2006-01-18
Charity
Which charity should you donate your money to? What should you be doing with your free time? Difficult questions. I'll tell you what my attitude was. I wanted the most bang per buck of my limited resources. I wanted my money used in the most strategic manner possible. Most charities spend their money creating a temporary increase in standard of living. To me, that is pouring water into sand. And this is where most people choose to put their money and time. I instead chose to hold on to my money until such time as I would be able to donate it in a manner that would have a lasting effect. And because I was a good computer programmer, I chose to spend my time writing public domain code.
The first time I found a worthy cause to donate my money to was after the Romanians had their revolution against the communist dictatorship. I figured if people were willing to put their life on the line to usher in a democracy, then I was at least willing to pay for their bandages. I felt that the money spent on Romania was not wasted, as there was an INSTITUTIONAL EFFECT. Without a dictator sucking the resources away, the people of Romania were now going to be in a position to help themselves.
The next time I found somewhere to donate money to was after the liberation of Iraq. There were several blogs started up by pro-liberation Iraqis. I thought it was important that their message be heard in America. So I donated money to several of the Iraqi blogs. Once again, I was after an INSTITUTIONAL EFFECT, which was for the Americans to reelect Bush so that the US would remain in Iraq. Ohio was won with just a handful of votes. The Iraqi blogs may have made the difference. Also, the main Iraqi blog started a political party. I donated to that too, hoping that they would get elected and put Iraq on a good path. Unfortunately their party didn't take off.
The next and final time I found somewhere to donate my money to was an Afghan blogger, Waheed. Actually I met Waheed on IRC and encouraged him to start his own blog. He was a pro-liberation Afghan working as a translator for the US Army. Once again, I wanted an appreciative Afghan to get his message to the US, so that the US would remain engaged in Afghanistan instead of abandoning it. The maximum INSTITUTIONAL EFFECT possible. I also found out that Waheed was spending half his wage on taxi fares because he couldn't get a car loan. I forwarded the several thousand US dollars required for a car to Waheed, on the condition that he pay the money back - but not to me. I wanted him to use the money to buy pencils for impoverished Afghan schoolchildren. Once again I believe that Afghan children getting a modern education instead of a "hate America" education is going to cause an institutional effect in that Afghanistan will remain a member of the free world.
Another thing I have done is spend a lot of time analyzing the Iraqi, American and Australian people to try to figure out why some people opposed the ending of the Iraqi holocaust, which included INSTITUTIONALIZED RAPE. I spent all my time analyzing this question via the Iraqi blogs. The conclusion I finally came to was that the pro-war people are in a TRIBE of ANTI-SUBJUGATORS, which is why I started this blog under that name. The challenge now is to get more people to join this tribe.
One other attitude that I have had in my life is to save up my money so that I could secure myself first, so that I would then be in a position to help secure others. It turned out to be exactly the case. I was in a strong position to be able to spend time analyzing the Iraqis et al.
I believe I have taken an optimal path as far as donating money to charities is concerned. All of it in an attempt to fix this earth instead of waiting for Utopia in the next.
Also, some people see Bill Gates's enormous wealth and think that it is unfair that an economic system produces such an effect, and want to install revolutionary socialism instead. However, I took the attitude that we needed PUBLIC DOMAIN competitors to Microsoft, and sought to put code into the public domain, leading by example. Unfortunately most people donating code don't make their code public domain, which restricts the ability of commercial enterprises from picking up the code and turning it into a commercial product. But I at least tried my best.
|
The first time I found a worthy cause to donate my money to was after the Romanians had their revolution against the communist dictatorship. I figured if people were willing to put their life on the line to usher in a democracy, then I was at least willing to pay for their bandages. I felt that the money spent on Romania was not wasted, as there was an INSTITUTIONAL EFFECT. Without a dictator sucking the resources away, the people of Romania were now going to be in a position to help themselves.
The next time I found somewhere to donate money to was after the liberation of Iraq. There were several blogs started up by pro-liberation Iraqis. I thought it was important that their message be heard in America. So I donated money to several of the Iraqi blogs. Once again, I was after an INSTITUTIONAL EFFECT, which was for the Americans to reelect Bush so that the US would remain in Iraq. Ohio was won with just a handful of votes. The Iraqi blogs may have made the difference. Also, the main Iraqi blog started a political party. I donated to that too, hoping that they would get elected and put Iraq on a good path. Unfortunately their party didn't take off.
The next and final time I found somewhere to donate my money to was an Afghan blogger, Waheed. Actually I met Waheed on IRC and encouraged him to start his own blog. He was a pro-liberation Afghan working as a translator for the US Army. Once again, I wanted an appreciative Afghan to get his message to the US, so that the US would remain engaged in Afghanistan instead of abandoning it. The maximum INSTITUTIONAL EFFECT possible. I also found out that Waheed was spending half his wage on taxi fares because he couldn't get a car loan. I forwarded the several thousand US dollars required for a car to Waheed, on the condition that he pay the money back - but not to me. I wanted him to use the money to buy pencils for impoverished Afghan schoolchildren. Once again I believe that Afghan children getting a modern education instead of a "hate America" education is going to cause an institutional effect in that Afghanistan will remain a member of the free world.
Another thing I have done is spend a lot of time analyzing the Iraqi, American and Australian people to try to figure out why some people opposed the ending of the Iraqi holocaust, which included INSTITUTIONALIZED RAPE. I spent all my time analyzing this question via the Iraqi blogs. The conclusion I finally came to was that the pro-war people are in a TRIBE of ANTI-SUBJUGATORS, which is why I started this blog under that name. The challenge now is to get more people to join this tribe.
One other attitude that I have had in my life is to save up my money so that I could secure myself first, so that I would then be in a position to help secure others. It turned out to be exactly the case. I was in a strong position to be able to spend time analyzing the Iraqis et al.
I believe I have taken an optimal path as far as donating money to charities is concerned. All of it in an attempt to fix this earth instead of waiting for Utopia in the next.
Also, some people see Bill Gates's enormous wealth and think that it is unfair that an economic system produces such an effect, and want to install revolutionary socialism instead. However, I took the attitude that we needed PUBLIC DOMAIN competitors to Microsoft, and sought to put code into the public domain, leading by example. Unfortunately most people donating code don't make their code public domain, which restricts the ability of commercial enterprises from picking up the code and turning it into a commercial product. But I at least tried my best.
# posted by Paul Edwards @ 15:07 
