Livestrong

I admire Lance Armstrong for his strength in winning seven Tour de France titles, two after he battled cancer and survived it.

I also respect him immensely for the fund he has started to help other cancer patients, and the steps people are taking to help him in his noble intent.

Similarly I have always admired Imran Khan for initiating the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Trust for cancer patients and thank Allah for opportunities such as these where fellow Muslims can benefit from a trust like this.

Somehow I am disturbed to see the amount of people who flock to buy the Livestrong bands, especially fellow Pakistani brothers and sisters who may not necessarily give the same importance to Shaukat Khanum.

Yes, the wristbands are all the rave these days, and so everyone who knows someone within arm's length is asking for one; so much that there are cheap imitations found at numerous stores in Karachi.

Which feeds my logic: it is more a statement of fashion than anything else.
I remember a TCF (The Citizen's Foundation) print advertisement that compared the cost of a large pizza (Rs. 600) as being similar to the amount necessary to fund a child's education for a month.

That advertisement hit home, at least for me and my friends who spoke of it. But that was one advertisement that shone through the doldrums of many ineffective ones.

I look around to see people blindly spend that $3 or $6 for a wristband overlooking the fact that there are countless people we know who can benefit from that money as well.

Charity, like any other form of affection travels from the inside out.

I am no one to brand Lance Armstrong or Imran Khan as any kind of person since I don't know them well enough.

Just that the fact that Lance Armstrong has been lucky enough to get airtime and live coverage makes him more worthy a candidate for peoples' trust and money than our local organiazation that support the same cause saddens me, to say the very, very least.

Show us the straight way,
The way of those on whom Thou hast bestowed Thy Grace, those whose (portion) is not wrath, and who go not astray. (Ameen.)

The Noble Quran, Al-Fatiha (The Opening