The Veterans Day is tomorrow. As usual, there are donation boxes all over the country where you can put in some money for the war veterans (mainly for the WWII veterans) and get a poppy pin. I always donate. But only this year I looked at these boxes more closely.
I used to work for the research institute related to the oral history. It didn't go well. Almost no training, the shitty Catch 22 situation with the e-mails, not paying for the worktime, and then making up lies about why they paid me less. Fun times.
Why did I mention this? Well, all these donation boxes which are placed in every second business every November are distributed by this exact research institute. They have always been but I've never paid close attention to that. Turns out that this institute sorta has a monopoly on the donation boxes for the war veterans. You won't be able to ignore theirs everywhere you move, but have fun trying to find some boxes or places set up by someone else.
The institute uses a few catchy slogans for this donation month, such us “They (the veterans) need us the most now” and “Only you can improve their lives.” All right. Most people react to that. So many have donated and wear poppies from these boxes. There is even one box at my current place of work and both employees and visitors donate to it. The institute has built a very good reputation.
But do you know what happens when you read the longer and smaller text on their website or on boxes themselves? Well, these donations do NOT go to the war veterans. Not at all. They all go to the research institute which uses them for make interviews with the veterans and any other person whose memories they find interesting. Which is also important (and they have a monopoly on it as well, btw) – but how about not portraying it as financially supporting the veterans? They don't get paid for the interviews.
How many people are aware of this? Not many. If my current job taught me anything, it's that most people don't read even if you point at the text right in front of them. They genuinely believe that they are donating to the war veterans because of those big slogans. They wear the poppies, proud that they donated. But the money goes to the institute and is used for the institute's work.
I wish there was something I could do about it. When possible, I try to tell at least the people I know. I found the war veterans community centre in the city which is actually doing a lot for the veterans, and I donated to their fund. Their poppies look differently. I also promoted this centre on my social medias, but most people don't really want to go to one specific place when they can donate to the veterans almost everywhere – without realising that this money will never go to the veterans.
It's just sad. I feel as powerless as when I got fired from that institute. You can't do anything about it.