the post about supporting a cause

I was on facebook today bored as I so often am, scrolling through the news feed when I came across an event, of course I use event very loosely in this context as the event is to simply wear the colour red to show your support for Haiti.

"God are you watching, I'm wearing red. I'm against earthquakes so please don't let the earth's tectonic plates shift any more. It's like totally cramping the style of like people everywhere you know. It's such a drag."

As you would undoubtedly know lest you were hiding under a rock through the first 2 weeks of the new year, that an earthquake has devastated the island country. Claiming the lives of so many and disrupting (a mild term) even more. This tragedy is not unlike the tsunami that hit Sri Lanka only a few years ago.

Now you might wonder what's this all about. I will explain myself.

It is quite simply this, how does wearing a colour do anything for the people of Haiti? The post also tells you to give generously which is noble and good. However my beef is with the idiocy of the notion that wearing a t-shirt of a particular colour will the help Haitian people. I get it when people support the fight against injustice or for freedom and so on and so forth. But how does one wear a t-shirt to show you're support against natural disasters?

I'm sure news reports of people wearing red will filter down to Haiti.

I can see it now...

Haitian #1 Frank
"Hey Bob, listen to this. It say here in this newspaper, that people around the world are wearing red t-shirts to show their support for us."

Haitian #2 Bob
"What?"

Frank
"I suppose we should take comfort in the fact that people are going about their daily lives wearing red in support of us and our suffering."

Bob
"I wish they had sent those t-shirts here. I wouldn't have been fussy either, they could have sent me green ones or blue ones."

Frank
"But red is so your colour."

Bob
"I'm just saying that those t-shirts sure ain't doing us any good."

Frank
"Indeed they aren't."

Bob
"It's indicative of the times we're living in Frank. As we all become more and more entrenched in the comings and goings of our daily lives we the masses find it harder and harder to spare our time to truly help our fellow man and as such we have found simple ways to make ourselves feel like we're doing something without it actually costing us anything. And so the mandate for the masses is simply to wear an article of clothing and go about one's day."

Frank
"How true."

Agree with me or not, it doesn't bother me. My point has been made. If you're going to do something to help other people. Do it, you don't have to wear a sign saying "hey look at me i feel (insert emotion) for the suffering of the people in (insert place) I'm such an awesome person for feeling the way I do, I'll wear this (insert article of clothing) to tell everyone that I feel this way and so that people can be aware."

What use is raising awareness if all anyone is going to be aware of is that not everyone looks good in red?

i got an iPhone

So I got an iPhone on saturday. Now I'm blogging about it at work. Ah the wonders of modern technology. Work is great, today I spent most of my day sand blasting little pieces of metal. It wasn't as fun as some of the other things I've been able to do at work.

I'm up everyday at 7am and at work by 8.30am. Work itself is tiring as it involves a lot of heavy lifting and physical strength but it's fun. I leave work at 5.30pm and get home by 6.15pm. I'm not sure where night goes but before I know it is time to hit the sack.

Back to the iPhone. It's pretty much all it is cracked up to be and then some. I managed to get a really cool cover for it. It's a stormtrooper's helmet. It is friggin sweet.

Anyway my break is almost over and I have to get to work. Till next time this Tristan signing off.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone