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We need to stop thinking only about ourselves
By Fernando Bensuaski |
September 7, 2011, Wednesday
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Print Edition
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THE word "charity" is in the news in China, mostly because charitable organizations are flawed.
Charitable organizations can be flawed worldwide. Organizations can be flawed worldwide. Sure, in some parts of the wide world organizations are more flawed than in others, but that does not keep them from thriving.
Organizations, charitable or otherwise, are flawed because they are staffed with people; and people are flawed.
Current news reports say that charitable giving in China dropped 90 percent in the past three months in the wake of scandals affecting China's Red Cross Society and the China-Africa Project Hope. That's painfully sad.
Charity, like so much else, is new to China today, even though it was a part of China's ancient culture. In the years when the past was to be destroyed, China lost its link with charity.
Now, the link is being re-created; and we should not allow the errors of a few to destroy the opportunity for many.
When we hear the word "charity" we think of money. However, charity means giving: giving of one's self, giving of one's time or giving of one's resources.
Having been raised and having spent most of my life in societies where charity is an essential part of life, I find the Chinese society today somehow lacking. It did not start that way, though. The foundation of Chinese culture, be it Buddha or Confucius, placed a high value on charity.
Charity is a fundamental part of every major school of philosophy or thought. In the Analects (5:26), Confucius is quoted as saying, "[My dream is] to comfort the elderly, deal faithfully with friends, and care for the young."
Over 1,200 years after Confucius, the Koran stated, "Prayer carries us half way to God, fasting brings us to the door of His palace and charity secures us admission."
And in the middle of all this, the Roman citizen who spread good news throughout the Roman Empire, wrote, "Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal."
Charity is innate to human nature, if we simply stop thinking so much about ourselves, if we let our eyes be opened by our hearts, if we look at our surroundings with our internal moral compass in working order.
In Judaism, the first pillar of Western philosophy, charity is not a voluntary action, it is a law. In Hebrew, the word for "justice" and the word for "charity" is the same (tzedakah). This is consistent with Jewish thought that charity is an act of justice. Judaism holds that people in need have a legal right to food, clothing and shelter that must be honored by more fortunate people.
Western society, flawed as it is, gives. In 2010, Americans donated US$291 billion to charity, with US$211.7 billion of that being given by individuals. This reflects only a small decline from the US$299.8 billion in the year before the financial crisis.
But charity is not only the giving of money. It is the giving of oneself; of our mind, of our heart, and of our soul. It is the giving of hundreds of thousands of hours spent as a candy-striper, a Big Brother, or a night teacher in a ghetto.
It is organizing a group of students who can spend a weekend cleaning up and painting a dilapidated house owned by someone in the waning years of their life. It is noticing that "old nana" needs help with minute daily tasks, and performing them.
Charity is the giving up of our seat to someone who needs it more. Charity is the carrying of a large package upstairs to help someone who could not carry it. Charity is the warmth that is carried by a smile that we show someone when giving of ourselves, a smile that silently says, You ain't heavy, you're my brother.
The author is managing director of Goshawk Trading Strategies Ltd
Charitable organizations can be flawed worldwide. Organizations can be flawed worldwide. Sure, in some parts of the wide world organizations are more flawed than in others, but that does not keep them from thriving.
Organizations, charitable or otherwise, are flawed because they are staffed with people; and people are flawed.
Current news reports say that charitable giving in China dropped 90 percent in the past three months in the wake of scandals affecting China's Red Cross Society and the China-Africa Project Hope. That's painfully sad.
Charity, like so much else, is new to China today, even though it was a part of China's ancient culture. In the years when the past was to be destroyed, China lost its link with charity.
Now, the link is being re-created; and we should not allow the errors of a few to destroy the opportunity for many.
When we hear the word "charity" we think of money. However, charity means giving: giving of one's self, giving of one's time or giving of one's resources.
Having been raised and having spent most of my life in societies where charity is an essential part of life, I find the Chinese society today somehow lacking. It did not start that way, though. The foundation of Chinese culture, be it Buddha or Confucius, placed a high value on charity.
Charity is a fundamental part of every major school of philosophy or thought. In the Analects (5:26), Confucius is quoted as saying, "[My dream is] to comfort the elderly, deal faithfully with friends, and care for the young."
Over 1,200 years after Confucius, the Koran stated, "Prayer carries us half way to God, fasting brings us to the door of His palace and charity secures us admission."
And in the middle of all this, the Roman citizen who spread good news throughout the Roman Empire, wrote, "Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal."
Charity is innate to human nature, if we simply stop thinking so much about ourselves, if we let our eyes be opened by our hearts, if we look at our surroundings with our internal moral compass in working order.
In Judaism, the first pillar of Western philosophy, charity is not a voluntary action, it is a law. In Hebrew, the word for "justice" and the word for "charity" is the same (tzedakah). This is consistent with Jewish thought that charity is an act of justice. Judaism holds that people in need have a legal right to food, clothing and shelter that must be honored by more fortunate people.
Western society, flawed as it is, gives. In 2010, Americans donated US$291 billion to charity, with US$211.7 billion of that being given by individuals. This reflects only a small decline from the US$299.8 billion in the year before the financial crisis.
But charity is not only the giving of money. It is the giving of oneself; of our mind, of our heart, and of our soul. It is the giving of hundreds of thousands of hours spent as a candy-striper, a Big Brother, or a night teacher in a ghetto.
It is organizing a group of students who can spend a weekend cleaning up and painting a dilapidated house owned by someone in the waning years of their life. It is noticing that "old nana" needs help with minute daily tasks, and performing them.
Charity is the giving up of our seat to someone who needs it more. Charity is the carrying of a large package upstairs to help someone who could not carry it. Charity is the warmth that is carried by a smile that we show someone when giving of ourselves, a smile that silently says, You ain't heavy, you're my brother.
The author is managing director of Goshawk Trading Strategies Ltd
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