Cold Water

By now you've probably heard about the so-called "ALS Ice Bucket Challenge", wherein people dump cold water on themselves for charity.

The mechanics of this stunt still elude me. Is the challenge that you either donate a hundred dollars to an ALS research group or pour ice water on yourself if you don't? Because if it is, then what's so fun about showing everyone that you'd rather waste water than donate money? But oh, it's for "awareness". Whatever.

To be fair, the game has allegedly raised a hundred million dollars for charity. Well that's good. I don't want to throw cold water on that. I guess it worked... sort of? I still think it's stupid despite everything.

I find it disturbing that a meme on social media that trends just because a bunch of celebrities and "important" people started doing it, has this kind of power to set our priorites. I mean, there's so many other causes in this world. People have the time to dump water on themselves but don't have the time to pick up after themselves or help their immediate neighbor. Why ALS, honestly? Ebola is killing everyone in Africa. People are starving in the streets right here.Why not use that money to do actual good for someone yourself instead of donating it to some nebulous institution somewhere?

Even the President's favorite attack dogs; De Lima and Kim did it too. Come on, isn't there a country they should be fixing? You know this whole thing just smacks, of "look-at-me" narcissism.

What silly thing will they think of next?