Talking about charity, do you give the fish or teach others to fish?

Question

What's the difference between charity and patronizing? Where is the border?

Sentinel, I agree with you, but there are people that need more than food and money. There are people that need encouragement to get over and do for themselves. There are people that no matter how much you give, they will always "starve". There are people that put themselves in a comfortable situation of just receiving... Of course, I am not talking about the immediate necessity of eating (africa children for example), but I am talking about people with potential to get over and flip the situation, but don't do it for this or that reason... "Poor me, look at me, take care of me!" kind of thought and that people need more than "stuff", they need encouragement and some even need a kick in the bottom or a good "wake up" call.

How to perceive that??

Answer 1

i do both-giving a person a job helps them to help them self-giving someone who is out of gas some cash helps them out of a situation----enjoy the day

Answer 2

Charity IS patronizing- The basis for giving it is some effervescent warm fuzziness.
I give tzedakah- which means 'justice'. It is only just that a percentage of what I have goes to educate and enable those who have less.
And the beauty of tzedakah is that everybody is obligated to give it- even the poorest must perform acts of justice. It doesn't matter if I WANT to, and it doesn't matter if I REALLY would rather have a new BMW. I am bound by the laws of Judaism which MANDATE giving, whether or not warm fuzzies are present. THIS makes me a better person. And seeing it put to good use gives me the warm fuzzies- AFTER I have given it.

Answer 3

during the 'green revolution' we taught people how to fish, the trouble being only the rich could afford the rods. what i mean by that is when we gave those people the high yield rice seeds, they had to buy the fertiliser from us to make the seeds viable. the peasant tenant farmers who were the hungry ones couldn't afford it , so the landlords took back the land and turned it into mechanised factory farms, ( they had to buy the farm machinery from us too). they also had to start importing fuel. the peasants could not get work on the land so they drifted to the cities to live in squalor and survive as hand to mouth day labourers. if we had taught them better water conservation and how to use natural fertilisers they would have been better off. but where would the profit be in that for us? we often teach people how to fish so they have to buy the fishing rods from us.

Answer 4

You must do both. A starved person will not have the strength to fish. The fish you give won't last a life time

Answer 5

I teach others to fish, it means I can stop wasting my time fishing

Charity is when you give someone something that improves their life, Patronizing is when you provide financial support to someone who is looking to improve their life on their own

Answer 6

Can`t you do both? no -one who is starving to death really gives a damn about patronizing,if you don`t believe me try it yourself and go without food for a month and see.

Answer 7

I'm with lilmissykato, except I plant fish.

Answer 8

you need to do both. by giving fish you provide immediate relief, by teaching to fish you provide long-term relief.

Answer 9

I teach others to plant fruit and veggies

Answer 10

Christians patronise. They don't really care about life and would rather see anything not christian dead.
(they even demand people to convert, before handing out lifegiving medicine and/or similar)

Anything not christian is truly able to perform charity.