Love and hate, all at the same time.

I was reading a story yesterday, about a French soup kitchen that's being routinely shut down by riot squads for serving soup made with pork. Apparently that's discriminatory. Granted, the kitchen is more concerned with feeding France's hungry and homeless than taking care of the hungry and homeless from eleswhere in the world, but I fail to see where that's by definition a bad thing. They serve a full French meal, but the rule is: No soup, no dessert. If you don't eat pork, you won't be served, because you can't eat what's on the menu. They're a private charity, not a city or province funded one. They don't say "You're not a French national, go away!" .. they say "Want to eat here? Pork's on the menu." They have political views I don't agree with, but.. riot squads for a private soup kitchen? People having public fits over this, when there are plenty of others they could go to, including Halal or Kosher kitchens? Basically, the riot squads and protestors are preventing the kitchen from disbursing food to people who need it, to conform to a very warped idea of politically correct, and that's just total crap.

There are charities all over the world that have views contrary to those of other religions. In my country, Catholics run a good portion of the charities and you're served sermons with your food. They don't care what religion you are.. from the time you walk in the door until the time you walk back out, they treat you like you're Catholic. Which is great, unless you're Jewish and don't believe in that Christ character as a messiah figure. There are some that have rules that if you don't go to Confession to be shrived, you can't eat. Those kitchens are just as discriminatory but there are no riot squads or protestors. There's not a tree-hugging-hippy-dirtworshipper contingent outside protesting that the charity doesn't respect the rights of those who worship a Goddess figure and demanding that they start incorporating that in their charity.

It's a choice. The people protesting? They don't like it, they don't have to eat there. There are other places for them to go. They could even set up a soup kitchen dedicated to serving safe food for Muslims.. oh look, there already are some. Using a soup kitchen to make a point that there are homeless in your own country and you'd like to concentrate on them? That's fairly benign, since they're not checking visas at the door and turning away anyone not a French national.

So.. let's take away pork, because it's offensive to Muslims and Jewish people. How about beef? No, that offends East Indian people who view cows as sacred and also, Jews can't eat it unless it's Kosher and iirc Muslims can't eat it unless it's Halal. Same with mutton or goat, but then you're leaving out the Jews on the split-hooved thing. Chicken or fish? Unless it's Kosher, the Jews still can't eat it. Oops, and now you've pissed off the vegetarians. Ok, so.. no meat. It's France, let them eat quiche. Woops. Quiche is made with eggs and cheese, so now the vegans are being discriminated against. Tofu based food for all! .. and now everyone who eats meat is angry all over again. Meanwhile, the hungry are going without because people are getting into a political fight about a charity.

I don't like the soup kitchen's viewpoint any more than I like that of the redneck bastards here at home who want to kick out all the immigrants, stop sending aid to foreign countries and spend American dollars on American people. I do understand it, on both counts, especially when I can look at the news every week and see how much money the US is dumping into foreign aid and compare it to the budget cuts Social Security and Welfare are getting. I don't agree with the viewpoint, and I don't like it - but I do understand it and I respect what they're doing because at the end of the day, they're feeding people who would otherwise go hungry. Protesting why they're doing it is a waste of resources and energy and only harms the people on the receiving end. A better way to protest would be to set up an alternative kitchen that served non-offensive food and make it better to a degree that it would draw away the crowds. My view boils down to "Don't like the message? Stop listening and send a better one."

And speaking of better messages. On to a happier topic.

I was forwarded to another story about peer-to-peer loans for developing countries. Global Giving and Kiva are two organizations that allow people to find a grassroots effort and help finance it. They use PayPal as their means of accepting donations, which kind of sketches me out because I have issues with PayPal over their fee system - paying by credit card would mean not all of my donation would get to where it was going, because they slice their fee off at the receiving end. However.. I really like the idea of being able to choose where my donation would go, and being able to help a smaller effort that doesn't have an organization whose overall views I might not agree with backing it. I'm still looking over the sites, but so far I'm enthused about the idea. A few years ago, a friend of mine directed me to Heifer International, a site where you could purchase livestock to help farmers in foreign countries. We bought a llama, which was then given to a farmer in Peru, as a birthday gift for a friend. I liked this charity because a) my money went to one specific thing, not put in a pool and allowed to accrue interest that was then disbursed along charity lines, and b) I could help fund farmers by means other than animals used as food. Animals raised for fiber, bees used for honey, trees. That was a new one on me.. normally I adopt rainforests or cocoa or coffee trees or bats for people. Sometimes reefs. I hadn't thought about adopting herd animals because I have a big soft squishy heart and can't stomach the idea that any animal I had a hand in purchasing would potentially be killed for food. That isn't a donation I could feel good about. Fiber animals, bees, trees.. that I can do.

It's all about choice. I won't fund a charity that goes against my personal moral viewpoint, but I won't deny their right to exist and run their charity how they see fit.

Discrimination is an easy label to apply. It's that grey area around how it's used and how far it's taken that gets me worried. The current political trend of trying not to offend anyone is great in theory but not so practical in application.