Minnie Driver, Ellen and office goats
This morning I had the Ellen show on in the background as I was puttering around on my sick day. Minnie Driver was on the show talking about an alternative to giving lame gifts that provide sustainable gifts for people in poverty.
These types of programs are a secular take on the Advent Conspiracy video I posted last week. (And by secular, I mean not connected with the institutional church. When it comes down to it, I am a proponent of any way we get people to release themselves from the Tyranny of Stuff and encourage doing a little sumptin’ for someone else.)
I thought she was talking about Heiffer International – an outfit that gets high marks in my book (click the badge on the right side-bar to hop on over there and give some bunnies or chickens in a loved one’s name).
Minnie wasn’t talking about Heifer. Turns out she’s a spokesperson for Oxfam America and Oxfam has a similar program called Oxfam Unwrapped.
There are some interesting differences between these two programs. One thing that may make this of interest is that some of the price points are lower. Things are tough all over and I’d like to be able to give my gift certificates for my whole list and not leave someone off or have to combine, if I can swing it.
Not all that excited about giving chickens or cows? Another difference is that this program has a wide variety of gifts that will help lift communities out of grinding disease and poverty. Some of the options might surprise you.
How about mosquito netting, books or, my new personal favorite, manure? Don’t you just have an uncle in whose name you could give the gift of a big steaming pile of manure? Frankly, there are several on my list that would get a kick out of the fact that I gave the gift of a load of s*&t in their name!
Part of the conversation Minnie and Ellen had is that apparently our society’s penchant for seeing scammers under every opportunity has some people concerned that their Goat Gift won’t get to the people who really need it. Minnie says she is continually assuring people that their goats “will not end up in some office.”
So, they’ve got that whole “no office goats” thing going for them. What’s not to like. Click on over and see if anything strikes your fancy – or the fancy of someone on your holiday list that really doesn’t need one more thing.
— — —
A year ago (or longer) on This Journey…
-
Washington DC and the Gamaliel Foundation 2008
overheard at Chez Journey 2007
CPE does it again 2006
don’t read too much into it 2006
last gasp 2005
vladimir and mikhail 2005
I’ve never: 2005
