Stop your giving going to waste

This includes the specialty charities like leprosy, trachoma and removing mines, as well as the broad sweep of charities like Oxfam and World Vision.

Some places have over a dozen charities supporting hospitals.

Special time-bound charities for earthquakes, droughts and volcanoes are on top of this.

And then there are places which have no charities for anything.

And can we have a charity that aims to cut down the production and distribution of armaments?  How can that be organized?  Will such a charity encounter opposition in our country or others that profit from the arms?

Could we have charities that try to stop us behaving in wasteful ways so that more money is available for us to give to those who have nothing to waste?  They will be trying to change our own behaviour.  And will alas be affecting the profits and indeed the existence of wasteful mattresses, baths and electric goods, and the retailers who sell them to us.  I dare not think what we can do if ventures are made to curb us here.

Carbon trading is only one of the ways to cut wasteful greenhouse emissions. Cutting junk sent by charity appeals is another, small but useful, and setting charities to do more at home as well as help another country.

We will be cutting so many people’s jobs in sending us appeals that we would do well to think of all the jobs that are really needed.  The jobs that are not being done.