“They need your help, and all we need you to do is call this number below. 1-900-112-6868! Your donation will be …..” my memories of the first “President’s Star Charity Show” was still vivid, I can still remember myself punching in the numbers on the phone while staring at the screen, naively hoping that my donation will show up on the television screen, completely oblivious that the number was increasing every second. That was me 4 years ago. But now that I reflect on this, I wonder to myself, why exactly did I make that call? Was it out of sympathy for the poor, applaud the performances or just plainly for fun?
However, I was not the only one who was donating. What was the reason the other audiences were donating? If they were so willing to donate money to charity, is there a need for such shows to be aired? If a simple commercial or two could get locals to donate, then I would say “Why not?” The main aim of such shows is after all, to raise funds for the needy. However, our topic today is about the heart stopping stunts that some of the Mediacorp artistes perform during these fundraisers are they really necessary for such events?
The most prominent example would be stunt shows put up by the famous Venerable Ming Yi who not only transformed into Spiderman and scaled a building; he even immersed himself into a tank of ice cold water for nearly half an hour. An interview with a member of the general public stated that, “every time he slipped, my heart skipped a beat. My phone was right beside me as I watched Ming Yi Fa Shi climb slowly up the building, cheering him on.” Evident from this, such stunt acts indeed causes the donations to increase, but I personally believe that this misses the whole point of the fund raiser. Even through the interview, it is evident that the people donate because they are cheering Venerable Ming Yi on, and this has nothing to do with empathy for the poor, donating to reach out and help the needy.
Many may argue that having such stunt shows will greatly increase the entertainment value of fundraising events such as “President’s Star Charity Show” and thus would increase the number of audience exponentially. More people would then call in to donate after watching the show. This too, however, misses the point of the fundraiser. People call in to donate because they enjoyed the show and not because they feel like they wish to lend a helping hand to the needy parties, the real targets of the whole fund raiser.
Others claim that only through these stunts can they feel how much the artistes would do just to raise money for these needy people and thus would gauge the danger level of performances and donate accordingly. This may be true to a certain extent but I do believe that if you really wanted to help these needy people, you would not need to feel through a second person, you can simply donate to show that you care.
Furthermore, the amount of money needed just to produce a show like this costs quite a hefty amount. The preparation, hiring of trainers to train performers, booking of stages, production of movie clips, setting up of hotlines… The list just goes on, and the cost rises. If these shows were to be omitted, wouldn’t there be more funds for the charity? Furthermore, artistes don’t have to put their life on the line and risk getting injured.
Last but not least, fundraisers are defined as an event to raise money when in lack of it for a cause. This means that fundraisers are held when the lack green is experienced, however, having an annual event eventually evolves into a ritual, regardless whether the organisation needs funding or not, they hold these fund raisers to earn money as “reserves”, but many suspect that these types of “reserves” is the reason of cases like the NKF saga surfacing as organisations have more than enough funding and thus turn this cash towards luxuries of their employees.
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