I guess I’m like many people – I know I should do more and when prompted by a natural disaster I dip in to my pocket an make a donation – what I’m not doing is making regular donations –I’ve made regular donations in the past but with the advent of family life it all went by-the-board.

Australian, philosopher Peter Singer in his new book The Life You Can Save has this idea

If we could easily save the life of a child, we would. For example, if we saw a child in danger of drowning in a shallow pond, and all we had to do to save the child was wade into the pond, and pull him out, we would do so. The fact that we would get wet, or ruin a good pair of shoes, doesn’t really count when it comes to saving a child’s life.

UNICEF, the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund, estimates that about 27,000 children die every day from preventable, poverty-related causes. Yet at the same time almost a billion people live very comfortable lives, with money to spare for many things that are not at all necessary. (You are not sure if you are in that category? When did you last spend money on something to drink, when drinkable water was available for nothing? If the answer is “within the past week” then you are spending money on luxuries while children die from malnutrition or diseases that we know how to prevent or cure.)

The Life You Can Save – both the book and website – seek to change this. If everyone who can afford to contribute to reducing extreme poverty were to give a modest proportion of their income to effective organizations fighting extreme poverty, the problem could be solved. It wouldn’t take a huge sacrifice.

But first we need to change the culture of giving.

Research has shown that people are more likely to give if they know that others are giving. So we need to be upfront about our giving. The Life You Can Save – the book – asks readers to come to the Life You Can Save Website to pledge that they will meet a standard set out in the last chapter – the standard you can find on the pledge page on the website. Will you take the pledge, and thereby encourage others to do the same? Pete Singer, The Life You Can Save.

You know I’m going to make that pledge and I’m going to start by sponsoring a child, it might not be the most cost effective in the absolute world of finance but I’m hoping this more personal act of giving might help my children and particularly my daughter who’s just 8 from repeating the moral error I’ve been making for too long – so I’ll be selecting a charity off the Don’t Buy Ice Cream website and I’ll make regular donation to projects on the Global Giving website.

Hat Tip: Owen Abroad.

In his post on Integrity Anticant sums up.

Until integrity is restored to its primary place in personal, social, political, economic, national, and international life our world and all our self-satisfied competitive civilisations will shrivel in mortal sickness and continue to slide into a chaotic abyss.

Well perhaps Anticant is a little apocalyptic; however, I’ve a great deal of sympathy with his view.