I know this blog is meant to be 'Being bad' for our module criteria, but i decided to do a nice post for once.Unfortunately its not very often these days that you hear of people doing something for nothing. People are so busy with their own lives that they forget the less fortunate in society, which is a shame but understandable. I love watching the documentary series 'Secret millionaire', which I'm sure as everyone knows is where a millionaire goes undercover then chooses worthy causes to donate their own hard earned cash to. When ever the term millionaire is mentioned it makes me think of big fat cat bosses (bankers) who sit on their arses all day, play god with peoples lives, and make an absolute mint for doing nothing. Secret millionaire actually shows that some people who are mega rich actually have a heart and are normal like the average person. Its not every day that you meet rich people like this, and its even rarer to see these rich people giving away their hard earned cash and expecting nothing in return.
I think there should be more programmes like this because they generally make you realise that the world is not as bad a place as is constantly portrayed in the newspapers. Its great when a millionaire throws a life line to an otherwise doomed soon to close community service that is struggling for cash. I personally think that the government does not do enough financially to help charities and such like. Most of these places are the back bones of communities and quite often the only chance that some of the service users get to socialise and get out of their homes. These places and their volunteers do a wonderful job and its about time this hard work was recognised by the government and supported.
I remember one Secret Millionaire where the millionaire met an elderly lady who lived in an upstairs flat. It was in Scotland and she had no family and being elderly and disabled she could not get up and down the stairs on her own. This meant the only human contact she had every week was when the Meals on wheels charity bought her a cooked meal once a week. Her flat smelled terrible because she get not take the rubbish down to the communal bins so it was left rotting in her home till the meals on wheels people took it down for her.
I felt terrible for this lady. It made me think just how many people there are in the UK who for one reason or another can't leave their homes and so have no human contact. Its appalling that in this day and age elderly people like the lady mentioned above have to suffer on their own; its even worse when they fought during the World Wars because unfortunately our government does not believe in looking after our war heroes. It made me realise just how good my life is and how important those little things i take for granted are.
Its unbelievable to read in the newspapers that our MP's are claiming huge grants for second homes, driving expensive cars and paying themselves hundreds of thousands of pounds each year, when just a tiny amount of that could help thousands of people who have to suffer in silence. Our government seems to waste an awful lot of money on pointless studies and projects (The multi-million Public Building in West Bromwich is a good example) while whole swathes of our communities suffer.
If i won a million i would donate loads to local charities that are worth their worth in gold. I wonder how many people in the UK if they were millionaires and given the opportunity would donate their own cash to local causes? With the current economic climate its these local charities that are going to need financial help, our government props up banks and our car making industry, but i bet it hasn't given anything extra to help these good causes.
Anyway, you get the idea. I like secret millionaire and i hope it continues on TV cause its the only decent thing on telly these days. Its nice to see people helping good causes and it shows that there are still people willi
ng to help the needy.
ng to help the needy. The Channel Four Secret Millionaire website is very good and has some brilliant stuff on both the millionaires and the good causes they have helped. Also the government website Do it.org has loads of local volunteering opportunities if you want to donate your time to a good cause.
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