Profiting from other's misery
When eBayers started offering Live8 tickets for sale they were lambasted by many for attempting to profit from the misery of those living in Poverty in Africa. A child dies of extreme poverty every 3 seconds and the only reason these eBayers could make money is because others are dying.
Jump forward to last Saturday when 225,000 people converged in Edinburgh for the Make Poverty History march. The Meadows was the centre of attention and there was no shortage of people there ready to take advantage of the situation. Burger vans, coffee stalls, guys selling whistles, the Mirror had arrived with huge pallets of placards all emblazoned with the Mirror slogan.
Yet no-one cared, there was no shortage of people willing to buy fast food from a burger stall who are only there making money because of the situation in Africa. It seems that when it's an easy target like eBayers and those who oppose haven't got anything to gain from it then people will berate them and try to shut down the auctions; yet when there are other blatant examples of profiteering, people turn a blind eye.
Who is worse? Someone who makes £100 or so profit from a free Live8 ticket, or a national tabloid newspaper attempting to gain mass advertising by handing out placards with their logo affixed to the top?
Jump forward to last Saturday when 225,000 people converged in Edinburgh for the Make Poverty History march. The Meadows was the centre of attention and there was no shortage of people there ready to take advantage of the situation. Burger vans, coffee stalls, guys selling whistles, the Mirror had arrived with huge pallets of placards all emblazoned with the Mirror slogan.
Yet no-one cared, there was no shortage of people willing to buy fast food from a burger stall who are only there making money because of the situation in Africa. It seems that when it's an easy target like eBayers and those who oppose haven't got anything to gain from it then people will berate them and try to shut down the auctions; yet when there are other blatant examples of profiteering, people turn a blind eye.
Who is worse? Someone who makes £100 or so profit from a free Live8 ticket, or a national tabloid newspaper attempting to gain mass advertising by handing out placards with their logo affixed to the top?
posted by Unknown at 8:52 AM
1 Comments:
Well, im in agreement with you that there has been a huge amount of hyprocacy throughout the whole Live8 thing. However, it could be construed that the Mirror and plethora of food/drink stalls are supporting the cause, whereas those selling free tickets on ebay were just looking to profit. Of course, in an ideal world, then the ticket sellers, the Mirror and all the food/drink vans would give any consequential profits to charity.
Post a Comment
<< Home