The British have once again proved that they are among the most generous and warm-hearted people in the world.
Yesterday was the culmination of over a month of preparations for this year's "Red Nose Day", organised by Comic Relief.
I normally only lurk here and make the occasional comment. Today, however, I have to write my first diary, to thank the British for their generosity and to say how proud I am to be a Brit. Even though I have been an expat for over 30 years.
In a 7 hour long marathon program on BBC1 and BBC2 television (the latter while the news was shown on BBC1), various hosts introduced a wide variety of comics, specials and music:
* Take That premiered their new single, as well as being parodied by a group of comedians calling themselves Fake That.
* Further music was provided by Elbow, The Axis of Awesome (an Australian comedy rock band), Annie Lennox, Adele, JLS and The Wanted, who sang this year's official Comic Relief song.
* Short information films featuring such people as Lenny Henry (one of the founders of Comic Relief), Steve Jones, David Tenent (ex Doctor Who), Jack Dee, and many others.
* Short films showing how money was raised by supermarket chains (Sainsbury's), food manufacturers (Walker's Crisps and Maltesers) and transport companies (British Airways), to name but a few.
* David Walliams was in a TV special called 24 Hour Panel People, in which he took part in numerous panel games, all in a single 24-hour period. Chris Moyles hosted a radio show on Radio 1 for 52 hours, setting a new world record.
* The BBC1 program Let's Dance for Comic Relief was a weekly program, watched by millions who made a donation every time they voted.
* British Telecom provided telephones and connections that allowed over 10,000 volunteers to take donations over the phone. Even so, there were times when the lines were overloaded, resulting in waits and delays.
Why did they do this?
* In Africa, 2,000 children die of malaria every day; that's one every 45 seconds! A mosquito net costs only £5 ($8), a testing kit to determine whether someone has the disease only 80p ($1.30), and drugs to keep them alive long enough to get to hospital only £1.20 ($1.95).
* There are parts of the continent where children are literally starving to death, because there is no food. A special concentrated food called Pulpy Nut (a “ready to use therapeutic food” (RUTF)) costs only 30p (less than 50 cents) per meal, which means that keeping a child alive for a month costs only £26 ($42.20). I paid more than that last week for an evening meal!
* Cataracts are the leading cause of blindness in Africa. If a child contracts them shortly after birth, the chances are 50:50 that it will survive to its 2nd birthday. An operation to correct the problem costs £150 ($243.50). Interestingly enough, the same operation for an adult who has contracted the condition costs only £35 ($56.80).
* There are islands in Kenya, with populations of 15,000 and more each, where there is no hospital, no clinic, no medical aid at all. One of the films was about a mother with AIDS and tuberculosis, with her infant child who was HIV positive, who could not afford the 35p (57 cents) to go to the mainland. When the film crew arranged for the transport, it turned out to be too late: she died two days later, and her baby three days after that. The island now has a health worker, who is employed by Comic Relief.
* In Great Britain there are over 700,000 young carers (teenagers, even children) who have to take care of ailing and sick parents and siblings. That's over 1% of the population!
* Again in Britain, on average, 2 women are killed by their partners every week as a result of domestic violence.
All of the above have been addressed by Comic Relief in the last 23 years, since it was founded. They also fund training of nurses and midwives, food and medications, support groups, the list is endless. There have been over 12,000 projects since they started. In one town in Kenya there is a street called Red Nose Road, since they have funded the creation of over 100 businesses on that one street alone.
But this is an endless battle.
If governments would forget their fights and wars, military spending came to an end, and drug companies and the super-rich were taxed what they really should be paying, this kind of appeal would be totally unnecessary.
As it is, the appeal raised £74,360,207 (over $120.7 million dollars). 40% will be used in Britain, the rest in Africa. In addition £10M earmarked for education and health in Africa will be matched one for one by the British government.
I watched to whole program with my parents, and there were occasions when we all had tears in our eyes. We made our donation by credit card and, since we pay taxes in Great Britain, we were able to mark it as gift aid. This enables the charity to claim an additional 25% against our taxes.
I can only say:
Go Great Britain! You are the greatest!