Walk of Greed!

There is a thin line between extortion and requesting for donations. Specially in the case of the ladies college walk which concluded on the 31st of July. Having a bunch of manic old girls who are also teachers does not help specially for the younger students who at their Mercy. Since both my daughters study at LC I was able to witness the manipulation (and bullying) these kids go through duisguised and labeled as charity. First donation cards were forced on them. There was no saying NO as it would mean being made fun of in front of the class. Even though each card was a thousand bucks a piece it did not stop at one card but went on for two and three. I put my foot down at two cards each. Specially since I end up being the only donator as I don't like my kids to be harrasing our friends colleagues and neighbors for money.
Now don't get me wrong I don't mind giving money to a good cause but I like to be askeds nicely not black mailed into it.
The walk is concluded with a fun fair at the college grounds. But what takes the cake is entrance to the fair is a "Thousand Bucks" for those who have not participated in the walk. And sadly even parents who came to pick up their kids had to buy a ticket to enter in order to look for them. To force the parents hand into buying tickets the school authorities banned mobile phones from the event. So one could not get through to their kids. Fortunately we heard of this move before and asked our kids to come out at a specific time. But I feel sorry for the parents who came unprepared. Our cost was 5000k for our kids to take part in this shindig. We could afford this extra expenditure but my heart goes out to the many parents who can't afford such an extravagance. Who would be forced to see the looks of dissapointment in their kids eyes. I know from experience that it is not a very nice thing.
What makes this kind of behaviour more repulsive is that this is a Christian School and managed by the Anglican Church of Sri Lanka and supossedly governed by christian principles. But guess Instead of loving thy neighbor they are loving the neighbors money. What a shame.