Are Charities Evil?

These days, it seems, there are just too many rich who want to appease their conscience by heaping unsolicited financial or material help on anyone dimwitted enough to accept it. Myriad charity organizations have sprouted to cash in on this general tendency to appease conscience by wallowing in an orgy of altruism. It is estimated that in another decade or so charitable giving in US and Western Europe could as well surpass trillion dollars per year mark. Just as we have a Fortune 500 list in business, soon enough, we could as well have a Fortune 500 in the business of doling out charity.

There is no end to the obscure causes in name of which charities are sprouting and soliciting their funds with impunity - some solicit funds in name of feeding orphans in Congo or Rwanda, some for the sake of preserving the stone age life style of any idyllic group of philistine tribals existing in a remote Eden somewhere; for some alleviating poverty is an everlasting mission. Name any cause and you will surely find dozens of charities for it, each with its own long list of celebrity endorsers.

But how far do these charities succeed in their self-professed aim? Are we better off or worse with the proliferation of charities amongst us? Is this orgy of altruism of any benefit to the poor and the destitute amongst us? The answer unfortunately, to all three questions, has to be no. Most of the charities fail miserably in achieving their aims; rather they end up messing still further the lives, towards improving which they are targeted.

There is evidence garnered from Africa (a continent that enjoys the unsavory reputation of being the recipient of maximum Western aid) where Western Charities have pumped so much money and material that the local governments have lost all incentive to develop indigenous industries and educate and train their people. The African governments have started depending solely on funds from charities to balance their budgets.

It is a strange symbiotic relationship that has developed between Western Charities and corrupt African Governments, the later hinder local enterprise from developing resulting in rampant poverty, which then paves way for the charities to come in and exercise their so called charitable impulses. Every philanthropist needs a cause to which he can denote his surplus funds and it is Africa's bad luck that its governments have allowed their people to become such as cause.

By heaping goods and services free of cost the myriad Western Charities are in effect denying the basic human rights to the African people. After all, it is peoples right to work for their own living. Why should any supercilious entity be allowed to take it upon itself to distribute livelihood for free. In many African countries the local textile industry has gone completely out of business, as they could not compete with the waves of cheap cloth being dumped by the Western Charities.

In Calcutta Mother Teresa's charity has been operating for decades now. But despite that Calcutta continues to remain a poor city. In fact Sister Nirmala has gone on record saying, 'if there were no poor around how will we avail of God's blessings by helping them.' So in her point of view the poor need to exist just so she and others like her can make them a tool for partaking of God's blessings for themselves. What people of Calcutta need is trade and not aid. A thousand Mother Teresa's can do nothing to alleviate the condition of poor but a few good industrial projects in competent private hands can mean a world of difference.

Post 9/11 the role of Middle Eastern charities in fomenting terror has become well documented. But what is consistently being ignored is the role of Western charities in destroying lives in the third world countries. If a thorough research is done into the actual role that the charities are playing worldwide then it will be proved beyond doubt that charities are more destructive than productive.

There is no end to people with means who consider self-sacrifice a moral duty, virtue and value and they will never stop playing the role of the Good Samaritan, even if it were proved conclusively that their altruism is destroying lives. Western investment and Western entrepreneurships is most welcome, but God help the nation that accepts Western charities.