On Giving Back

The wrath of hurricane Katrina that devastated the vibrant city of New Orleans, Louisiana and rendered its citizens homeless, displaced, hungry and penniless had almost broken America’s spirit, with everybody looking at each other saying – no, this couldn’t possibly happen to America. The frustration, despair and feeling of hopelessness of the victims and the Louisiana government had reverberated all over the country prompting the media and political pundits to chastise the federal government for not acting quick enough to aid the victims. African American activists cry racism, accusing the government of acting languidly on the rescue plan because the majority of the population of New Orleans is black. Others urged Bush to stop the war in Iraq, which had already cost taxpayers a whopping tab of $250 billion, and divert the money to rehabilitate the city. Comedian Jon Stewart , anchor of the nightly news on the Comedy Network blamed the tragedy on master of the universe and may have crossed the line with his harsh and sacrilegious joke on why Americans even sing God Bless America. The situation is truly a nightmare – how can the people who lost their houses, jobs, cars and personal possessions ever get them back? Where and how can they start their lives back from zero? Where is the money going to come from?

Unlike the tsunami disaster, Katrina did not jumpstart a massive global disaster relief fund to aid the displaced people of New Orleans. America is rich and doesn’t need financial help to take care of the problem, so they say. The estimated cost of rehabilitating the city is staggering and the government many not be able to foot the bill alone so fund raising events take place all over the country, even in Canada. When I see movie stars, music artists and sports celebrities participate in fund raising programs, answering the telephone hotlines to take in the pledges and donations from the public, I ask myself the question – are these celebrities giving anything or are they just offering their “precious time” for free, using their celebrity status to attract people to contribute? They seem to be proud that their “hard work” brings in more money and the free service alone could commensurate as contribution to the cause. The proliferation of fund raising by supposedly non-profit, charitable organizations had been the subject of investigation by the feds both in the U.S. and Canada. It is estimated that for every dollar contributed, only 30 cents goes to the cause, 70 cents goes to the fund raising overhead expense. The CEO of the United Way, the largest charitable organization in North America had been criticized for his $500,000/year salary – too steep for a non-profit organization or perhaps well deserved for his creative genius in the art of big time corporate panhandling? Sure enough, the federal government allows the individual tax breaks on charitable contributions, but does this mean that we must give money because we are getting some of it back anyway? Is this the main motivation for giving?

What about the super-rich, the multi-millionaires ? What have they given ? In the realm of the super wealthy, giving back is wrapped in a seemingly complex word called philanthropy, which are endowments to charities, schools, museums elaborately engineered by their sophisticated accountants and bankers. While the endeavor is certainly noble, the government also gives money back in form of substantial tax breaks that cushions their net cash outflow. Do they give enough? Are they giving to the impoverished to alleviate their suffering? One of the problems of those born of the super wealthy is lack of first hand exposure to the reality of poverty hence the lack of empathy to the problem. Some believe that poverty is the result of laziness and the poor people are the authors of their own misery and no one is to blame except themselves. Others are strangely cheap and poor choices to be counted on when it comes to parting with the green buck like Canada’s Ken Thomson, listed in the top 10 wealthiest man in the world. Thomson invited the National Geographic reporter scheduled to interview him to come an hour earlier to see his private art gallery because tickets were on special sale for 2 dollars. It is mind boggling how a man of his stature could not have thought of giving the guest reporter a free pass.

NBA Player Dikembe Motumbo is a paltry minor leaguer compared to the super wealthy but his foundation had built a 300 bed hospital in his native hometown of Kinshasa, Zaire. Golf great Jack Nicklaus and his wife Barbara built a new 80 bed hospital for poor children just minutes away from their house. Motumbo and Nicklaus were not scions of the super wealthy. They are ordinary people who made it to the top, made more than enough for themselves and took the noble and admirable decision to give something back, something big, something meaningful that makes a real difference to people who need help. The bad news is there aren’t many of them around. This is just me but I get the funny feeling that when the bullhorn, the radio and TV calls for filling bag for a charitable cause , it is always the heart of the common man that is forthcoming and can be counted on to give something back. It is also the common man that jumps on his truck and drives for 10 hours to the troubled area just to be there to help in whatever way he can.