Life in General

Global Fund appeal

John Quiggin175 Comments

As promised, this is the post for my second “cash for comment” appeal. I’ll be giving $1 per comment, once again, up to a limit of $1000 (last time there were about 500 comments). I plan to donate the proceeds to Medecins Sans Frontieres, and express a preference for projects related to the The Global Fund to fight against AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria . These diseases kill over 6 million people each year, and the numbers are growing. Of course, cosponsors are welcome to nominate their own preferred charity.

As before, I’m also hoping for cosponsors, who agree to put in 5,10, 20 or 50 cents up to whatever limit seems appropriate. When the appeal is done, I’ll email to tell you how much you’ve promised. You then send the donation to MSF or your preferred alternative. If you can advise me when you’ve done it (and if you want, send a copy of the receipt) that’s great, but this entire appeal is being done on the basis of trust. I’ve already had one offer of 10c per comment, which I hope to confirm soon.

As regards your comments, anything you want to say is fine (civilised discussion and no coarse language, please), and it doesn’t have to be more than a word or two. But I’d be interested in discussion on the issues raised by exercises of this kind, for example, priorities in aid, the role of private philanthropy vs governments, NGOs, business and so on.

I’ll just mention that I’m financing my contribution partly from the payment I got for a review of Lomborg’s book, Global Crises, Global Solutions, coming out of the Copenhagen Consensus. Although I had some severe criticisms of that exercise, there were some important positives as well, and the assessment of health initiatives was largely consistent with the priorities identified by the Global Fund. So it seems appropriate to allocate the proceeds to a high-priority good cause.

The appeal will continue until 6pm Sunday Queensland time. I’ve got a few things on over the weekend, but I’ll try to post some updates.

Update 11pm Friday The appeal has barely begun and already cosponsors have promised 80 cents a comment, in addition to my $1. That’s a target of $1800. So please, spread the word.

Update Saturday 4pm I expected to get more comments than last time and fewer cosponsors, having already leaned on the generosity of my regular readers. In fact, it’s been pretty much the reverse. Comments have been a bit slow coming on, but the support from cosponsors has been truly impressive. Roughly in order

An anonymous regular reader has offered 50c per comment
Ken Harwood has offered 20c
Jonathan Lundell has offered 10c
Harry Clarke has offered 20c
Mister z has offered 10c
rdb has offered 10c
Emma has offered up to $100 (not sure what rate)
matthew Klugman has offered 10c

If my arithmetic is right, that’s a total pledge of $2.30 a comment. Given that it looks pretty unlikely that the upper limit is going to be reached, I’ll pitch in another 70c, and bring it up to $3. Is this a bargain, or what?

Update 2pm Sunday We’ve just passed 150 comments, so the amount raised is over $500, which is not bad, although there’s a lot more than this still on the table. Let’s hope we can make at least 200 by 6 pm (four hours to go).

Additional cosponsors

Peter Fuller offers 20 cents per comment – up to 500 ($100)
Bill Gardner offers 0.25 / comment, up to A$100.
Caitlin offers $50 if we reach 500

I forgot to mention in the earlier update that Jack Strocchi has offered 10c, subject to the requirement that I should say something nice about Bill Gates and his charitable efforts. Sooner done than said!

Appeal ended 6pm Sunday A total of 156 comments and a bit over $500 raised. Not as successful as last time, but a good effort nonetheless. Tomorrow, I’ll be getting in touch with the many generous cosponsors to tell them how much they’ve promised. Thanks very much to them, and to everyone who took the time to comment and think a little a bit about the issues. Thanks also to Tim Blair, Mark Bahnisch, Claire from Anggargoon(?) and others who linked. My Trackbacks aren’t working properly so there may be others I’ve missed.

fn1. At my absolute discretion, I’ll delete bots, spammers, repetitive commenters etc. If you don’t trust me to act fairly in this respect, or any other, don’t participate.

175 thoughts on “Global Fund appeal”

  8. I’ll commit to 20 cents per comment – up to 500 ($100). Congratulations, John, on a worthy idea, and a wonderful organisation and cause.

  10. You can thank Tim Blair for this comment! A good way to raise funds. Much more fun than selling cookies or raffle tickets.

  11. Great cause as always …

    Mothers all want their sons to grow up to be president but they don’t want them to become politicians in the process.
    -John (Fitzgerald) Kennedy

  14. Commenting is fun.
    But is there something better,
    As the Summer fades?

    Watch the nights lengthen,
    As the days drift to Autumn,
    And sip a cold beer.

    Elsewhere, night lingers.
    Frost, dark, disease and hunger,
    Our souls’ long Winter.

    Some are seeking Spring,
    Bringing food and medicine,
    Candles and blankets.

    They’re beyond borders.
    Benevolent as the sun,
    Or rain on dry lands.

    Yet their fire quells,
    And their breeze diminshes,
    Without our support.

    Let us wish them well,
    Lest we find ourselves alone,
    Once Summer has gone.

    There is one thing left:
    Don’t forget to spend John’s dough!
    (Or to sip that beer)

    (Yay — haiku comments!
    What could ever be more fun?
    One word: limericks!)

