A Bucket of Truth

By Danielle Mc Mahon

As I sit here on a Friday night with writers block I throw the question out to the room; 'Give me a blog topic'
The topic returned to me is one which has been very prominent in the past week, 'Why do people have to be challenged to make a donation to charity?' The question is posed by my youngest brother, one of the odd balls, like myself who refused to do the ice bucket challenge.
For the past week every time I log on to facebook dozens of ice bucket challenge videos begin to automatically play.
I am not going to lie I watched a couple, like the girl who almost knocked herself out running into her clothes line, the many fellas who took the challenge in 'mankinis' and the hilarious middle aged women who thought the cold was going to kill them, or even, god-forbid, ruin their hair (very cynical and sarcastic of me I know!)
I was nominated to take the challenge and from the very first day I refused, not because I hate to have water thrown at me or because I am worried about my hair but because I agree with my brother that it should not be necessary to set a challenge in order to get people to donate.
I have often donated to charity and I think that charitable work is extremely necessary in a world like ours where the government takes so much and gives so little but I feel that things like the no make-up selfie and the ice bucket challenge start to become less and less about the charity as the trend catches on.
I also find it difficult to watch thousands of people wasting water for "charity" when there are so many people begging for clean drinking water in third world countries every day.
Don't get me wrong, I have my first world moments when trivial and material things take over but I keep it to myself. I appreciate the fact that people are donating when they do the challenge and that it is a fun way to get every body involved but I also think it takes away from the topic, that it takes away from the actual charity and what it is all about and that it results in people losing sight of the reason behind it all.
I did not write this blog to start a riot or to offend anybody who did take the ice bucket challenge but to make my point and to perhaps give a bit of insight into why I did not do it myself.