Causes I believe in

Finally getting some free time on my hands. I know! I'll use this to enumerate some of the causes I believe in.

Have you ever counted how many campaigns there are nowadays? Everything is important and deserves your monetary contribution. There's no end to the creativity of the Fund Development/Campaign Management think tanks either. You can support cops riding for cancer, wear a rainbow of ribbons to show solidarity to those in undesirable conditions, sponsor your friends to bungee-jump off a building wearing superhero costumes--I don't even remember what that one's about. Not to mention the classics: hours of malnourished kids in Africa begging you to join WorldVision, sad songs about abandoned puppies and kitties pleading with you through a kennel while wobbling from missing limbs. So you wear a pin covered in jeans, slap on a sticker that advocates for child literacy, cover yourself in pink to let people know you care about women's healthy breasts... --yeah, I know, it's starting to turn sour, so I'll stop. But you get the idea.

The campaigns are too effective for saps like me. I find myself feeling guilty to flip away from the channel with the dying kids, hanging my head in shame while walking past representatives of typhoon-striken south Asian countries, and getting the strange urge to defend myself for doing these horrifying and ignorant things: that I don't have much money myself, that I already contribute to science and health by working as hard as I can at the CDC and planning to go into public health, that I really do sympathize with those suffering from illnesses ranging from asthma and Alzheimers to prostate cancer and stroke, which is why, again, I plan to go into public health. It's just humanly impossible to care about everything, and so now, here, I declare what I do care about and am willing to support above other causes.

1. The International Red Cross Movement
This is, in my opinion, one of the greatest achievements of mankind. To have a global network based on humanitarian values of alleviating suffering is the epitome of everything I believe in. So I put in time and, when I can, money into the organization, and choose to train and lead, and to respond when I'm called upon.

2. UNICEF
Children truly are innocent--not in the moral sense, but simply because they didn't choose to be dumped in the situation they often find themselves. And, since they were born into it, the least we can do as adults is to ensure they don't suffer too much. There are many save-the-children groups out there, but I chose UNICEF because it's a UN program, and presumably can make more of a difference that does not depend on religious commitments. Not to mention the Global Parents program to which I make a monthly donation provides life-saving nutrition items.

3. Cancer
From time to time, I donate a small amount to Canadian Cancer Society and BC Lung Association. Both my grand-fathers died of cancer, and my dad's a life-long smoker. I just hope the scientists find something useful soon.

4. Climate change
I'm not a tree-hugger, I don't go out of my way to advocate for sustainability, and I can't afford a hybrid car. What I can do is simple things like reduce, reuse and recycle. I kind of like the Earth being a hospitable planet, and I wish it could stay that way. So, Pascal's Wager.