  17. You want limerick comments? How about this:

    In Oz there’s a blogger named Quiggin
    Whose conscience has really got jiggin’
    When people need help
    Or they let out a yelp,
    The jiggin’ old Quiggin is Biggin’!

    I know others can do better… how about give it a try?

  21. A few Xmases ago, my sister-in-law sent us a card saying that she was making a donation instead sending fruitcake or whatever. A great idea, and now we all do it. Our donations, as it happens, are to MSF. With that in mind, John, please count me for .25 / comment, up to A$100.

  26. A gimmick–and gimmicks work, so I’m here putting my $.02 USD.

    I wish charity could be done more rationally so that aid organizations didn’t have to contrive gimmicks–sponsor a child, pay for a share of a goat, get your name on the Rosa Parks Wall of Tolerance–and spend money on advertising through junk mail. I wish there were a Global Ministry of Charitable Distribution through which I could designate an amount to go out of my bank account, stipulating percentages to go to various kinds of projects, e.g. 80% poverty, 20% civil rights, so that I could do good without the hassle and charities could operate with less overhead

    Much of the gimmickry (not this project!) seems like making the poor sing for their supper–display their pictures, tell their stories, like medieval beggars displaying their deformities, precursor to the carnival freak show.

    I’m no economist and don’t know whether government aid is more efficient than aid administered by NGOs, but I’d certainly prefer it–just kick in taxes and have the money used to provide whatever benefits experts think most useful without displaying pictures of starving children or sending me junk mail telling heartwarming stories about how my contribution has changed the lives of recipients.

  28. “I bring you the stately matron called Christendom, returning bedraggled, besmirched and dishonored from pirate-raids … with her soul full of meanness, her pocket full of boodle, and her mouth full of pious hypocrisies. Give her soap and a towel, but hide the looking-glass.”

    Mark Twain on the US invasion of the Philippines

  30. “I’m no economist and don’t know whether government aid is more efficient than aid administered by NGOs, but I’d certainly prefer it—just kick in taxes and have the money used to provide whatever benefits experts think most useful without displaying pictures of starving children or sending me junk mail telling heartwarming stories about how my contribution has changed the lives of recipients.”

    Yes, those are annoying to some but effective on others. I kind of enjoyed telling friends I had given them a gift of rabbits to people in another country for Christmas. I think the visuals are important since we don’t see starving children much in our news media. Most people in wealthy countries have no clue there still are people starving in the world.

    As to the tax thing, charity donations are tax deductible – not why I give, but I know it’s an incentive for a lot of people. And there are some companies that offer automatic donations from your paycheck to various charities as part of their corporate giving programs….

  31. Interesting idea. Here in the US it is tax preparation time, and I’ve been thinking about what nonprofit donations I make during the year, and if that is “enough” in relation to my income. Taking the time to post a comment so that a worthy cause gets money — that seems like a good deal to me.

  32. What a clever way to raise money for a good cause from those of us who are short on cash but long on words!

  33. I see two big disadvantages to government aid compared to private aid — first, far too many governments, my own included, reduce the effectiveness of aid by dictating that aid supplies must be bought in our own country if possible, increasing their cost and having less positive economic effect and cultural-appropriateness than locally purchased goods. Second, taxpayers, at least in the US, vastly overestimate how much our government spends on foreign aid, and are likely to feel they’ve “done enough” when they’ve hardly done anything at all. Of course, in the second case, people are selfish idiots and would probably believe that even if the govennment gave nothing, so it probably doesn’t have a lot of influence on giving one way or the other.

  39. Jack Strocchi — 19/2/2005 @ 1:25 am apparently pledged 10c per comment, a trifling sum to some but a kings ransom to him. It would be nice if the moderator recognised his contribution, but not too loudly.

    But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and all manner of herbs, and pass by justice and the love of God. These you ought to have done without leaving the others undone.

    /bible.cc/luke/11-42.htm”>Luke 11:42

  41. It’s good that JQ is going to give money to charity, but I don’t see why the amount should be related to the number of comments added to a blog post. Doesn’t it make more sense to let the amount be determined by things like the JQ’s degree of moral obligation, the limitations of his personal finances, etc.?

  43. Brad DeLong asks a question that frets PZ Myers of Pharyngula, too:

    For those who have difficulty learning to speak the language that
    is mathematics like a native, how to teach them science in a world where it is a fact that the underlying bones of reality are profoundly mathematical—for that is the conclusion Eugen Wigner’s
    “The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences”
    leads us to? Call this the “Friends of Wigner” problem.

    Is actually reading Wigner’s paper or Hamming’s 1980 The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics a start? Earlier than university?

  46. what a fantastic idea! i shall (momentarily) quit carping about the wasted potential of the internet, in your honour. here’s my entry in the impromptu limerick competition. i don’t normally write them, so if i violate scan or meter, well, haiku! {where “hai” = “fuhh”}.

    there once was a man from australia
    who sought cyberspace glossolalia
    for a most worthy charity
    his genius a rarity
    in contrast, i feel like a failiuh!

  47. Dog blogging, which I have had a go at for the first time, has some specific virtues compared to cat blogging – more interesting photos.

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