Whenever we tune in to the President's Star Charity Show, we observe artistes turning into acrobats and clowns. During a horrifying performance, the list of donors marquee continuously across the screen; when the performance ends, the list ends too. Is this just a coincidence? Sadly, the world is so distracted by popular culture and cosumerism that artistes need to perform dagerous stunts just for that charity dollar. Such acts are not needed; rather they should show compassion in other ways instead of just donating.

Firstly, for every charity show, artistes are the ones performing and not clowns. Why is this so? Everybody knows who that artiste is, so they would admire the terrifying stunts that that artiste has done and thus donate as a form of supporting that artiste. Some artistes even compete against each other by counting the number of calls made after their performance as a measure of their puclicity. This defeats the purpose of charity since the public should donate out of goodwill and a moral obligation to help the poor and needy and not to support their favourite artiste, or as a measure of how much publicity an artiste has. A true philantropist would donate even when there is no performance. How many true philantropists are there left in society? We can easily see that when the donors suddenly drops to zero once a performance is over. Therefore, instead of performing such acts, artistes should show their own compassion by visiting the poor and needy and encourage their fans to do the same for a good cause.

Secondly, many calls are made to stop the artiste from doing dangerous acts. Charity shows used to be a visual treat for the viewers with Mediacorp artistes and international starts like Jacky Cheung and Emil Chow, performing and entertaining for that charity dollar. However, the show has descended into an obstacle course of nails, swords, bees etc. In order to draw calls, one would have to risk life and limb, Fear Factor-style. Our very own Mediacorp stars had to perform stunts which demanded physical strength, concentration and lots of courage. Venerable Shi Ming Yi had himself locked in a container full of ice during a charity show and viewers frantically called to donate hoping that such acts could stop once there is sufficient donation. Such donations are not from the heart but to save their favourite artiste from possible harm. Therefore, such stunts should not be done because it does not generate donations out of goodwill.

Instead, artistes should visit the needy and the poor and broadcast such events over the television. They could also help them by organising free concerts for these people. As the saying goes,"Monkey see, monkey do," their fans would follow their example and do something charitable for the community instead of passively donating during the Star Charity Show. Also, charity shows should also inform the public about how the funds are going to be used. The public would then donate more since they have trust in the organisation and made sure that their donations go straight to that organisation.

In conclusion, artistes should not perform dangerous stunts to milk the public's compassion for more generous donations; they should do something more active and productive. The charity show itself should also allow the public to put trust into the organisation using these funds.