UnRealHongKong.com

A Begging City

April 4, 2008 on 6:57 am | In General |

Public charity in Hong Kong is getting to my nerve to a point that I almost have to scream against it!

Okay, let me calm down and explain.

Public begging without permission is against the law. If you want to raise a donation in the public, you have to be a registered non-for-profit company. You need to get government approval before you may officially seek donations in public.A typical donation event would be flag-selling on a Saturday.

It’s common to see a school of teenagers dressed in school uniforms catching the pedestrains and sticking little stickers on people’s clothes. Flag selling is a common practice that ALL Hong Kongers are well aware of.

The Law has changed from a previous weekly donation on Saturday morning to become a bi-weekly event – on Wednesdays and Saturdays. To my dismal, yesterday, I saw a school of donation-grabbers, and that was a a Thursday morning! Is the Law recently amended? I don’t think so.

For additional official flag-selling information, see wiki:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_Day_(Hong_Kong)

Flag-selling used to be a common way to raise funds. The trend has evolved to a more mature model. From the standard little flag to rice or teddy-bear exchange, from teenager students to the retired individuals or handicapped individual, bigger prizes and appealing to your empathy appear to be winning charity tactics.

I still recalled when I was young – well younger. I was “encouraged” to participate these types of events to earn school merits which would appear on my school report cards. I knew my game well. All I had to do is to “sell” those stickers and finish my duties at a lightning speed! That did not prelude me from sticker two or three stickers for each donation. I was smart, so I thought.

Planning a donation needs a mindset of capturing prey, you need to capture certain important focal spots to get your preys. Last week, I was at captured at the traffic lights by a retired woman. I basically was forced to donate HK$20 when she said, “Son, help me to buy a ticket.” I told her that she did not have to give me the ticket, because I knew I would not check the newspaper for the prize I might get 2 months down the road. She smiled and replied saying, “Hey, treat this as your “get out of jail” ticket, so that you don’t have to buy again when others approach you!” I then realized she was REALLY smart.

Actually, there are more angles to this donation thingy but definitedly I am getting sick of seeing all the donations street-counters. The government should do something about it, especially when donation days are extending beyond the-then Saturday and now twice a week!

I prefer staying at home especially on a typical Saturaday morning. It’s less stressful.