Ireland is the most beautiful country in the world, and has the
loveliest, kindest and most generous people you could ever hope to
meet. Donations to charity, even large donations to charity, and most
especially donations to children's charities, have been part of Irish
life since time immemorial.
This may no longer be the case. Our beloved and wise masters in
government (you may notice a tiny trace of the old sarcasm in places)
have decided that tax is more important than children. The government
ran out of money due to a profligate and irresponsible spending spree,
the likes of which Ireland had never before seen. So who did they
decide was to bail out their coffers? Charities were their target. Our
mean, greedy, grasping and souless politicians have decided to tax
charities to the hilt, and beyond.
The instrument of their iniquity is the infamous and vile Charities Act
2009, which was signed into law on the 28th February 2009, by the
Department of Community, Equality and Gaeltacht Affairs. The full text
of this evil and pernicious Bill can be viewed at
http://www.oireachtas.ie/documents/bills28/acts/2009/a0609.pdf
. Our masters are so pleased as to invite us to ask for
further information on the Charities Act 2009 from the Charities
Regulation Unit of the Department of Community,
Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs.
Anybody reckless enough so to do will face endless
obfuscation and mendacity from the myrmidons of bureaucracy.
Naturally, the government cannot be sure to collect every last coin of
their new taxes unless the charities are compelled to produce huge new
piles of paper detailing every last mite collected, and where and when,
and from whom and by whom. The thousands of decent, kind and honest
folk, who have been unstinting of their time in assisting charities,
dare no longer do so. They face imprisonment should they forget one
single piece of paper, or make one tiny miscalculation of the taxes to
be paid.
This is the end of most charities in Ireland, and a sad and wicked
thing it is to be sure.
Donate to The Smith Family
Children's Charity
Why should you donate, you may be asking? Who on Earth am I to talk
about charities and children? I suppose you ought to know a little
about myself. My first connection with children's charity was as a
child. My mother was a staunch church-goer, and insisted that I go too.
Just as school is an invention to make sure that children hate
education, so church is an invention of Satan to make sure that
children grow up to hate religion. As a change to the normal boring
church this Sunday, I was going to be allowed to take a toy with me. I
was too young to talk properly, and I had not understood the devilish
plot involved. So I took my favourite toy, a brown teddy bear. It was
only after we had left church, that I found that I had "donated" my
favourite toy to poor children. My mother told me how "good" I was. I
can assure you that I was not good at all, and had (justified) tantrums
until my mother replaced the stolen bear. My second involvement with
children's charity was when I was a little older. My family was poor
because my father had had a terrible road accident and was unable to
work. I was short of toys and sweets and all the (material) things that
make childhood happy. Nonetheless, my mother had a charity box for poor
children, where she would put in her loose change. Nobody had told her
that charity begins at home! Many a frustrated hour did I spend with a
knife, teasing the coins out of the little slot! My third involvement
as a child with children's charity started at school. Schools have a
most unpleasant way of blackmailing the parents of their
school-children out of money. Whatever bright idea the school has for
raising money, the children have to hand it over publicly in class,
shaming the family if the contribution is small (and without any regard
as to whether they can afford it). The school's bright idea
on this occasion was to raise money for starving children in Africa,
and a note was sent home to my parents. I must have been about 6 at the
time. The next morning, I was given money to take to school. My father
had donated quite a large amount. My mother had contributed just a
little less (that was in the olden days, when men were supposed to be
the master in their own home). To my great surprise, I had also
contributed! While I was asleep, my parents had stolen some of my
money, and I was ordered to take it to school as my part of the
charitable contribution. I did protest that my parents were quite in
the wrong. They replied that it was part of their parental duties to
"teach" me to be charitable. What it did in fact teach me was to hide
what little money I had from my parents. Surprisingly enough, I did
hand all the begrudged money over to the school. It never occurred to
me to simply pocket half of it, and that my parents would never know. I
was an honest child. More honest than my parents, I am sad to say. The
crime they had committed was not only theft, but also robbery, because
they had intimidated me when I tried to reclaim my money. You cannot
steal from somebody for what you think is a good cause, any more than
you can steal for your own benefit. Some three years later, a man who
had been working in Africa visited us. He mentioned how charitable
contributions from the West never reached the starving children of
Africa. It was all embezzled by corrupt politicians and government
officials. After he had left, I tackled my parents again about the
stolen money (yes, it had rankled with me for years!) They made a
shame-faced return of the stolen cash. After all that, you might be
surprised that I now care, and care passionately, about helping
children in need. I hope you care too!
