LS2: Features

Jumping on the charity bandwagon

Charity, or personal gratification?

It’s four in the morning on a cold February morning and five people are standing in front of the Edward Boyle library touching a car.

This car-touching was even prearranged, and someone had brought down hot drinks and blankets so that they could survive the whole 22 and a half hours that the Car Stand-Off went on for. In any ordinary context, this would seem like complete insanity to passers-by, but can be quickly explained by three words: it’s RAG week.

Charity has become synonymous with extreme events, and you can hardly get through a week without seeing posters all over the union along the lines of ‘Want to bathe in baked beans for charity?’ or Facebook groups proudly announcing ‘I’m throwing myself out of a plane... for charity’. It’s almost protocol that to raise any significant amount of money you need to do something ‘different’.

But why has this become the norm? The campaigns these people are raising money for deal with very serious issues and are greatly successful in their own contexts. Surely doing something that overrides their significance,… Continue reading...