Oxfam's Controversial New Booklet
In the News
Anyone hear the CEO of Oxfam justifying this piece of nonsense on TV yesterday.
In the name of diversity, 'wokeness' etc they have published a booklet costing thousands and thousands of ££££ telling us what words are not appropriate to use anymore. Among these words were Mother, Father, headquarters, field trip. They even apologised that it was written in English because of it's association with the British Empire.
I could be wrong but as far as I know nearly every large and prosperous country prior to the 20th century was trying to conquer smaller countries. Do we hold Italy responsible for the killing machine known as the Roman Empire, or France for allowing Napoleon to invade other countries and make his relatives kings? I am pretty sure the Ottoman Empire was still around until the first world war.
I feel Oxfam have shot themselves in the foot with this one especially hard on the heels of the scandal they had a few years ago.
They're really eager on destroying their reputation entirely. Go for it, Oxfam! (:
ellengully they probably need to charge more in the more affluent areas in order to pay for pointless booklets that are nothing to do with their remit.
My area is on affluent on the outside under the surface there's an Area crammed full of poverty that those working in banking don't want to admit to themselves or the wider world exsists
It's always interesting when a so called charity wastes money on nonsense vs supporting the people and causes they are supposed to.
I agree this type of nonsense make you more reluctant to give to this charity
beccatavender that was a point both presenters asked about on GMB. 'Will people who donate be happy about you spending their donations on this booklet'?
Lynibis How can they say Mother, Father should be banned ? The world has gone mad 
beccatavender tell me about it. Apparently it is to be aware of those without a father of mother but whilst that is very sad are we not sheltering children too much? They have to be aware of the unfairness of life, not to be constantly sheltered from it. Why should the majority with parents be prevented from calling them so?
I would sooner they put more effort in to protecting children from the evils in this world like abuse and neglect.
Never again will I be donating goods to an Oxfam charity shop or give a cash donation. I am fed up with subsiding their head office staff who think it is ok to waste money on vanity projects.
Most well established countries have done something wrong at one time or another. Why do they believe they have a right to tell others what they can and can't say?
Midnightflower as usual it is the minority overruling the majority and whilst I do not usually believe in conspiracy theories I am beginning to wonder what is going on. Someone was explaining Basic Universal Income to me the other day, or is it Universal Basic Income? I won't spout about it until I study it a bit more.
I'm so fed up of these corrupt charities. I really hope this backfires in there face!
I will not be told I cannot use the word mother and father!!! There are serious issues in the world that need dealing with.
Everything slowly is changing until we won't be allowed to say much and when we do we have to choose our words very carefully or risk annihilation by the woke mob. You can't say breastfeeding anymore instead its chest feeding or chest feeder and birth giver or birthing partner instead of mother or father as trans people may get offended.
Nadiaparveen I truly believe we should all take a stand and not be bullied or intimidated into saying or doing things we feel uncomfortable with. E.g. There are more people with biological parents than those without so they should have the right to use father and mother. Why should the majority have their rights eroded to make it a right for the minority. Of course we should all take care not to offend people on purpose but it seems we are not trusted so we have to be made to feel guilty. I will continue to use words engrained into me from birth, what can they do, arrest me?
Always deep dive research a charity before you consider donating. In fact, maybe just deep dive charity research in general. You think you're doing something good when you donate money or items, but where does it all go? Roughly 70p of every pound donated goes to "humanitarian causes". Well, which ones? It's never made abundantly clear. Where does the other 30p go? That's the key question. Sure, they need money to operate, but it should be made clear. Where do your second hand clothes go? Well, many of them actually end up in a landfill, lots are sold to textiles manufacturers to make recycled fabric, but (the kicker), most of them are actually sold to second hand clothes retailers in developing countries. For example, in Mozambique, second hand clothes is a big business. The used clothes there are usually much higher quality than clothes they can buy new. But the average cost for a pair of used jeans in Mozambique is £1.50, while the average weekly wage is just £1.
