religious leaders are using this opportunity to peddle their own brand
of dogma. My God is more powerful than yours is the latest slogan.
Now I would like to go back to the issue of altruism and charity. This
brings to my mind a story from India’s great epic Mahabharata.
The
Pandava King Yudhishtira and his brothers had performed the Ashwamedha
Yagna in which they had given away a huge amount of wealth. They were
feeling very contented with their act of benevolence when a mongoose
came to the court and started rolling on the ground. The gathering
noticed that one of its flanks was pure gold. After rolling for sometime
the mongoose got up and addressed Yudhishtira. “O, King. You must be
finding my behaviour strange. Let me narrate an incident that will help
you understand why I have acted in this manner. Sometime back I had gone
to a Brahman’s house. He was living in the most abject poverty
imaginable. He and his family could manage a meal only once in three
days. One day as the family had somehow scraped together a morsel each,
a weary and hungry traveller came to their doorstep. Though weak with
hunger the Brahman gave the guest his share. But the traveller’s hunger
was not satiated so the Brahman’s wife gave her morsel. When this too
did not suffice the Brahman’s son and daughter-in-law gave up their
share. Later, in that house, when I rolled on the ground some of the
crumbs of food turned one side of my body to gold. Since then I have
visited many kings who have donated large sums in charity in the hope
that I could turn my other flank to gold as well. But alas all my
efforts have proved futile. Having heard of your generosity I came to
you but alas here too, as you can see, I have failed.”
Sage Vyasa
who penned Mahabharata says that it is not the quantity that one gives
but the sincerity and the circumstances under which a charitable deed is
performed that is important.
A parable about Jesus further illustrates this point. Jesus once
observed two people entering a temple. The first was a wealthy merchant
who made an offering of a hundred gold coins. The second was a poor, old
woman who gave a fistful of grain.
“Which of the two have made the bigger offering?” Jesus asked his
disciples.” “
“The Merchant,” there was a chorus of voices.
“You are wrong. It was the poor woman. For while the merchant gave out
of what he had to spare, the old woman gave up something she could ill
afford to sacrifice.”
This brings to my mind these immortal words of Kahlil Gibran from his
seminal work The Prophet : "You give but little when you give of your
possessions. It is when you give of yourself that you truly give."
The wealthy and powerful countries by flinging a fraction of their
bounty are basking in the warmth of their largesse. They are giving from
their surplus and that too in such a niggardly and stingy way. Can they
not be more large hearted, more charitable, more humane?
Similarly the affluent and influential celebrities are doling out paltry
sums from their overflowing coffers and cashing in on the goodwill. All
of them are giving out from what they have to spare. How many movers and
shakers have bothered to share their time with the victims? How many of
them have reached out to hold their hands, whisper a few words of
assurance, of empathy? How many of them have made those affected by
Tsunami feel like victims not beggars, humans not statistics?
If I happen to run into the mongoose of the Mahabharata I would advise
him never to visit the rich and famous, the affluent and the
influential. But to go to abode of the poor and faceless for it is in
their small homes and large hearts he will find crumbs to turn his other
flank into gold.
–
Ramendra Kumar
January 30, 2005
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