We all know
that last summer, and probably nowadays too; a new phenomenon has arrived: the
ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. It has been appearing in every single social network
since the beginnings of the last summer. It basically consists in throwing iced
water (that includes ice on the bucket) over the nominated person. This way,
the “affected” person suffers the same cerebral damage just for a few seconds
that a person with ALS feels every day (it basically freezes every part of the
body, it even denies your ability to talk). The system of the challenge is
really easy: you usually get nominated by a friend that has done it before, and
you gotta do it before 24h and also donate as much as you want to the
foundation, but always donate something.
I don’t know it
for sure, I haven’t searched it anywhere, but I can assume that millions of
people have done it (even celebrities such as Leonardo DiCaprio, George Bush,
50 Cent, Eminem, Cristiano Ronaldo, Carles Puyol have done the challenge) and
that fact has helped a lot to the ALS foundation, that has probably raised
their earnings in a really huge way. But here comes my “question”, my
“dilemma”... Would the ALS have won the same amount of money if they hadn’t
converted their active donatives into a social network game?
I’m completely
not criticising the way that the foundation has played this card, that has
completely won the game and has helped a lot of people suffering that disease.
I’m probably just attacking our society. What I really want to say is: Would
the same people have donated if donating hadn’t turned into a “game” or a
“challenge” or just a funny thing? The answer is no. It really makes me happy
to see millions of euros donated to a really important organization that helps
people who suffer from horrible diseases such as ALS, but it really makes me go
mad the fact of knowing that probably half of the people wouldn’t have donated
if their friends hadn’t nominated them.
Donating money
to the ALS foundation is a perfect habit, it’s an activity that should make
everyone proud of themselves, and everyone should give the importance it
deserves. But… are we that lost into hypocrisy to just ignore people dying of
awful diseases until anyone nominates us to fight against it? Is that fair for
the people that suffers it? Waiting and watching your life passing by until you
realize someone has just invented a “challenge” that makes everyone donate?
It’s beautiful to see a lot of people donating for a good cause, but it kills
my innocence the fact of knowing that they don’t do it on purpose (at least a
lot of people), they just do it for fun, for being able to say: Hey, I donated!
We are all
humans, and we suffer every day, and pain hits us so hard many times in our
lives. But tell me, when people help you...Do they do it just for fun? Just for
telling they’ve helped you? It is great to help, but helping should just be an
automatic thing, like an instinct, an involuntary act… Helping is great but no
one should force, stare or whatever anyone to help another… Remember, they are
your acts what count, not the people that have seen them.
Ramsés Martínez
2n Batx A
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