Swhet Productions

This has been bugging me for a while, but before I start, I want everybody to watch this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAgti_2uziA

The woman's name is Karen Klein. Before I go any farther with this, I want people to understand, I completely agree that what these kids are doing is fucking discusting and horrible. They say some pretty harsh things, and they're pussies for attacking this 67 year old woman. They also sound like fucking idiots. One guy says something about having "A herpe" at some point. The absolute worst part in the video, is in the last 10 seconds, a kid says "You don't have any family because they all killed themselves because you're so fucking fat." Karen's son killed himself when he was 10.

After all this, she still didn't press charges.

I'm gunna continue this discussion with saying I absolutely support the internet outreach and general support that the public is giving her. And by that I mean people simply saying they support Karen, that she is a wonderful person, and really just to ignore those stupid assholes on the bus. The Canadian Military sending her videos and the kids parent's coming up and personally apologizing for their kid's misbehaviour.  That is all well and good. But this is where I start to turn sour.

A man started an online donation page for Karen. He felt she needed a Vacation, and his goal was to reach $5,000 dollars. Which would pay for a pretty kick ass vacation, and a chance to relax. That is okay I guess, I get it. But what I don't get, is Disneyland giving her an all expense paid trip for a 1 week stay at the resort. So why is she getting $5,000? People don't realize that Disneyland isn't doing this out of the good of their hearts, but for publicity. And it gets worse, which is the part that really gets me going.

The man who started the donation, Max Sidorov,  wanted to reach $5,000 dollars. But, as the title of this entry suggests, the total went a little higher then that... $700,000 ($703,883, to be exact). Don't believe me? Here's the website: http://www.indiegogo.com/loveforkarenhklein .  To put that in words, Seven hundred THOUSAND dollars. To a lady who was bullied on a school bus. First of all, is that the society we live in? "Oh. You went through such a terrible experience. Here, have some money." Sure mentally she was hurt, and yeah, 700 grand can pay for therapy, but bubble wrap is infinitly cheaper. At this point I want to remind everyone I'm not lashing out at the lady, none of it was her fault, I'm getting angry at, once again, society. I'd also like to add that the name of the website is "Love for Karen Klein." Since when was money love if you're not living in a house where your father is too busy for you?

Now I'm gunna drop a load of knowledge on your face. World vision, one of the biggest third world aid organizations out there (the one with all the commercials where the cameraman tells the starving children not to bat bugs out of their eyes so they can eat next week), advertises that for $39 a month, (Just under 2 dollars a day) you can sponser a child. What that actually means is that it helps build the childs community. The only reason why they say "Sponser a Child" is because children are much cuter and more defenseless then a picture of a community with mud pits and literal shit holes, and it makes adults want to help. Here's a copy/pasted list of things it provides for the child and it's community:

Education

Skills training

Improved Nutrition

Agricultural assistance

Health care

Safe water

HIV and AIDS programming (where needed)

Obviously it is not instantaneous, and multiple children are sponsered in one community, but still, it helps those things. My family  sponsers a child in Africa, and within 5 years they had built a new school, had about 15x as much access to clean water, and had set up a medical building. Now, let me drop some grade 3 math knowledge on your face as well:

2 dollars a day(for argument's sake), x 365 days a year(ignoring leap years) = $730 a year, per child.

Lets say 10 children are sponsered in one community:

10 x $2 = $20 a day

10x$39 = $390 a month

$390 x 12 = $4680 dollars a year

Four-thousand-six-hundred-eighty dollars a year, to basically save a community from literally hundreds of deaths. Medicine to fight disease, no more thirst, crops will be planted and animals will be be bought, meaning no more hunger. Education for the youth to move on and give themselves a better future. And just a better future in general. After a while, the little shantytown becomes somewhat self-sustaining. They have been taught how to raise live stock and properly grow food in farm fields, and they even start to develop their own economy.

I bet you're thinking "Whoa whoa whoa Liam, slow down there. $4680 is a lot of money." I'd like to revert you to the title of this blog entry. $700,000 dollars for a woman who already has a free 7 day, all-expense-paid trip to Disneyland? Maybe she didn't press charges because those kids were the best thing that every happened to her. $700,000 dollars is way more then $4680. Let's do a little more math, and figure out JUST how many African villages we could save with that kind of Money.

$703,883 / $4680 = 150.4

For arguments sake, let's round down.

One hundred fifty villages/communities, for a whole YEAR. Now, realize, that's not only saving the communities, that's saving the LIVES of the individuals in the communities. Watering them, feeding them, medicating them, educating them, helping them escape the cycle of working for 12 cents a day. And helping them build a better future. But no, fuck them. That lady on the bus NEEDS this money, to show the kids she IS NOT POOR!

Now, Klein has made a statement saying she will donate money to a charity, but has yet to specify which. It is speculated for obvious reasons that she will donate it to anti-bullying organizations(what do they do anyways? Besides raise awareness?) At least donate it to a homeless shelter. But again, this is not an attack on Klein. This is an attack on society giving the money to Klein. Yahoo News states that "The intention of the people who donated was for Klein to have it." Erm... Why? I just fail to understand that while people are being literally blown up in Lybia, and people are dying of starvation, aids, dehydration, and an overwhelming other number of medical diseases, and in many places government oppression, does ONE WOMAN deserve that much money for doing nothing?

So I close with this: For the 4 or 5 of you who actually read this blog, please, think before you spend your money. Make sure you know where it's going, and don't give three-quarters of a million dollars to someone who really doesn't need it all that bad, when you could save a good portion of Ethiopia with said dollars.