In an ultimate moment of irony, a man has been taken to hospital with a broken leg by air ambulance. What was he doing at the time? A log-winching contest to raise money for… The air ambulance.
Attempting to raise £1000 for the Essex Air Ambulance division, the man broke his leg and had to be flown to the nearest hospital 12 miles away via helicopter. While the ambulance crew found it hilarious, there’s probably a moral to the story somewhere. I just can’t think what it is.
It’s that time of year again that we can all sit around at home, get a bacon sandwich, turn on our TVs and say to our friends, “I could do that.”
With thousands of people running for charitable causes, the Times Online has done a good feature this week about those runners you won’t have heard of, but have emotional reasons for raising the money they have. But while this showcases just a handful of people, its humbling to remember that almost all of the non-athlete competitors in this weekends London Marathon will be putting their body through so much in the aid of good causes.
Meanwhile some of the celebrity runners will include Gordon Ramsay, Stoke City boss Tony Pulis, and Ronan Keating.
Well, maybe not. But recent studies have apparently shown that the crime rates in rural areas of England are on the increase more than those in the inner-city areas. Of course this could just be that it would be hard to have more stabbings in London as every youngster between the ages of 5 and 20 begins to fancy themselves as Peter Pan, or it could be that perhaps you aren’t as likely to get knifed in the big smoke as the Mail thinks.
In any case, Midsomer Murders will be getting some new plotlines soon according to the Times, as the recession has apparently sent rural Britain 25% closer to anarchy.
It has emerged that Condoleeza Rice was personally involved in the sanctioning of torture techniques in Guantanamo Bay in 2002, including the use of “Waterboarding” – The simulation of drowning. The news now is moving beyond the moral implications of torture, and into the realm of responibility and accountability.
But are we really surprised? We already knew that the Bush administration have been involved in some questionable practises, and Rice herself had already stated that she had been present at a meeting where techniques were discussed, but that she “couldn’t recall” the details of said meeting; A pretty obvious tell, surely?
It may be up to the courts now as to the criminal extent of Rice’s involvement, but any decision not to proscecute the ex-Secretary of State will surely not be met with much surprise.
After an initial uproar about Google’s new mapping application Google Street, the clamour has died down a little. Google themselves agreed to blur the faces of individuals not already unrecognisable, and completely delete any photos as requested by those in them.
But people still have complaints regarding the ethics and also the legality of Google hosting photos of people in their homes and on the streets when no permission has been garnered. But a Channel 4 reporter has contacted the Information Commissioners Office to confirm that there is no legal repercussions for Google. This, it has to be said, is what most people, including myself, suspected. Photos taken of public property, from public property, no matter who happens to be in them, can surely not be classified as illegal, and Google’s decision to take down photos on request seems like merely a courtesy offered to it’s users.
As many have put it: You wouldn’t complain about being in someone’s facebook photo by accident? Nor as a cheering supporter at a sports event, or a concert. So bar the odd indescrete photograph (i.e. the now infamous Man Coming Out Of Sex Shop), who can really have a problem with Google Street?
Whilst my blog still may be in the process of it’s transformation from a site about the world’s alleged moral collapse, and that of a charity ticker, concerns about this years budget, released yesterday, could fall in both brackets.
Some charities are worried that Alistair Darling and the Labour government have allocated far too little money in efforts to help Britain’s poorest elderly subjects. But if Les Pugh, a 93 year old Gloucestershire resident, is anything to go by, then the elderly folks of Britain can certainly take care of themselves.
The ancient pensioner raised over fifteen thousand pounds for two charities, according to the Daily Mirror, by abseiling down a towering office block!
Now that’s a more encouraging recession…
I joined a group recently. No, it isn’t a facebook group. And it isn’t a new group – in fact it’s almost six years old – but it’s an interesting experience.
The group is known as Join Me and, in case you haven’t heard of it, it’s the brainchild of humorist, presenter, writer and all-round Mr Nice Guy Danny Wallace. The orignal purpose behind the project was boredom; Danny posted a whimsical ad in a local paper encouraging readers to “Join Me”. Join him in what, they didn’t know, but soon people were signing up anyway.
The purpose ended up being one of charity. As Danny didn’t know what his “Joinee” were going to be doing, he set them the task of Random Acts of Kindness. That is, every Friday, to do go out of their way to do one nice, unexpected thing for someone else
Since it’s humble beginnings in Danny’s flat, the group has evolved into a 5000 strong collective of like minded people who join together often to raise large amounts of money for charitable causes, and who, on an individual basis, make the world a better place, one person at a time.
A quick update on our friends and celebrities climbing mountains at the moment.
Whilst the well funded and supported celebs reached the summit of Kilimanjaro this morning, having raised almost £1.4 million for Comic Relief to this point, Steph – who is climbing the mountain in the Summer – has been training in Wales, climbing the UK’s tallest stand-alone mountain, Snowdon.
While the Red Nose team have raised one and a half million for Comic Relief, Steph’s total so far reads at just £675, a figure that shows again how much more impressive it is for someone with so little publicity to put themselves through so much for a cause.
While browsing for current acts of kindness or general malevolence, I stumbled across a story from the States of a rather sad news anchor. NBC’s Brian Williams has apparently been reporting on war, crime and the economic downturn for too long. He decided to air an appeal for some “Good news” from the stations viewers.
Within days the network had recieved thousands of emails, too many to even air, with upbeat stories of charity across America. One man kept a spare can of petrol in his car to help drivers who had broken down. Another woman patrolled the streets giving out her own money. Of course the flipside of this is that she had no idea who she was giving money to, and where it would be spent, but that’d not really the point.
Despite the best efforts of the Mail, positive, inspirational stories do come to light more often than you might think.
As part of Comic Relief this year, several celebrities will be climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, in Tanzania, to raise money for charity. Because of their fame and status, they will be drawing an awful lot of attention to the causes that they support. But it isn’t just celebrities that take on such endeavors.
Take Steph Black for example. By a complete coincidence, the 18 year old student has taken it upon herself to also climb Africa’s tallest mountain, for Diabetes UK. As if this wasn’t challenging enough for anybody, Steph is a diabetic herself, as well as a sufferer of Caeliac disease. This means that she will have to keep a different diet to that of the rest of the group she travels up the mountain with, and, more importantly, will have to be extremely weary of low sugar levels, which can easily be mistaken for the feeling of altitude sickness.
In an era when greed and loose values are so rife in the public eye, it’s good to be reminded of people like Steph. Although no credit should be taken away from the celebrity team also scaling the mountain, Steph is showing much greater courage in what she’s doing, and is unlikely to raise even a fraction of the amount that they will.
Moral Collapse and Charity 