it's that time of the year again. merry cheer, disillusionment, wariness and all that the season calls. time to fish out the cheque book and go through who is naughty or nice. not for well-behaving nieces and bratty nephews but wading through the humongous pile of letters that i have received and accumulated from charity organisations throughout the year.

life would be simpler if everybody was honest, if you get what you see. everybody knows right from wrong, yet they manage to exercise some kind of logic from practising what is correct, some kind of contorted delusion that they are virtuous. charity is such big money that all types of pests and scum hide themselves behind the apron, portraying themselves to be wondrous mother teresa's out to save the world. it's sad, it's pathetic that some will take money meant for others in greater need, and i wonder if there is any karma for them in the end, but that is just how the world turns.

some donation letters came in colourful glossy papers, pages after pages thick. the stamp and printing alone would have fed a few more mouths for the year. one purported to be contributing to third world countries; water and sanitation for cambodia, indonesia and.....malaysia. i have always thought that our government was doing that, albeit not the best job in the world, but i now learn that a well-known international organisation is canvassing for donations so that you and i can have better sanitation and water. no wonder everybody doesn't pay indah water. others do nothing more than visit international schools in the name or promoting education. what little they do is not strange, but to actually show it in the newsletter is a little strange. the least they could do was grab some sad looking children from the streets and take some pity-wrenching photos with them.

charitable organisations sprout like mushrooms, purportedly representing the blind, the disabled and the handicapped in malaysia. what have they done? where do the money go? everybody wants to be seen helping the needy, cream of the society heading the trustees of the board, datuks and datins acting as patrons of charities, lending a sense of credibility to its name. don't kid yourself that the rich do not cheat. each year you turn a little more cynical, a little more jaded with the things you learn, with the things you see. still, pages of the cheque books are torn, names scribbled and envelopes addressed. for the little that you can do, whether to assist the needy or simply appease your mind.