Hello everyone and welcome back to Britain under the microscope advanced.
Hello.
So in our last lesson, we talked about charity in the UK.
Yes, we did.
So we talked about a few of the charities you might see on TV or around the streets, especially charity shops.
Before we carry on today's discussion, one thing I keep seeing on TV is comic relief, that is a charity event, isn't it?
Yeah, comic relief happens every two years and it's the charity that dedicated to global poverty.
But why is it called comic relief?
Well it was founded by two comedians: Lenny Henry and Richard Curtis. So what it started off with was people would buy red noses to wear.
Oh, like clowns.
Yeah, and people would do funny or stupid things to raise money for charity, like for example men would wear women's cloth for the day.
And that is all for charity?
It's all for charity and that's why we call it comic relief. Because everybody has to do something funny for charity, you can't just give money you should be doing something funny to make people laugh.
That is very very British, isn't it? You would incorporate humor in your charitable causes. Absolutely, so for example it all comes together with a seven-hour TV show on the BBC, what we called a telethon.
A telethon is usually like a television marathon to collect donations for charitable causes. Even a lot of very famous people appear on comic relief including some of your prime ministers.
Yeah.
Tony Blair
Tony Blair appeared in the spoof. What they do is they take famous TV shows. So in the last comic relief, they actually took part in lots of spoofs like a Downton Abbey Spoof.
Spoof is just like a jokey version恶搞of a famous TV show or a famous movie.
So it's a lots humor, it's really funny. It's definitely worth watching.
Yeah, if you are interested you can always check out comic relief on some of the video sites; I'm sure you will find some sketches.
So back to the charity, because last time you mentioned there are so many different charities in the UK. I was wondering this is a hard question “how are they controlled?”
Well, all charities have to be registered by the charity commission. So the charity commission what they do is they give a charity a number so that anyone can check to see whether or not that charity is legal.
Essentially it's a regulator or supervisor in charity organizations.
Yeah, they don't control the charities so much but they just make sure that the money is being used in a proper way.
That's good. I think that gives people more confidence in donating money. I think in China a lot of people want to give to charities, but probably will trust things like crowd funding more, because they can be sure where the money is used.
Yes, I think that's the same thing charity around the world anywhere.
Let's talk about some of the problems, there must be some problems, it's not always so perfect.
No.
What are some of the issues with charity?
Well, one of the biggest issues at the moment is the running cost of the charity.
Because the organizations are too big?
Yeah, if you imagine some of the really big charity they have a really large bureaucracy and a lot of the donations they have to go to the upkeep to run the organization.
The operation's cost, hiring people to work.
And some CEOs of charities, they do get quite a lot of money.
Do people have problems with that?
Yeah, a lot of people do.

And I find it that sometimes if you don't mind me saying a little bit annoying is they can be quite aggressive, they would actually call you, they will stop you on the street.
Yeah, so for example, you have lots of people if they go down the street in the UK, they might try to stop you and try to get donations from you. And also they use of cold calling as well.
Cold calling is when they call they are almost like salesperson, they call people they have never met, they call stranger's house.
Just to trying to get money from them, they keep pushing people to give even more. So nowadays lots of people what they prefer to do is to give anonymous donations.
Anonymous, so they don't reveal their identity.
And they don't reveal their phone number, their bank details things like that.
Yeah, I kind of understand that because I always feel so bad if I turned them down.
Well that's how it works.
They use guilt.
Yeah.
Would the economic status, for example a recession when the economy is not doing well, does that affect charity?
It does to a certain extent, people are giving less money to charity because they can't afford it, but as we talked about in our last episode people still give quite a lot money to charity.
Yes, I understand that they give money to charities, but how do they choose charities, for example I've noticed that last time you said there are many charity that are for global this, global that. Do people have a problem, for example some people might question that why don't we help our country first?
Yeah, there is an idea and there is also a saying in English 'Charity begins at home' so money that should be raised in the UK should be used to fund British charities, for other British people. So some people do think that the money should only be used for charities in the UK. But because there are so many choices you can always choose which charity you want to support.
And about the international aid, the international charities, when these UK based charities for international causes the money goes to, I assume more developing countries, poorer countries, is it really effective?
Well this is a question, lots of people ask about charity money being used more in a way of just making us feel less guilty about the past, about the British Empire especially helping for develop of Africa and countries in Asia as well. But the question is does it actually really help them? We just give the money to these countries. Some people say it doesn't really help them develop; it's just giving them money.
Yeah, and also it's just you will have definitely less control in another country once the money is given and their regulatory differences and all that. So yeah it is a really complex topic. And I also want to ask since there are so many charities; you see a lot of them seems to be helping people in need, why are there still homeless people? You still see homeless people on the street; why aren't they helped by the charities?
Well they are helped. The question is people discuss the cause of homelessness for many many years. The number of homeless people is actually increasing.
Oh really?
With people begging on the street, so you have what we called sleeping rough or sleeping on the streets.
Yeah, you do see them.
And the Question is whether or not the money should be given to them?
Why shouldn't it?
Well, you have some people who say that homeless people have problems with drink or alcohol or drugs; and any money given to them is actually helping them to buy alcohol and drugs. So it's a huge debate in the UK. So some people think that we should give money to these people to help them, other people say that money shouldn't be given; some people say that the money should be given to homeless charities instead, like for example the Big Issue.
The Big Issue is a charity specifically for homeless people?
Yes, the Big Issue is a magazine that's published by homeless charity and it's sold by homeless people on the street.
Yeah, I think I have been approached by them like on the streets, someone stopped me and they were trying to sell this to me. Also that's for homeless people.
And it's the homeless people that sell it and they keep the money or they keep a percentage of the money.
Charity is a difficult topic, isn't it? Because it's not as simple as I have a good heart, I wanna do good things.
The thing is that with charity, there are lots and lots questions; there are lots of debates. I think that the most people do want to help, but the question remains how do you help them, how do you help people in the most effective and the best way.
For that, we would love to hear your comments.
So please leave your comments in the comments section below.
And for more about Britain, we'll see you next time.
See you next time.
Bye

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