Why no fundraisers for Iraqi dead, asks Terry Jones
Howard Lake | 14 January 2005 | News
Python, film director and actor Terry Jones wrote in yesterday’s Guardian to ask why, given the public generosity to the south Asian tsunami appeals, there are no fundraising activities underway for the many civilians killed in Iraq?
“Why aren’t our TV companies and newspapers running fundraisers to help Iraqis whose lives have been wrecked by the invasion?” asks Jones in his comment piece in the Guardian.
He acknowledges the remarkable scale of giving in response to the tsunami disaster but is perplexed by the lack of any similar response to the widespread deaths in Iraq. “Of course it’s wonderful to see the human race rallying to the aid of disaster victims, ” he wrote, “but it’s the inconsistency that has me foxed. Nobody is making this sort of fuss about all the people killed in Iraq, and yet it’s a human catastrophe of comparable dimensions.”
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UK Fundraising has certainly reported extensively on the fundraising responses to the south Asian tsunami, but we have found next to nothing to report on fundraising for Iraq’s population. Of course, the poor security situation and the withdrawal of international aid agencies has made the implementation and delivery of assistance remarkably difficult. Still, in the early days after the fall of the Saddam regime, when some aid programmes were still possible, there was very little fundraising activity for Iraq.
Of course, the ability to generate media interest and public support for particular charitable appeals at the expense of others is nothing new, and no doubt many charities are concerned about the possible diversion of donations from their causes to the tsunami appeals. There are plenty of other emergencies in the world that cry out to be tackled in a large-scale and sustained manner, with the AIDS pandemic and poverty just two of them.
Still, Terry Jones’ question needs to be aired.
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About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.