My mum
says that the adverts on the telly, the ones where dogs are tied to
lamp posts on roundabouts and left to die and suchlike really upset
her.
I don't
see those sorts of adverts on the main commercial channels here. They
may be on but, if they are, they keep them away from prime time. I do see the ads from time to time on the lesser watched
channels - the ones that show endless reruns of CSI and Elementary,
Mexican soaps or that one which follows a giant road train as it trundles across
Australia. I suspect that the TV chains aren't that keen on replacing
the glossy bodies of lucrative perfume adverts with others that shows
real people in distress or it could be a simple price thing. Either way the charity ads turn up on the channels with less audience.
I have a
lot of time for the doctors of Médicos Sin Fronteras going head to
head with the Ebola in the Congo, for Open Arms plucking people from toy boats adrift in the Mediterranean and for the Red Cross
turning up with blankets and food wherever people are cold and
hungry. But there are only so many times I feel able to say yes to
the people in the street who want you to sign up with a direct debit
to support their charity. So those adverts on the telly allow me an
easy way to salve my conscience with the occasional tiny donation - send
a text message with the word MÉDICO to 28033 and donate 1.20€ to
help provide vaccine in some lost and forsaken hellhole - says the
ad - and I think I should.
When I
changed my mobile phone package a little while ago the text message
for a donation thing stopped working. I talked to my phone provider
and they said they would fix it. The next time I tried it it didn't
work again. This time the conversation with my provider was a little
more tense. It's a premium number, we block it for your safety. How
dare you presume to take decisions for me. We'll unblock it. Damn
right you will.
I'm not
that generous though, or maybe I don't watch the Divinity channel
very often. I saw an ad the other day and texted ALIMENTO to the
number. Haití, Syria, Philippines, Thailand? - I forget. It bounced
back. I went back to the phone provider the next day, in person, in
their office. Sorry, SMS is such an old technology that we don't have
much control over it here and the people who provide the service
won't allow us to unblock 28033 because it's a threat to their
security. It may or may not be true but it seems a shame that such a
simple way of assuaging my guilt is blocked to me.
