True story: I was touching my phone when I read the OP.
When I think about the OP I touch my phone.
My phone is in my pocket. Is a cloth barrier considered protection?
Also, I'm not dense - I get why the sponsor wants access to a bunch of saps' phones.
I just think the pretext is idiotic.
If you're going to be such an ass about it, I'll just save the children myself.
I've reached the age of 45 without ever owning a cell phone, and yet not one drop donated in my name. Acknowledge your privilege, lame-os.
Hmm, it looks like you can't participate passively - your mobile browser has to be on the website for it to count. So that means that if your phone is moving, you lose - even if you're not using it.
So basically this is an easy way to get lots of people to pay attention to this particular ad for UNICEF, lots of times.
I plan to use it as a free tool to motivate me to actually get things done instead of playing with my phone.
I've reached the age of 45 without ever owning a cell phone, and yet not one drop donated in my name
So cruel.
9: Privilege does not attach to things you can buy for $10 at Target.
Fuck your privilege, Walt Someguy.
My take away is that providing clean water is so dirt fucking cheap that it's worth it to pull this kind of thing just to get people's data. IOW UNICEF ought to be funded well enough that this entire campaign could be replaced for a drop in the bucket.
For every ten comments you leave on unfogged, this entire campaign will be replaced by one drop in a bucket.
for a drop in the bucket.
Every time you count One Mississippi between digits when you dial a number, they'll add another drop to a thirsty child's bucket.
Every 100th level of Candy Crush Saga that you complete, one of our volunteers shits in a well.
10: So you have to have a smartphone? Sorry, sad child!
I don't even have a TV, and children continue to starve. What a world!
20: That's because those flat screen TVs contain far, far less edible material by weight.
Give the children in need of clean water smartphones and let them ration as they choose.
It's the marshmallow experiment writ large.
Nobody else is going for the humorless spelling-out:
People love to feel that a trivial personal consumer choice has a significant effect. This is a way to sell that feeling to the people who enjoy it, possibly doing good as a side effect. Elf on a shelf.
They sell water at Target too. Target solves all of the world's problems.
Elf on a shelf.
Snitches get stitches.
clean water is so dirt fucking cheap
I did not think that this was true. Necessary to ship relatively cheap equipment somewhere with unreliable power and transport, and then to run that equipment. Variations of this story or of attempts to distribute fertilizer in rural Africa are common.
Again, maybe there are some success stories-- my point is that equipment cost is only part of getting this to work.
28: I'm taking it on face value that they'll deliver, which may be misguided.
Well meaning but poorly thought out development schemes are all over the place, the Playpumps being a nice example. In the end of the day the thing that will make a difference is education and access by local people to the resources needed to fix things for themselves. A bit of political stability and functioning civil society doesn't hurt, either.
52 minutes! Wooooo!
https://www.dropbox.com/s/rk51ogw4f9tpx6r/Photo%20Feb%2024%2C%206%2024%2046%20PM.png
Give the children in need of clean water smartphones and let them ration as they choose.
This is making me laugh. We should all have to earn our own drinking water. This country is turning into a buncha lousy dependents.
I believe the children are the water
Text them not and do not own TV
Show them all the fluids they possess inside
I cannot stop giggling over "show them all the fluids they possess inside". That's such a great line.
This reminds me of a China Mieville story, "An End to Hunger", that I read a decade ago. It's probably less sinister than the one in the story, but you never know.
It would have been funnier if it had been signed with an understated "Whitney".
36 would've been funnier if written by Opinionated Megan, but I laughed nonetheless.
36 is wrong and I regret that 32 wasn't me.
I laugh the same amount regardless of the level of funny.
Some people are funny enough that they can undermine their own jokes. More power to them, I suppose.
I was thinking of coming up with something along the lines of "I believe the smartphones are the future" but 32 is much better.
18: Every 100th level of Candy Crush Saga that you complete, one of our volunteers shits in a well.
Somehow there should be a way to tie it into Twitch Plays Pokemon. I think at least one of my kids has been following that. Here it is if you want to see it or participate (warning the game "music" will play).
35: I was waiting throughout that story for the revelation that the End To Hunger people were really doing something sinister and the feed-the-hungry project was a cover, but, it turned out, they weren't. They were feeding the hungry. Mieville: just as irritating then as now, it turns out.
Providing clean water can be a less than trivial problem - witness the many Native communities in Northern Canada that have been on boil water advisories/without clean water for years.
It's so easy to think about people needing help "over there", and rather less straight-forward to fix it at home.
