GIVING

Everywhere you look - particularly at this time of year - we're surrounded by aspiration.  Glossy magazine covers flaunt their wares with tantalising catchlines, implying that you too could look this good if only you'd remembered to marry a banker/manage a hedge fund.  Newspaper articles list handy guides to what you should buy your loved ones (or what you should covet....)  TV adverts portray people (let's be more accurate here, it's always the women) efficiently ticking off their Christmas present shopping list and getting a buy-one-get-one-free into the bargain.  

There have been days this month, in the run up to the big X, when I got sucked into all this and utterly overspent. Then felt conned. Cue row with my beloved (this is not verbatim): "How come we're overdrawn?  It's not even Christmas yet.."
"Because, for once, I've been super-efficient and bought nearly everyone's gifts already.  What do you think we should give your Mum?"
"Couldn't you have kept an eye on our statement and tranferred money across from our savings?"
"Maybe we should communicate better on what we're both spending....like those football tickets you bought. Better still, you do the Christmas shopping!"  *SMUG AURA VANISHES - STOMP OFF IN HUFF*

But we forget that this is meant to be all about giving. Refreshingly, my kids' letter to Santa this year was fairly modest. But yesterday, the eight-year-old asked "just" for an iPad! Just!  He meant he'd forego lots of little presents for one big one & had no idea what £450 meant, relatively. 

Which is why this website caught my eye.  It's about an organisation based in Oxford where members commit to giving away 10 per cent of their income. I have nothing to do with them so this is no plug. Not many of us are Gates-like philanthropists who can afford to give away 10 per cent of our income, especially on the day, it's just been announced, unemployment has risen to 2.5 million in the UK. 

But today, too, the World Bank's development fund has said it will cost 49.3 billion dollars (37 billion euros) to provide loans to poor nations during its 2011-2014 campaign. So there's a bigger need out there. Without being holier than thou, to learn that we could all be more efficient with giving by choosing a charity that is better run or that is involved with work that saves more lives intrigues me. 

Take a look and happy - row free! - Christmas to one and all.