Help rendered without sincerity should be applauded too

Now, before anyone flame me for my title please halt. I am not indicating that help shouldn’t be given sincerely. First and foremost, I admire those who can put aside their self-interest for the sake of others. They are worthy of receiving salutations. A subject which crossed my mind am I going to delve deeper into would be that some held just isn’t rendered without any ulterior motives.

There exist those who help to receive in return. Sometimes, they are condemned for lacking sincerity, sometimes, they are said to be inhumane. Are they still human for they are extracting their greedy gains from those who need help and their suffering?

Let’s take donation for example. Let us say the person who is donating a lump sum of $100,000 to the victims of blab la bla is called Mr Hiao. The only reason Mr Hiao is willing to part with his money is because he gains something by doing so. It is a four letter word which starts with the letter F.

F _ _ _

Now for the million cents answer….. I don’t know what ran through your mind just now but the answer to that question is Fame.

The “opportunistic” Hiao hopes to be under the spotlight of fame. He announced the sum he would be donating. Not only that, he made a BIG deal out of it, inviting the media to publicize his philanthropic efforts. Obviously the public isn’t fools. Their X-ray vision can see through his true intentions like a goldfish in a bowl. He is condemned for his actions.

If you were one of the public, would you hate him and regard him in disgust?

Objective question

A Yes B No

In my opinion, many would probably pick A as we are taught to believe that help must be given sincerely without expecting any in return. There are people needing our assistance and we should just give them generously. Should we, really condemn him for his actions? I don’t think so…..

So what if this Mr Hiao didn’t offer his donations with sincerity? So what if he wants to gain a little publicity for himself? Let’s go through the very purpose of a donation. In this case, the donations are made to ease the victims of their agony. By giving them some assistance in terms of cash we are relieving them of their financial burden. In other words, the victims receive their aid by us giving donations even if the donations aren’t given sincerely.

Why should we condemn those who decide to gain something from it then? Those who seek fame via charity actually pay a lot for it. In the end, the victims receive more. Our real aim is to help the victims after all. Besides, allowing them some five minutes of fame wouldn’t hurt us, right?