Requests

🎼Snow, snow, snow! 🎶 Cue Bing Crosby and Rosemary Clooney… It snowed all day today, relentlessly, although the temperature is milder than it was. Apparently we’ve exceeded 300cm of snow this winter, which is still below average… Jerry had several complaints about getting his fur wet; he doesn’t approve of being wet and he barked at the snow for wetting him.  I had a disgracefully lazy day today, in which I read, watched a couple of PVR shows, talked to some people on the phone and generally was throughly useless.  I’ve got a long list of chores to get to, but today wasn’t their day!  Don was up past 3am this morning, so he fell asleep around noon for a couple of hours.  We had considered doing some errands, depending on the snow, but finally opted for a lazy day — which is good, as the police reported over 400 collisions today!  I’ll try to be more useful tomorrow, but no promises, sorry.  It seems that my body wanted a pause, and my back, thank God, has finally shut up, so I’m at least comfortable (well, except for the dog who manages to find awkward positions to settle into!)

It’s the beginning of tax time… not my favourite time of the year.  Every year I have my moments of misery as I go through the process of calculating how much I’ve paid and grousing about having to hand over more money for taxes.  I’m not getting into a discussion of taxation levels, or spending, because you’re all aware of my socialist leanings, and I’m often irritated by some of the priorities in budgets and public spending.  The thing is that at this time I also am inundated by waves of fundraising requests.  Hospital lotteries; shelters of all kinds; various charities — like many others, I’ve wondered at the costs spent sending out promotional items (I can’t count how many sets of address labels, pens, tote bags, notepads and magnets I’ve received!)  I appreciate those items, but probably in lower numbers than I get… plus it’s seemingly impossible to get off a charity’s mailing list!  I made a donation once, over 15 years ago, to a particular charity, and every year I get mail and promotional items.  Then I bought tickets to a hospital lottery once, and 3 times a year, I get brochures with upcoming prizes.  Imagine my surprise to find that one of the hospital charities offers a “membership” package, so that they will just repeat my order for every draw, which I’ve since learnt is biannually.  (Thanks, OED for clearing up that “biannual” means “twice a year,” while “biennial” is “every two years.”)

I have a couple of challenges with these large charities, including the distribution of funds between administration and service provision.  There are many studies which show that some charities spend very low amounts of their funding on the service that’s required.  I won’t name them, but you can look up the ratings for various charities yourself.  It’s refreshing to know that most organizations give 85% or more of their donations to support their causes, and keep their administrative costs well under 3%.  The other concern I have is the heavy reliance on volunteers.  Yes, there’s a high component of social good, and civic duty, which are necessary virtues.  I think that it’s essential to develop a sense of community, to encourage individuals to be aware of the needs of others, care for the less fortunate and do good without seeking rewards. I like the requirement that high schoolers have to do a certain number of volunteer hours before graduation, which serves in part to build their preparedness for work, and partly to develop a sense of community.  I also appreciate the fact that some organizations welcome seniors to provide some volunteer hours, so they are involved and not isolated.  My concern is how many organizations, which provide essential services, rely on volunteers.  In my opinion, that speaks to some serious gaps in society with potentially disastrous consequences.  Feel free to disagree… but I’m saddened by the need for these charities because of the weaknesses in society.  

I maintain that there must be a better way of organizing civilization, so that money is not the primary driving force, and where every inhabitant of the planet is assured of protections.  Not only humans (I’ve gone on at length about that, so I’ll skip for now) but protection of wildlife, the environment, etc.  Yes, I know, I’m a pinko-commie-socialist-liberal-bleeding heart.  I hope I don’t change, either!  And now, I’m off to deal with the demands of my tiny dictator, who is eyeing me disapprovingly for not massaging his tummy… Good night!