So the NKF Cancer show is going on now, and the only difference between the NKF Cancer show and the usual NKF Charity programmes is a considerable lack of dialysis tubes and hair. I'll just let it be known that I've never had a good opinion of these fundraising shows, because they mess up peoples' priorities, but because cancer and kidney disease are such terrible ailments, this is one of those cases where the ends justify the means.
I've always believed a culture of charity and giving is something you nurture through a good education and decent upbringing, and it has several Christ-like associations (this, of course, not denying the fact that several other religions preach a message of love and giving). It's also something remotely inherent in one's character and finances, so it's a combination of nature and nurture. Singapore, as usual, has taken the express route by lumping charity with celebrities, and the NKF show is just one of the more hyperbolic examples, the very deep and urgent cause drowned in a miasma of prancing Chinese thespians and out-of-tune Taiwanese singers.
What about those tear-jerking video inserts, you ask? Well yeah, they are kinda miserable and all, but I don't think they're there to bring the donations back to ground-base. They seem to exert another kind of effect, more guilt-induced than anything. I mean, if you watch a bunch of adults crying on the screen, lamenting about how cancer has wreaked such havoc on their lives, you'll feel like a total jackass for not donating. The whole programme seems targetted at two main groups of people... a) Teenage fan-girls, to whom associations with the likes of Singapore Idol and other such SMS poll-themed programmes are not too alien in this instance and b) People who watch the show for mild amusement, and who're too lazy to donate, and hence need a prod in the conscience to pick up the phone. I have absolutely nothing beyond a hunch to justify my supposition that between these two extremes lies a paper-thin margin.
The celebrities dancing around and doing death defying stunts and all is really very cute but, honestly, I don't give a shit. The part I cannot stand about these shows is when the performers go "Oh we've worked so hard for that stunt, the least you could do is donate", which lops on a whole load of moral goodness on them, and rubs in the fact that patients should be grateful to a bunch of celebrities for whatever aid the NKF promises to give them through the fund-raiser. The life of the celebrity invites cyncism, because apart from money and fame, the only other thing they seem pre-occupied with is image and public relations. Don't tell me the NKF crap isn't a publicity stunt for several of them. If there's another incentive, name it. What? Public good? No normal, selfish person (and we all tend to be inherently selfish, at varying levels) would subject himself to the kind of death defying stunts (and accompanying training) that we see on these shows if it weren't a win-win situation, and if doing a more hyped-up stunt gives media attention, or piques interest in an otherwise dying career, hey, why not?
These shows harness the positions of celebrities for a larger good, and there's no doubt about that, it's just the trivialising effect that puts me off. I wish the NKF would find a smarter, more sincere way to do these shows soon, because the star-induced charity isn't permanent, not by a mile. After all, the NKF is something almost entirely unique to Singapore, and people should at least supoort it for the right reasons. I'm aware that, as usual, I'm sitting on a moral high-horse by debasing yet another of the NKF's charity shows, but it really is something worth debasing, in view of the fact that it's made charity entertainment, when the two shouldn't begin touch to each other with a pornstar's dildo. What next? More celebrity pastors? More MOE-endorsed Community Involvement Projects? More PW topics that center on "improving society"? When is the dichotomy between goodwill and incentives, or, for that matter, the difference between a public and a personal realm gonna become apparent? When we attain a gracious society, I suppose. Or when we make it to the World Cup.
Alas, as is symptomatic of recent NKF-shows, this one isn't doing too well. The minute the host starts telling his own personal encounter with cancer, or when the ah-mah celebrities start singing, you know things are going to get very weepy by the end of the show. Considering that by 2015, 1 out of every 2 Singaporeans will be affected by cancer in some way or another, they'd better step up their efforts before the novelty of celebrities facing certain death in a water-tank of doom dries up.
Do call, anyway. If not for the people whom, in reality, only God can deliver, then surely for the celebrities, who would like to think the show is really about them. Maybe it is.
-quoted from Joel
The Daily Backtrack - NKF This
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