I'm doing the Walk the Talk tomorrow. It's a variety of lengths (I'm doing the 8km walk with Spencer, my dog) and proceeds go towards a community project - last year they built a bridge out of recycled plastic over a swampy part of Emmarentia Park.
I went down to get my race number and was not too surprisingly disgusted by the corporate detritus coating anything solid. One could be forgiven for thinking the event is not much more than getting together a crowd of people (consumers) and advertising at them for half a day. I guess we have to get out from behind our TVs at sometime, and heaven forbid we should actually do something that doesn't in some way contribute to the take make waste system.
This tendency for companies to think they have the right to invade every aspect of our life with their whinging pleas for us to buy things we don't need seems to be growing. Like a cancer. And increasingly we think that doing something good must start with getting "benevolent" companies on board to bank roll the event. If we stopped supporting these companies in any way, many of the problems these sorts of events aim to address would fade. End the corporate welfare system, and support people and planet directly.
I'm still looking forward to walking 8km tomorrow with Spencer and the broader Joburg community. I will try and keep the real reason for being there in the front of my mind.
Disclosure: I have health insurance with Discovery, the headline sponsor (read: most guilty) of Walk the Talk. I would love to start a crowd funded health insurance fund for myself and my community. Next project.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Although perhaps a bit extreme (how else? :-) ) there is much truth in this. I remember when we went to a road race, paid our entry fee and ran. No goodie bags (perhaps the pinnacle of the smut you write about Glen)filled with generally useless rubbish and shameless touting for more market but plenty of wrapping, no relentless reminders of who the sponsor is on the public address system, no sponsored T-shirts and yet the entrance fee was proportionally less (2 Oceans 21k entry is obscene, given the level of sponsorship). One has only to compare the relatively low level sponsorship of the Milkwood half marathon with the 2 Oceans to measure the relative enjoyment. CFT
Post a Comment