I was listening to the radio this morning and heard Ian Botham (sorry, SIR Ian Botham, or just 'Beefy') talking about his walk for Leukaemia Research. It is fantastic what he's doing, and I (amongst many of you) am happy to give something to support his work to help the work LR do. As Botham says, seeing all the kids in the cancer wards in Great Ormond Street is enough to give you a different perspective in life - or should be. Unfortunately I have.
He actually said this, though, in response to the interviewer's question about how this 'put into perspective' all the stuff going on in the City and in the banking world. And he is absolutely right - but for me it brings up another issue, and a different way of thinking: the banks are losing billions, the government are investing billions in saving banks because of their irresponsibility in managing their businesses, and their 'lack of confidence' - in each other (for goodness sake - if they don't have confidence in each other why should anyone else, and why should the government have confidence in bailing them out with billions...?).. anyhow, whilst that is going on Botham is humbly very grateful for the £30,000 he raised through his walk in one day.
I am certainly not belittling his achievements or his efforts (it should be clear I admire him for it) but I am absolutely sickened by a society that throws billions at underachieving, untrustworthy banks, whilst thousands can make such a difference to people's lives. As Sir Ian "Beefy" Botham says - when he started his walks for LR in 1985 "children diagnosed with leukaemia had just a 20% chance of survival. Today it is an 80% chance."
Fantastic work. But what sort of society have we built where this is the only way to make this happen?
