Angelina Jolie spoke out against celebrities giving quick hits for charities Saturday, a day after Sharon Stone raised $5 million at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

I have to disagree. The value that quick-hit celebrities contribute to meaningful causes are just as much as those of Bono, Roberto Clemente, even Sum 41. If Jolie is perhaps hinting at opportunism, then couldn't all the post 9-11 and post tsunami megastar-studded benefits not fall into the same category?

I've always believed in the old "desperate times... desperate measures" theme and thus I think that whether Sharon Stone was trying to be an opportunist, it's still $5 million. Five million more dollars out of corporate pockets is five million more dollars for those who need it.

I think I feel this way because of my tipless winter mornings at the coffee shop on Wellesley Street. If I was working by myself, three hours worth of tips would not have been enough to feed myself a fat fry-free McDonald's meal. But whenever I had pretty co-workers (there were a bunch) the tip jar would always be much more filled.

They dynamic of coffee shop tipping of course is students always give while suit and ties (and there were many at Bay and Wellesley) never gave, unless there was young female meat. Were they opportunists? Of course not. The whole situation though did reinforce in me how nobody ever does things for nothing, and when the suit and tie folks tipped it wasn't just because they wanted their bagel toasted extra dark. They wanted something else.

To be fair to my ex-coworkers they didn't wear any revealing clothing or such, and they didn't mind the extra tips. Did I? Of course not. If it takes attractive young women to loosen some purse strings, so be it. It's better than nothing.

By the way, this is the hottest I've ever seen Ms. Jolie.

Craps.

I spent $50 and waited without food for about four hours thinking that the $50 would include dinner. Uh uh. So I'm off to get food, and in a couple of hours I'll be hootin and hollerin here for a good cause.

The good: open bar.
The bad: 9 a.m. class tomorrow.

I am still very troubled by my friend Cynthia's suicide. I think about her all the time, in every song I hear, every sleep I take... I guess it is my way of making sure her biggest fear, that she will be forgotten, will never come true. Of course I hope I can continue for the next 5, 10, even 20 years, but it hurts so much that something must give. I am still so very angry. I do not want to talk about it. I cannot talk about it. So I write and type to let the anger out.

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Call me.

The commoditization of care

So the United States has spent almost $150 billion bringing "freedom" to Iraq in a war that has cost the lives of more than 100,000 Iraqis and 1,000 American soldiers. Thank goodness for Jon Stewart, who makes fun of Defense Secretary Rumsfeld in another fun episode... "You can have all the armour in the world on a tank - and a tank can be blown up."

Oops.

Now, with casualties from last week's tsunami pushing 150,000 the United States has increased its contribution to the aid effort in South East Asia tenfold to $350 million.

For those keeping score that's $150 billion for over 101,000 deaths and $350 million to save thousands of other lives threatened by disease. Classic Bushanomics huh!

On a smaller scale, the generosity of citizens has indeed been astounding. The Canadian government has pledged $80 million, charities have gotten into the act, the police force, local governments, heck even Google is helping out.

But while I can appreciate the aid as much as the next person, there is something wrong when people feel the need to share in the suffering. There is a mysterious inherent human need in people to be affected by events which have nothing to do with them (see. 9/11, Princess Di, etc). For a more obvious example look at the lack of compassion for the dead Iraqis. Remember collateral damage?

Of course there is always the pessisism at the deterioration of human morals or standards with which people believe the human race is sinking towards. But this process is automatically undermined by the superiority complex that any type of empathy (and/or sympathy) assumes. This is not really about a need to help people or to show that you care, but about guilt that someone lesser than you is suffering while you are comfortable in your white picket fence-enclosed suburban enclave with apple pie aroma filling your kitchen.

Do most people think South Asians are helpless? Of course not, not even with a tsunami. But I do think that South Asians have become convenient as the cause du jour, where it has once again become hip to help, just like Live Aid and that crappy "Peace in the Middle East" garbage of the early 1990s.

Here's further evidence. Let's consider that while SARS was going around, Asians were the scourge of the planet. If 150,000 died from SARS would the U.S. pledge $350 million? Would Canada pledge $80 million? Is Bush the only one who is once again (mis)leading people, making other people think that he cares?

I don't think so.

My poor mouth.

First thing this morning I threw back my head expecting to drink lukewarm water. It was boiling hot, scalded my tongue... it still hurts.

This afternoon I went to the dentist for the first time in almost three years. I remembered why I waited so long. The cracknut burned my inner lip and cheek, left an extra layering on a tooth and now that side doesn't close properly anymore, and did not properly polish the inside of an upper left tooth, leaving a jagged edge that my scalded tongue is perpetually sliding towards.

Plus, I found out one of my wisdom teeth is sitting on a nerve, and that once it is removed (and it will be removed, or so I'm told) then it will be numb for "quite awhile." I asked if "quite awhile" meant hours... days...

"Months."

I should have known. After all, I'd already received the lecture from the dental hygienist "You should have removed them a long time ago, maybe three to four years ago. Maybe then your tooth wouldn't be so crooked."

My poor mouth. I'm pouting. Painfully.