Hello Apathy

I'm available to help. IM me in world and let me know what I can do.

April

It's too bad that there aren't career charity organizers. They would have the advantage of being able to manage/maintain a long-term/ongoing charitable strategy (like the one I mentioned.) It can be difficult for each new organizer to see the big picture if they just arrive on the scene. For example they won't necessarily know who is tapped and who isn't.

I remember VERTU doing exactly this.

Possibly the greatest thing I have ever read!! Thank you for posting it.

coco

To be quite honest I have given to various organizations irl and in SL and to be quite frank, I'm pretty tapped out. I have to pay my bills too... It has nothing to do with apathy on my part anyways. I have been and still am very concerned about the tragedies that have occured and wish I could do more. I worry a lot about these people and have thought, "What if it happened to me or my family?" I have literally been ill with worry about people and how they will survive this with their minds and souls. I can't even imagine what it would be like to go through something as horrible as what has happened. I am sure a lot of people feel the same way. It really is hard to want to help more and not be able to.

I would be very interested to see how many of the multi-billion dollar celebrities have actually donated. If they can go and buy $50,000 purses and such like I see in magazines, and spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on clothing shopping sprees and bling then they should be donating tons of money and aid. With the amount of money they have in the bank that is quadrupeling on a daily basis, there should be no one in need of anything. If I had that much money you can bet your sweet ass I wouldn't be buying a damn purse with it...it would go to help people that desperately need it. But alas, the rich get richer while the ones in need starve...

Hardly. The real point is not whether you will give L$50 or L$100 to a virtual disaster relief effort, it's the fact that all of us, working together, can have a great impact on helping people from within SL, in addition to activities we may pursue along those lines in First Life.

For example, last month's series of events, following Katrina, included donation buckets, a benefit concert, our date auction, and a number of other events, which together brought in some L$2 million. That's roughly US$7,500. Not a huge amount, by First Life standards, but not bad for a world where the local currency is worth approximately US$0.003 per L$1.

All we are saying is get involved -- RL and SL. What if it were your family?

P2

If someone earns money it is their choice how to spend it. If I earn 500 Trillion Dollars and want to spend it all on Dior, Gucci, trips to the moon, gold foil toliet paper and never give a nickle to anyone, that is my human right. Charity should not be forced upon people and they should not be guilted or shamed into giving to something they may or may not believe in. No one else has the right to dictate to someone how they should spend their time or money, humans have free will.



This is Breast Cancer month and I really hope that the donations for Breast Cancer research don't fall short because of Katrina. Everyone has thier causes and what they contribute to.

Also, anyone who is investing their cash and receiving a 400% return daily, please let me know who your Broker/Financial Planner is, because if you are banking like that, my Broker sucks.

I had 2 Grandmothers die of breast cancer. Are you doing any breast cancer fund raising this month?

What if it was your family?

I feel the same as Eboni - my 17 year old goddaughter had leukemia, had a bone marrow transplant and subsequently died a week ago. Leukemia research is now high on my list for donations. As I mentioned earlier, I did donate to the British Red Cross and feel if you all did the same to yours, your money gets there immediately. I am sure the Mardi Gras and other events are well meant but people could die while waiting for that to happen and for the money to be passed to whichever charity you have chosen.

Alexa

As a breast cancer survivor and the daughter of another, my thoughts this month are somewhat focussed on that subject.

Ok I might sound really awful here but here I go..

There only so much money every so often I can give to charity, I need to pay for my land, mainly. And when the Linden auctions came around, I donated a fair amount, to the donation board, for tickets etc. Now that other charitys have rolled around, earthquake, breast cancer etc, I really don't think it would be fair to keep giving to Katrina, I like to spread it out to give evenly to the charitys in world. It'd be like having 3 kids coming to your house for halloween and giving one all the sweets and telling the otheres you all out.

The other problem I see is that all these events are probably reaching the same people over and over again (people who read the forums and events calender).

Anyway, hope I didn't sound too evil back there..

No one sounds evil. This isn't about right or wrong, it's an attempt to get some help raising funds for hurricane victims.

It's also not to take away from other charities. My grandma died when I was 2 from breast cancer. My aunt died before I was born from melanoma. I'm at risk for both, and I contribute to the cancer research, as well as local charities such as the Boys and Girls Club and the Hope Pregnancy Center. The amount I donate to each isn't a lot, but it's something.

Please, if you can't donate $L, would you donate your time?

I've lost and buried friends and relatives whom I was close to due to breast cancer; I can't imagine anyone hasn't been touched in this way. I'll certainly pitch in; what plans are underway?

