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| Former US President George Bush takes on the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge |
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past few weeks, at some point or another, you will have seen someone dumping a bucket of icy water over their head and jumping around the garden screaming. From opinion-splitting former US President George Bush, to that girl or guy you have on Facebook, who you never speak to, but at the same don’t have the heart to delete them, leaving them just hanging around in the peripheral of your life as someone who shares the odd funny video. You know who you are.
Bearing in mind we’re coming towards to end of Summer in the
UK, you’d be forgiven for thinking people were just taking part in this activity
in a desperate attempt to stay cool under the blistering sun (I’ve totally
oversold the British Summer there haven’t I…)
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| British Summertime: The Reality |
Anyway…no, the Ice Bucket Challenge was a viral campaign started by two philanthropists – one of whom, Corey Griffin, tragically drowned last week (No Ice Buckets were involved) – in aid of Amyotrohic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). The original premise being, pay $10 to the charity, or dump the water on your head.
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| Corey Griffin, Co-founder of the Ice Bucket Challenge |
ALS is a terrifying neurodegenerative disease which attacks the nerve cells and spinal cord, often leaving a sufferer unable to speak, swallow and breath, or even fully paralysed, before eventually killing them. At the risk of understating it, it’s clearly a truly awful disease, and one which I, admittedly, and I imagine millions of others hadn’t even heard of until the Ice Bucket Challenges began.
Fortunately, the challenge was an instant hit, attracting a whole host of
celebrities to get involved, further spreading the message. So far, the ALS Association has received well in excess of $50 million in donations. To put that
into some context, it received $64 million in the whole of 2013, and
$2.2 million during the same period last year.
“Wow! How amazing that something so simple could raise so much money for a horrendous disease like ALS!” I hear you cry…well, unfortunately, the Ice Bucket Challenge has also received the cold shoulder from some people. There are three complaints that keep popping up on my news feed every time the Ice Bucket Challenge is mentioned;
1) “Millions of people are dying of dehydration, what a waste of water!”
Presumably, these are the people who’ve never let the shower
run to warm up, or left the tap running while brushing their teeth, or never forgotten they’d made a cup of tea and left it to go
cold before pouring it away. Maybe they’re the same people that live by the
rule “If it’s yellow, let it mellow. If it’s brown, flush it down.” Urgh.
Obviously, only the people who are outraged
about the Ice Bucket Challenge water wastage know for sure, but I imagine a lot
of them have – as unintentional as it may have been – wasted a fair amount of
water in their time.
Yes, we the Western World have the luxury of taking for
granted what we have, and that' something that needs to be addressed, but i'd say the $50 million+ raised already goes some way to making this less of a "waste".
Also this particular group of complainers seem to be of the belief that just as a dying African girl was about to take a lovely sip of water from a bucket, Mark Wahlberg and family callously stole it from her, laughing joyously while pouring it over themselves.
Also this particular group of complainers seem to be of the belief that just as a dying African girl was about to take a lovely sip of water from a bucket, Mark Wahlberg and family callously stole it from her, laughing joyously while pouring it over themselves.
That’s not how this works. There are numerous charity
organisation set up solely to help provide water to the under-privileged around
the world – by building wells and other sources, not by transporting water from
my hosepipe to Africa.
For those who are clearly incredibly passionate
about providing water to Africa, here’s a few websites they can visit, rather
than sitting at home, moaning about people pouring water over their heads
2) “Celebrities are only doing it for the publicity!"
Now, with this complaint i’m quite torn. For the most part, I
don’t disagree.
Of course, celebrities jump aboard charity campaigns in order
to further their own brand identity. That isn’t something new.
Year after year
we see mediocre pop stars releasing a song for Children in Need, or
multi-millionaires begging us to donate a fiver for little Adebola who has to
walk five miles for clean water each day. Of course, it’s horrible that anyone
has to live like that (this is where those wells I was talking about come in
handy) and in a perfect world, nobody would have to, because the millionaires
would have sorted it out, but for whatever reason, that hasn’t happened.
There are those celebrities who do things purely
for publicity, but there are also many celebrities who, guess what? Actually care
about making the world a better place. They’re only human, after all, even the
ones who’ve had more Botox injections than i’ve had Christmas dinners. Even if
they haven’t donated any cold, hard cash, thanks to their public following, the
trend is spreading further a field and reaching other people’s social media
accounts, which can only be a good thing.
3) “People are only doing it for likes"
Why shouldn’t you enjoy yourself and feel good about doing your bit for charity? You’re not obliged to do anything.
I imagine many people on my friend’s list haven’t donated. - I haven’t, mainly because
at the moment, i’m so poor a Malawian village are hosting a pop concert in aid
of my plight - so what? They’ve helped spread the message.
The Real Issue
My only problem with the Ice Bucket Challenge, is that I
think we should ensure everyone who takes part has just an ounce of common
sense, a basic understanding of gravity, and an awareness that water can be
actually pretty heavy, especially when dropped on your head.
I dread to think how
many have been admitted to A&E after failed attempts like these… I suppose on the plus side, it helps us separate the wheat from the chaff. It's Darwinism in action.
The hype of the Ice Bucket Challenge will inevitably melt away, in the same way the No Make Up Selfie campaign did, but in a time when all we hear is negative stories about Social Media, this is yet another prime example of how effective it can be in kick-starting a hugely successful campaign, and making a positive difference.
All in all, my message to anyone complaining about yet another successful social media campaign in aid of charity, is to fill a bucket with ice and water, pour it over yourself, and metaphorically and literally, chill out!
So, nominate your friends and family, keep this trend going, and if you do feel inclined to make a financial contribution to an already hugely successful campaign, you can donate here!
Follow me @danielwalls91
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