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How not to measure love

(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-05-30 08:23

The ranking of donations distorts the nature of charity and thus goes against our original purpose of spontaneously showing our love for quake victims, says an article in People's Daily. The following is an excerpt:

When people at home and abroad all donate to the quake victims to show their love and sympathy, some persons have begun to rank the donations from different circles of the society and some netizens even posted a list of so-called "iron roosters" or stingy companies.

We can see that such ranking of donations was made out of their concern for the quake victims and their good intentions of expecting people to try their best to help these victims. But what we may not take into account is that such comparisons of donation go against the true nature of charity.

Donation of money is just one way of showing love to the victims in the quake. "I have no money, but I have blood." This word is from a migrant worker, which moved many of us. A great many people have contributed to the quake areas through volunteer services. Still many people donate to the quake victims in anonymity and some large enterprises choose secret donations. All these show that few people are heartless when we face a natural disaster and the people hold hand in hand and connect heart to heart by donating money, materials and labor. A simple ranking of donations can hardly reflect the acts of love of the society.

Charity is precious, so is love. Love cannot be measured by the amount of donation. As an elderly beggar-donor said, "Quake victims are suffering now, they live a tougher life than me and their life even gets threatened." His word is a reflection of love, which cannot be measured with the amount of money.

Therefore, 10 yuan donated by an ordinary citizen is as precious as large donations. Even among those celebrities and wealthy people, the amount of their donation is not equal to the amount of their love. What is important is that all of them are pouring love to quake zones. So ranking donations may disgrace love and simplify charity.

The essence of charity lies in the true love existing among human beings and charity is based on the spontaneous expression of love. Faced with the massive disaster, our ordinary people have spontaneously shown their love and our celebrities, wealthy people and entrepreneurs have shouldered their social responsibilities. The charm of charity just derives from this love and responsibility.

If we rank donations, it will add pressure to the donors and result in a blind donation competition. It may increase the donation amount in a short term, but will erode the foundation and the ground of charity in the long run.

(China Daily 05/30/2008 page8)