Crossing the Finish
This is the question I posted on the Facebook, Twitter, and some other social websites when I was doing the fund raising for the Aboriginal Children’s Advancement Society last week.
The fund raising was done in conjunction with a 10km running event, the “Run4Fun” organized by the Sun-Herald, a leading newspaper in Sydney. All donations had to be made via the direct link provided by the organizer online. It was a perfect way of using the internet to address the appeal to many within the shortest possible time, so I thought.
Whilst we started late in the fundraising, I was hopeful that the power of the internet would make a difference. After all, we only targeted $1 each from 10,000 people.
As it turned out, we didn’t even receive one single dollar from anyone via this channel. All the donations were from people we know personally. Quite frankly, I was a little bit disappointed because it was such a good cause and there shouldn’t be any resistance not to do so.
Perhaps I could only attribute the following as reasons for the outcome.
a/ not enough time? (the fundraising page was up just three days before the event)
b/ people were not familiar with the charity organization, and were too busy to follow through.
c/ people were skeptical about paying by credit card or paypal.
As for the run, it was fantastic, more so because it was my first time. Having a chance to run into the ANZ Stadium for the last 100 metres with the audience on-looking was awesome. It is like putting myself in the shoes of the Olympians running into the Stadium at the Year 2000 Sydney Olympic.
We ended up raising $710 for the Society. Thanks again to all those who had made this possible.
Live Life,
Junius
P.S. the picture on the left was taken when I and my friend had crossed the finishing line.
This is the title of the article I read from the Sun-Herald Magazine in Sydney over the last weekend. It was written by a dentist.
I must admit that I got very disturbed after reading the passage because it was so misleading and twisted.
He said,” As I say to my patients – if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Modern dentistry offers a range of filling materials and none are 100 per cent perfect. Dental amalgam still remains the most cost effective and easy to use. ..”
He also said,” Very sensitive instruments can detect billionths of a gram of a mercury vapour in the mouth of a person with amalgam fillings. This is less than the normal consumption of organic compounds of mercury from dietary sources such as fish and tea, … and is far below the level that causes adverse health effects.”
So, for the faithful readers out there relying on his “expertise”, it is easy to come to the conclusion that there is nothing to worry about. But, deep down, do you think that this should be adequate knowledge in their best interest?
For these innocent readers, would they know
a/ that mercury is such a potent neurotoxin that it can do so much harm especially to developing fetuses, infants, and children; or
b/ that mercury ranks Number 3 as the most poisonous substance, just after lead and arsenic; or
c/ that you can contaminate a 25-acre lake by less-than-a-teaspoonful of mercury, rendering all fishes there not safe for consumption?; or
d/ that dental amalgam fillings unquestionably contain mercury; or
e/ that talking about America alone, increasing number of state governments are imposing laws such that dentists need to install dental amalgam separators in their offices to stop the pollution to the sewers, or
f/ that they might be sleeping with the worse enemy to their health, and one day they have to pay the bill big time.
Even if we take the subject as debatable, I would think that it is good ethics for professionals to make known these risk factors to their patients so that they are given the chance to make a choice for themselves.
As a society, ultimately we have to answer these questions:
Is the innocent consumer made aware of the likely danger?
How much the professionals in the field are doing to “protect” these consumers?
How much the media are doing to uphold an unbiased presentation to the audience/readers out there?
I think each and every one of us, when we come to know about it, has a part to play in making this message known too.
Live Life, Junius.
p.s. some good source of information for further research:
Fact Sheets on Mercury by the Health & Environment Alliance and Health Care Without Harm http://www.noharm.org/details.cfm?type=document&id=1511
A Mouth Full of Poison: The Truth about Mercury Amalgam Fillings
The Problem With Mercury
http://emsi-teacherworkshop.stanford.edu/pages/workshopresources/Problem-Hg_Curriculum.pdf
Dr Chan’s Natural Heath website www.natural-health.com.my
Recent Comments