Published by Swiss James on 21 May 2008 at 01:47 pm
Two appeals
First and foremost, I haven’t written much about the earthquake. Fifty thousand dead and no-one to blame.
It’s awful, anything I said would be trite.
Tonight at Sasha’s there’s a benefit for the victims in Sichuan- it’s 180RMB for the event, all of which goes to charity since the sponsors are giving the beer and BBQ for free.
No doubt you’ve already given money, blood, or deep thought into how you want to help- but I just thought I’d put in a plug for a good event that is going to raise a lot of money.
I’ll be there too so say “Hi” if you see me. Be warned that in real life, I spit when I talk.
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Secondly, in an effort to stop the brewing gang war between Lei and T can I say that next week’s Shoe Tuesday will be a special “Reader’s Shoes” edition.
Email a photo of your bestest “kicks” (that’s cool people talk for “trainers”) to j_creegan at hotmail dot com with a subject that says something about shoes (not “Congratulations! You have won the Irish lottery!”) and I’ll run an anonymous poll to see who really has the best in town.
All proceeds to charity.
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Although I think it’s a bit waste of resources to arrange those kind o events, does it have to take all this (to give you free beer and free bbq) in order for the people to donate 180 rmb?
also, just instead of those sponsors, they could donate the money worth of the stuff they are giving out directly to for an example red cross.
But anyway, I still think it’s a good idea, hope many people will turn up, and hopefully people will donate more money while being there.
well, there’s several things at work here:
1. people like events rather than donating anonymously at home
2. holding events like this allows companies to offset the monetary value of what they’re donating with free advertising – its cynical, but the value of the advertsing helps offset the monetary loss that a company is giving out. you may say that’s less than philanthropic, but companies aren’t in business to be NGOs or charities – so here’s one way that they can both advertise their goods and services AND be helpful to a crisis.
3. donating to a charitable organization takes work – and lets face it a good portion of people are lazy. you have to go to the bank, take the charity’s bank code with you – but everyone needs to eat, and some people need to drink. why not combine the two?
Point 2 was a good argument, I agree with that.
Point 3, is it really that hard to donate money in china? I went to the Swedish red cross site and transferred money from my bank account while still in bed.
I’m sure The Swedish Red Cross has that facility, but the Chinese site doesn’t (as far as I could find).
I could’ve given to the UK Red Cross site, or the US one or whatever- but I feel like it’s a bit weird to send my money there first before it can be spent here.
Fact is, people will have a great time and donate more money after a few beers than they would have done sat in bed.
The normal way to donate money in China seems to be a bank transfer- either through the ATM or over the counter.
The normal way to donate money in China seems to be a bank transfer- either through the ATM or over the counter.
Quoted for truth
I just changed something on my website- so if you noticed a blip- clear your browser cache and rock on.
(Also you might have to update your bookmark, I’m scrapping the whole wdpress subdirectory bit)
I think it’s a great idea. A lot of people have already donated and this could coax them into spending money they otherwise wouldn’t have, and then you have a lot of people who would be out and about anyway and who need an excuse to get on the piss. Then you have those who may not have planned to donate at all a reason to as well. Other than the free flow beer I can’t see it doing too much harm.
Just got back – over 200,000 RMB raised. James won a Shanghaiist t-shirt (women’s).
should the photo of the “kicks” be on my feet or just the “kicks”.
Man U!
did I really win a t-shirt? It was mad crowded in there, couldn’t stand it so I just gave a bit of cash and left.
Sorry I didn’t meet thee T!
You did win a t-shirt! I spent my time ogling attractive women (there seemed to be a higher number than usual) and eating. I was perturbed to have to spend 35 RMB for a Coke, when all my friends were using Stella to wash their hair and water the plants. But the Cheese Brats were wonderful and worth standing in line for. I saw people there that I hadn’t seen in months, and realized that I know a lot more people in this city than I thought.
I also saw a million people who I thought I should’ve known, but realized that I didn’t.
I turned up at about 8:45 or so, the bar was about 3 deep which wasn’t so bad but man alive, that crowd really put the Q in BBQ. Probably an hour’s wait for food at that point and I was starving.
Why didn’t you just drink Stella? Doctors agree, one can’t hurt.
Well, except for my doctors, because I have a severe allergy to alcohol, so any alcoholic beverage causes me to break into these great horrific rashes up and down my arms and legs, and I spend the next 10 hours in a wimpering pile on my bed afraid to move because it will set off the itching. This is how I spent quite a few weekends during my first year at university, before I, um, figured out the link.
The secret to the barbeque line was that if you didn’t want a hot dog, lots of people were just walking up to the steam trays of lamb, burgers and salad. I’m not sure if that was intended or not, but there were two sort of lines there.
I just donated online and avoided all the lines and the heat (and the ogling, T!). Hope ya’ll had a wild time. Sorry to be a party pooper but I agree with Shopgirl (which is not surprising as I am Shopboy) that these events are really a very long winded way of helping the survivors.
long-winded or not, 200,000RMB is 200,000RMB.
T- sorry to hear that, you’re OK with Jaffa Cakes though right?
Yes James, quite right – 200,000 rmb is 200,000 rmb. It reminds me of a joke:
Morris and his wife Esther went to the state fair every year and every year Morris would say, “Esther, I’d like to ride in that airplane.”
Esther always replied, “I know Morris, but that airplane ride costs 50 dollars, and 50 dollars is 50 dollars.”
One year Morris and Esther went to the fair and Morris said, “Esther, I’m 85 years old. If I don’t ride that airplane I might never get another chance.”
Esther replied, “Morris, that airplane ride costs 50 dollars, and 50 is dollars is 50 dollars.”
The pilot overheard them and said, “Folks, I’ll make you a deal. I’ll take you both up for a ride. If you can stay quiet for the entire ride and not say one word, I won’t charge you; but if you say one word it’s 50 dollars.”
Morris and Esther agreed and up they went.
The pilot did all kinds of twists and turns, rolls and dives, but not a word was heard. He did all his tricks over again, but still not a word.
When they landed, the pilot turned to Morris and said, “By golly, I did everything I could think of to get you to yell out, but you didn’t.”
Morris replied, “Well, I was gonna say something when Esther fell out, but 50 dollars is 50 dollars.”
tee-hee!