Chuggers

Student, young, idealistic, political. In need of money. The stereotype works against me, because it was for these reasons that I applied for a job at a large, secular, international charity (on an hourly rate, not commission) and was brought on as an advocate for the in-house team.

I’ve since quit, because the stress was damaging my health and interfering with my studies, but I still felt somewhat offended when I read the recent article that labeled human beings, doing their job, parasites.

Charity + parasitism = Charasites? It seems appropriate given the way the public view charity advocates: sneaky, manipulative, naive children who don’t know already that the world isn’t worth saving. On more than one occasion on the street when I invited somebody over with a friendly “Hello”, they wandered over with meagre interest and said half heartedly, “C’mon, give us your best pitch”, as if I were a casual amusement.

Continue reading "Counterpunch: I just want to help, don’t call me a charasite" »

Charity: a philanthropic, benevolent or gift-giving organisation. Parasitism: a non-mutual relationship where one organism directly benefits at the expense of another, generally larger, organism.

Thus, a charasite... ?

You know them. Well-meaning, hyper-energetic young people in netball smocks who would just love to talk to you about how much bears, or trees, or whales, or heart research and need your help specifically.

Continue reading "The six shonky steps charity parasites use to get your $$" »