Ethical Quest

Okay, maybe ''The Ethical Volunteer'' is not technically a blog  per se  - and they are to be found, in truth, on a site that is light years away from what a Blogger or a Wordpress is; Indiegogo, the world's funding platform - but it sure as heck does all that a blog can and should do - and much, much more than that too! Way beyond merely ''monetizing'' one's blog for self-gain and profit, the creators found on this site raise awareness to important issues (as is certainly the case here, with ''TEV'') and it serves as well as the ideal springboard to get the ordinary concerned citizen involved him-or-herself as well - big time, totally and completely.

In the tail end of its journey now (an epic odyssey aimed at raising funds for a, quite obviously, non-lucrative organization whose main objective is to promote the better -more efficient, too- approach to the fine art of volunteering) ''TEV'' is looking at collecting thousands of euros in order to further both their objective as their volunteering worldwide. From a goal of 30,000, they will most likely to settle for a lot less than half of that: the two-and-a-half weeks they gave themselves to enthuse all the enthusiasts into participating has yielded some results, sure, but far less than hoped for - about 10% of that hope, to be more precise.  They had set their minimum goal at 30,000 and, now, will likely have to struggle to find the rest of the sum, having only four days left to hope that it will pop up through some generous donors (we have to make it plural - although, it would suffice of but one wealthy mécène to come forth in order to absorb all of the costs of a very sustainable project indeed. The odds of this happening are extremely slim, evidently - for most will ask what's in it for me and fail to see what such concrete actions, across the globe, are truly all about. Still, the scope of the project, the well-thought out planning and the partnership with Worldwide Helpers looks extremely promising for the future - and there is ample reason here to believe that more and more will, in time, be joining this great endeavour, the brainchild of, essentially, four individuals: Dublin-born Sarah Carroll, Bob Kelly, Steve McElhinney and Martin Fox. This extraordinary quartet has got some films already made and ready to be viewed on my favorite website of the genre: vimeo! Of course, you can also find them on the competition: youtube - with part one of their ''grassroots projects'' titled Fisherman's Rest to be found here. We can only say bravo to all of these brave individuals (including the many anonymous ones - yes, we dared say the buzz word, ''anonymous'', and tag it to the fine peeps that want to be Helpers, Worldwide...!) and more power, courage and ingenuity to you all!

With nine possible perks given away for each level of contribution, 

TEV had hoped to entice almost any type of volunteer 

to not only participate in the funding 

but to join in on this crusade that is, for once, 

extremely well-organized and aptly put-together 

by veterans of volunteering 

truly passionate about it. 

Alas, the perks didn't excite as expected: 

exactly zero people had claimed 

the ''Spread The Word'' perk at blogging time, 

which consisted of making an infinitesimal donation 

to the amount of... 1 euro! 

What's wrong, people: 

don't you all have PayPal accounts 

and can't you spare  one euro?

Also, zero out of fifty positions 

of ''editor'' with TEV 

requiring a contribution of 

250 euros were claimed 

at blogging time. 

And, not surprisingly at all, 

no one offered to claim 

the last two levels either: 

to be sponsor at the cost of 1000 euros 

or to join the team on location 

and behind the camera

for only 7000 euros - 

even though that includes 

flights, accommodations and food! 

Thousands of Tinseltown directors 

could take the time to do this:

but they seem not interested. 

Perhaps the real problem here is that 

the total of perks ended in an odd number 

and the costs could not be split up 

through an entire family 

or bunch of college pals 

(like, a 2013 version of 

Affleck & Damon - plus cronies?)

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