Prescriptive philanthropy

Listening to a radio appeal about contributions to a drive to raise money for congenital heart problems if felt moved to act.

Maybe it’s was the way they said it, the way you talk about someone’s misfortune that triggers apathy and vulnerability at the same instance.

Maybe being a victim myself of insistent bouts of asthma and sinuses at an early age I could relate.

Or maybe just maybe am a victim of selective or prescribed philanthropy.

I have never been able to justify why I walk past beggars my whole life. My reasons have varied, from the futility of my effort to the need to instill hard work among beggars.

I have doubted the honesty of their plight especially in Nairobi where I have been informed that beggars are richer than those actually giving them alms, facts I have not been able to substantiate in actuality.

I have held that since they are so many my ten shillings would make no difference in their lives, in fact the next day they will be there the next day begging more fervently than before.

I have also peculiarly held them as junkies. I have my own alcohol issues that gobble up my scanty finances yet I still imbibe with abandon. Knowing they are pre-disposed abusers of some substance to survive their plight I feel that financing their drug habit is not so philanthropic. So I don’t give beggars money.

Then I hate it when my maker is used to extort me. Whenever a beggar appeals to my sense of guilt or fear of hell I switch off. Keep my God out of it.

But generally I do not have a definite reason why my philanthropy does not extend to those crawling beggars with tin cups or babies spread to appeal to the little humanity townsfolk are left with.

This moment has however made me rethink my presupposition. Why is it better for a company to do Corporate Social Responsibility in a cancer clinic and not the homeless?

What would could justify the millions of shillings in targets for formal interventions that are usually surpassed yet we barely give a beggar a dime.

Has the capital franchise found a subtle way to exhaust a universal humane feeling by channeling our philanthropy through formal undefined causes while alienating us from the direct individuals seeking help.

Would it not better to help those we are most disposed to share their gratitude because helping is just a  base vanity of sharing gratitude.