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Sports |
WE wish our many Oz readers a bonzer Australia Day. May your kangaroos,
emus and wombats be plentiful, your cricket bats ever more willowy, and
your schooners, middies and ponies as golden and chilled as ever. All
hail to the Land of Bradman and Blanchett and Bondi!
***
ISN’T it strange that there’s such confusion over the simple English
words “donation” and “volunteer?”
***
TIME and again we read or hear of Members of Parliament “donating”
ambulances or land cruisers to some deserving cause within their own
electorates. There have even been occasions when four-wheel drives or
banana boats have carried signs indicating that such-and-such a Member
has “donated” them to the people.
***
THE fact is that none of these apparently open-handed gifts is what it
seems. Payment for them will have come from one or more of a member’s
allocated funds. In other words, the cost of these “gifts” has been met
with public money and they are in no way “donated” to the electorate.
***
MUCH the same confusion is evident over the word “volunteer”. For
example, yesterday we read of the Mount Hagen “street boys” being given
K40,000 by the Member for Hagen Open “in appreciation” of their efforts
in keeping that city clean. It seems that for the past three years,
volunteer youths have cleaned the city for no pay.
***
THE money was allegedly distributed so that “the youths would carry on
with their volunteer job of keeping the city clean”. But the distribution
of K40,000 to these youths means that they are no longer “volunteers” but
a group paid to carry out certain projects.
***
SOME readers may think we’re splitting hairs, but it seems to us that the
difference between paid and voluntary work is important. Our country
badly needs people to do community work without thought of payment, and
to donate to the community using their own funds and abilities.
***
AND let’s recognise that with elections just around the corner, we can
expect quite a rash of candidates “donating” goods and paying for
“voluntary” services. If these contenders want your vote so desperately,
it must be very valuable – think carefully before you waste it.
– Dee Nesenolis
 
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