It's also a risky business for the marketplace owners the charities sell the clothes to. Because the quality and condition of donated clothes can vary wildly, but they usually pay by weight. So they might actually lose money, and the clothes still remain inaccessible for most average people there. And the clothes the retailers can't sell? Dumped in landfills, even in the ocean.
I've always found blindly donating to charity without any research to be quite lazy. Throwing money or items at something, then just assuming your money has gone to a good cause, thus making you feel good. I'm not admonishing anyone for giving to charity - people are just too trusting, and take things at face value.
Now I bag up all my old clothes, sell them on by weight in a bag, then donate that money to a cause I know and trust, such as my local community hub, food banks, shelters (both animal and human), PDSA, or a couple of small local charities I personally know the owners of. This minimizes the transportation costs and resultant pollution from shipping them abroad for resale in a developing country. It also reduces waste. It's a few extra steps, but it's worth it to actually know where my donations end up.
FearLoathing such a clear, concise and informative comment. Thank you so much for informing us of much that a lot of us probably didnt know, I certainly didn't.
I knew only a small percentage of our donations actually really went where it's meant to but like you I am picky where I put my money.
I remember when Oxfam put paper envelopes through your door, you put your excess change inside stuck it down and it was collected a few days later. How naive we were to trust any old Joe who knocked at the door!
Since those days we seem to have stood still as decades and decades of donations haven't eased poverty or famine. Nor are we nearer to a cancer cure, in fact 1 in 2 now get it. When I started in registration in 1985 it was 1 in 3.
To be fair to "any old Joe", they're just volunteers, who, again, have taken a charity at face value. They are also giving their time, for free, for what they believe to be a worthwhile cause, and it is out of trust and kindness that they do it. Unfortunately, sometimes we trust the wrong things.
Cancer research is a big no from me, for a multitude of reasons. Cancer will never be 'cured'. It is in our DNA, we can't just simply get rid of it. Even if we did, life expectancy is only estimated to increase by four years. 'The cure for cancer' is a complete farse. Cancer research CEO makes 240K pa. Corruption there is rife. Way too much money is given to CRUK, money which could be used to actually increase the quality of life of cancer patients, or upgrade cancer treatments and equipment in the NHS, pay more surgeons, doctors and nurses to alleviate ever-increasing surgery waiting lists.
CRUK is the highest grossing cancer research charity on the planet. But, as you have noticed, cancer rates here keep increasing. The UK has some of the lowest cancer survival rates in the developed world, in fact, many developing countries actually have a higher cancer survival rate than the UK. If that doesn't spell out corruption, I don't know what does.
All that being said, there are absolutely loads of other cancer charities (like Marie Curie), which focus entirely on helping actual cancer patients, and I think that's money well spent. As is donating to hospices, they do amazing work with individuals who actually have cancer.
There are lots of factors as to why cancer rates are increasing. But it is worth noting that the life expectancy between the richest and poorest in the UK is a whopping 20 years. Food for thought.
My beef with Oxfam apart from being ridiculously PC is their pricing. I've seen on one occasion a book marked higher than the price on the book itself and it wasn't because it was an old book it was only about 2 years old. Nowadays I rarely enter a Oxfam charity shop as pricing is so high I just don't see the point. I looked up how much the CEO was paid and it was pretty low compared to other charities at about £120k a year and their running costs were about 25-30% so roughly 70-75% goes to the cause which isn't terrible probably about the norm for most large charities. I've never given to Oxfam as far I can remember. I must admit I tend to favour animal charities especially 'Cat's Protection' as I'm a big softie when it comes to cats so I tend to keep the best stuff I have to give away for them.
Oxfam will loose donations from people if they insist on pushing this on people.
What is wrong with the words mother,father etc? Sometimes think people in power have no clue and let it go to their head and they think it's acceptable to push their views and such on others.
They will do damage to Oxfam image.
I don't shop in any their shops after few years ago they were charging £150 for pair jeans cause they were some make etc they weren't new were worn so don't see how they could justify the price.
Join for free to get genuine deals, money saving advice and help from our friendly community
Chief Bargain Hunter
