Should charity begin at home re the floods.....?

Question

many people of the UK have suffered devastating and traumatic effects of the recent floods my heart goes out to them.

We in the Uk donate millions of pounds every year to world wide national disasters I have no problem with that at all.

When a national disaster occurs in our own country where are the Live Aid or Band Aid appeals of this world to help our people?

May be some pop star or other celebrity might like to organise an appeal for these desperate people,you never know you might get yourself in line for a knighthood

Answer 1

Great question this well done and yes celebs should organise an appeal as this is a national disaster and a lot of families would not have had adequate insurance, so come on you lot get your fingers out, good luck

Answer 2

I keep saying this to the people who answer questions on this site that have no idea what it's like actually being in the floods. For one thing, in the North they didn't lose basics like running water and electricity so that's why there has been more news coverage, Secondly, people have been dying, a poor woman lost her unborn twins and there are some people that have been washed away in the flood water, there is a teenage boy still missing. I live in Gloucester, my house is not flooded luckily but houses in my road are and we are all doing our best to help out where we can. It's not about soggy sofas etc, it's about not having any fresh water to make up babies bottles, the bowsers are running dry and the there are 600 people in queues for bottled water and only enough for half those. Please don't judge unless you've experienced it, how does insurance pay for photos and irreplaceable items like that, and no we didn't have time to move things out of the way, some of us couldn't even get home to move our possessions out of the way as we were sleeping on the M5 due to the flood water

Hi Stephen H
I'd love to know what you didn't know, we were already at work when we started getting the warnings not to travel and no I suppose my journey was not essential, however my 60 employees that wouldn't have got paid for a week may have disagreed! And again I would say, did you have old people and families with young babies with no power and no prospect of clean water for at least a week, no I don't think you did. I feel sorry for anyone who is affected by flooding, it's horrible for anyone and yes we are just getting on with it, people have rallied round to help each other where they can but if you have no way to cook and no clean water, it does become another thing altogether. And by the way, have you heard anyone in Gloucester calling it a disaster, or just the news people??

Answer 3

It still amazes me how last week when the north had a problem it was classed as a flood.

This weeks flood in the south has suddenly turned into a national disaster.

Why would that be?

Hi karen s

It is still not a national disaster, it is a southern disaster.
If people are stupid enough to travel when told not to then they only have themselves to blame.
I do suppose however that your travel on that day was totally totally unavoidable.

One of the people who died I believe was drunk (sure someone will correct me if I am wrong) and the twins who did not survive were not guaranteed to survive if there had been no flooding.


So we up north will just get on with cleaning up our little bit of mess while you in the south indulge yourselves with your national disaster.

Answer 4

I would like to suggest that maybe the world has been offering to help, just not throwing out any telethons... I read an article about all these countries that offered aid in the form of products, services and even money for help during the New Orleans floods.... The government left food stuffs to rot and declined services and even the money... So, you never know who is out there trying to help.

Answer 5

You have got to be joking!!!!

THIS IS NOT A DISASTER AT ALL.

Some sofas and carpets have been ruined, some cars lost. Damage to homes, all of which should be covered by insurance, possibly there biggest problem will be getting the insurance to pay out. They should not have lost any precious items as they had time to get them to safety.

They may be without water for a week or a little longer, but hey buy some from the supermarket, its really cheap.

Nobody will die of starvation, nobody will be sleeping outside because of this, no one will die of sickness and diarrhoea


How can you compare this to other natural disasters around the world.

Don't get me wrong, I feel sorry for them, but FFS do you realise how selfish it sounds what you are saying, put this into perspective.

How about compassion, humanity and charity for human beings, not sofas and soggy carpets!!!!!!!!!!
Think of the 2004 tsunami as an example....

look at these links.

http://www.thestar.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=3948592

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2006-07-22-indonesia-tsunami_x.htm

Answer 6

Charity should begin wherever in the world the need is greatest. And I have to admit, that however bad the floods are by UK standards, there is far worse suffering happening in other parts of the world due to other disasters.

Answer 7

We had a flood hit our area in 2003. We as a town came together and helped each other. A day later after the news cameras got there, the Red Cross truck pulled up. They were asked to leave as well as others. We didn't need total strangers looking into our lives and feeling sorry for us. If people would just stop waiting for big brother to come help them and join together as a community they would be better off.

Answer 8

Yes charity should begin at home.
Here is the link if you do want to donate via the British Red Cross

http://www.redcross.org.uk/index.asp?id=39992&cachefixer=

I hope that this appeal goes as well as that for the recent Tsunami fund!

Answer 9

they say you can judge a society by the way they treat their poor and sick! hospitals dumping patients that can't pay on skid row, thousands of family's living just two miles from my office in tent city here in los angeles! and millions of people have absolutely no problem with it until it is happening to them! how will we be judged!

Answer 10

We discussed this yesterday. I agree we give money to any disaster yet when we have one out self we get no help.