mutual aid and charity
It was L.H. who started the ball rolling.
Hi guys, just a conversation starter prompted by a friend who is very involved in community organisation: – What are people’s thoughts around the topic of mutual aid and charity? – What do these terms mean to you, and how are they different? – How do they show up in your life, if at all? – What questions emerge from this brief reflection?
Let me answer briefly.
What are people’s thoughts around the topic of mutual aid and charity?
I think people do want to help others – who may not be related by blood to them – they just don't know how. (and, indeed, who to help). but my own experience has been that when I was in severe desperate need, the right help came at the right time.
“charity” seems like a tainted word in Singapore – incentivised by tax deductions and appearances on Lists of Honoured Donors -
“mutual aid” was something new to me, I only learnt about it during Covid times – but burn-out became a real thing – the organisers were burnt out – I wasn't an organiser, just a participant in my own small way – but my phone was ringing at strange hours with desperate, gut-wrenchingly worded requests for food and cash – it seemed I was slipping into an endless ocean of endless suffering.
I had to limit my own involvement in mutual aid, for my own peace-of-mind.
There is a book that divides people into two groups: givers and takers. I think, for people who are givers, mutual aid was an experiment that consumed a lot of resources we weren't prepared to give away.
What do these terms mean to you, and how are they different?
Charity is high-profile – I'm thinking of President's Challenge Night television shows in Singapore – while mutual aid is quiet and “behind closed doors”.
Charity is something “nice to do” when I have extra resources to spare for others. Whereas mutual aid has a kind of urgent-emergency tone to it.
How do they show up in your life, if at all?
I'm using a social media platform named Mastodon. There is a hash-tag for mutual aid. Every time I scroll past the posts in that hash-tag, I'm reminded that there are a-million-and-one ways that a life could fall apart suddenly in such a quietly violent way – and no one is around you to pick up the gazillion broken pieces -
Charity – I don't have to look too far – there is Give.asia, and Giving.sg, crowd-funding platforms in Singapore – I associate them with the government, in my mind, I don't know why.
Oh, yes, once every year, freshmen from National University of Singapore go to public spots in Singapore to collect donations (the money goes to some charity organisation or another, I don't know which) – it's a tradition named Rag & Flag.
What questions emerge from this brief reflection?
I just want to know if the money I'm sending out into the world, (through mutual aid, and charity), is making an impact.
Or is it a Sisyphean labour of futility? The more you give, the more an emergency develops.
But I think it was Camus who commented about Sisyphus this way: “one must imagine him happy”.
I ask myself: am I happy to give? or, to choose the word “gift” over the word “give” – am I happy to gift to others, without expecting anything in return?
What is the intention behind my gift? Is it genuine human kindness, or something else?
Is my gift thoughtful, and desirable to the recipient? For example, giving a piece of expensive beef steak to a vegetarian may be neither thoughtful nor desirable, though it certainly costs me a lot.