With me it is a matter of trust in who I'm giving the money to. I feel more comfortable giving to an American charity that by law has to tell me what percent of my money is going to the cause. I'm sure many are genuinely giving the money to the cause they say they are, but there are no ways of telling for sure in an anonymous environment like Second Life.

That's why I was so pleased to see LL step forward this way. As the credible entity at the core, I felt as much the need to support their corporate responsibility if they intend to be more than a game at the same time as supporting the Red Cross which expressed concerns from the get go over the ability to carry on as the initial outpouring of support dwindled.

I don't know about everyone else... but I actulally have butt-loads of apathy.

I mean when I think of the technology we have vs. how we use it... I just don't care.

Very few people control the lives of very many.

I'm completely apathetic at this point.

Make me care <----- not sarcasm... but a plea.

The Mardi Gras Parade Float contest has been cancelled due to lack of interest.

I apologize to everyone who put their time and effort into this, and I thank you for the support and care.

A Mardi Gras float contest seemed like it would have appeal for those bemoaning the lack of variety in the events calendar. I guess not.

maybe if these sims weren't pg....

Madame Mfume presents:

Debauchery for Dollars!

BJ's in the Big Easy Back Alleys!

Yea, that's the ticket....

Well, I just recently got the note card for this Mardi Gras thing, and the part of it that was confusing me/putting me off was the part about a "team." Maybe that was holding back others as well.

coco

Well PJ sims for Mardi Gras does seem a little odd. Most people who are not NO natives only think Mardi Gras is about debauchery. Mardi Gras doesn't usually happen in October, etc.


There could be a few reasons people aren't responding.

1) Notes have been dropped on people who are offline. There is about a 50% chance you actually get notice that something has been given to you. Also lately, you get the message you have recevied something via IM before it actually reaches you in the world and the delay can be hours.

2)I just got the note the other day and with other things I have to do, I didn't want to commit to something before I was sure I would be able to meet the obligation. I was going to respond tonight, but it seems I am off the hook.

3) The note I was given had no timeline in it that I can remember. The only date that was given was Nov 5th for events. How can you expect response in a timely manner without a deadline?


Instead of cancelling you could just push the dates back, set a deadline and give people a chance to respond. I spent the afternoon sketching a Mardi Gras outfit to create in SL while babysitting all for nothing. I guess I will save it for Carnival Season.

Flashing boobies for beads, but donations of $L instead of beads!

I believe both Big Easy and Biloxi are Mature sims. I could be wrong, but I remember checking because someone asked.

The notecards in the posters that were placed around world and handed out did have a timeline in them, and also the added note to IM me if more info was needed. Very few people did, so I didn't think they were that confusing, but maybe that part was confusing too.

I chose to cancel because there was hardly any interest at all. I'm not an event planner, and if there was something I could do besides contacting Lindens, placing banner ads, (thank you Cristiano and Flipper!) handing out hundreds of invitations, starting threads, and Katt writing an article about the events, then it escaped me. I did try to hire a group well known for event planning, which I planned to pay for myself, but I never received any acknowledgement or reply to the messages, so that didn't work out. With so little interest, I didn't think it would be fair to have people continue to work on their floats for an event that would probably have very little attendance and raise very little money. I think the time and effort would be better spent on something that has a better chance of doing some good.

I accept the responsibility for the event not working out. It was a larger project than I should have tried to take on with so little event experience. I recalled all the cool floats from the SL anniversary last year and thought there would be more interest in the creative process, which was a misjudgement on my part.

Again, thanks to everyone who helped and offered to help, and my apologies to those who worked on entries all for nothing.

I hope that you will reconsider and push the timeline back a little to allow people more time to contribute. I understand if you don't, you can't push something along without the interest.

My fault for suggesting they weren't. For the record, I was just kidding about the blow jobs, too. Nor do I think that New Orleans is only about debauchery.

I'm living in Europe and lots ha been done here to collect money and goods. There were newsflashes about your president that made us cringe, people were ready to travel to the other side of the world and help.

I think its a nice gesture you make try to do this in SL, wich is a virtual world with virtual money (indeed worth some rl us$). If you would spend the same time and effort you do in SL for this in rl the reward would be so much bigger because as it's so nicely written in that url it's inside 'the monkeysphere'.

I will never donate money in SL for ever what charity because i hardly trust anyone online (a lesson i learnd the hard way). Anything organised here, close to me, for whatever charity i will donate. I see those people's faces, i have a clear idea whom get my money and where it goes to. So the Katrina event in the local school here in my neighborhood got my share. On the internet? MSN? SL? any site? NO way ever!