Comic Relief

So today I had to make a compulsory donation of £1 at work and complete various ''hilarious'' challenges in the name of charity which can only mean that tonight is that annual festival of vulgarity and conscience appeasement known as Comic Relief. We get to be entertained and educated by celebrities standing in front of starving children in third world countries asking us to donate what we can and assuring us that we will make a difference.

This year there will probably be new celebrities and new starving children to get people giving but which politically difficult conflict zones and causes will they neglect to mention this year? Will we see Ant and Dec standing teary eyed in the heart of Basra? Unlikely. Will we see Terry Wogan speaking out against the abuse of women in the Middle East? I think not. Corrupt governments keeping their people down with western made armaments while multinationals plunder a countries resources doesn't make good television.

Another less than ''comic'' side of Comic Relief is their refusal to rebut the pro life movement who has consistently pressured the organisers to refuse funding to medical organisations that support and provide contraception and abortions. The event has a separate bank account for Catholics to donate to where they are guaranteed that no money will go to such organisations and a couple of years ago released the following statement -

'Less than three percent of all the funds spent have been allocated to projects with a family-planning component. None of the money that we allocate to projects has been used to support abortions. Indeed, it goes towards the work that reduces the grievous damage done to young women by abortion, through promoting the welfare of mothers and children and caring for life.''

I can't help but be cynical about this whole grotesque spectacle and it was more than a little depressing to see my coworkers grudgingly chucking money into a bucket while muttering ''charity begins at home'' under their breath before dashing out to McDonalds at lunchtime so I put together the following to remind myself how much better I can do! Hastily assembled and possible incomplete but for your enjoyment....

Better than Comic Relief Links

MSF (I can't big this organisation up enough)

UK Indymedia

US Indymedia

Boycott Nestle

Boycott Coca Cola

Boycott McDonalds

Veganism and world hunger

Noam Chomsky (homepage)

Loose Change

John Pilger (+1)

No Sweat

No Sweat Trainers

Corporate Watch

General boycott list

A final footnote (thanks to anyone who read this far!) is to ask you to please consider a monthly donation to a non profit organisation. Most do DD, standing order or payroll giving and regular donation makes a huge difference as the regular income allows charities to better plan their resources. Also always remember to Gift Aid your donations so that the government pays 28% on top of your donation too.