Dear Dave,

While we have to laud in what I regard as one of the most extensive publicity & promotional campaigns ever held for any event ( with the exception of course our general elections!!!) that the powers to be, supported no less than our honourable Prime Minister himself, their effort is more that many of us combined can ever produce.

For starters, 1)The Cool Party at Mandarin
Do we need to blow at least in my estimation ( we do events! so we know estimated costs ....) at least rm 2 to rm 3 million to raise about rm 500,000 on auctioned material ? All the decor & staging & flying in of Artistes COSTS Mullahs.... Don't tell us it's free..... THere is a cost to Everything..... Eventually someone is paying for it and Lots of people ARE GETTING PAID. Even the mineral water comes in 3 packaging, so we heard..... & we are lamenting about people in Aceh not even having 1/2 a decent bottle to drink..... What Hypocracy ?????

2. Force of Nature

We have to fly all these people in for just one nite?/ to raise RM 10 MILLION ? THAT'S RM mind you Not even Singapore dollars.....Why could'nt we have those celebrities manning phone lines..... soliciting pledges..... there are millions of other creative ways to raise more than that " more than RM 10 MILLION raised.....

All in all well, looks like we are still in Malaysian mode of " knowing the Right people is the most improtant factor in getting things done..... it does'nt matter if you have the most legitimate & most workable idea , you would never be able to do anything unless you get the 'right' PEOPLE INVOLVED..... How sad.... & on the other hand the powers that be lament that we malaysians while thumping our own chests as jaguh kampungs.... we don't amount to anything when it comes to the international arena. We lament so much about Hollywood & their negative influences but these are the very people we call on to organise our events and depend on for sheer crowd pulling power to fill our stadiums

Well at least one journalist like you is daring to speak up.... that's why i guess i always check out you blog.... let's be honest with ourselves....then we can be honest with the world........
 

Dear Dave,

I agree completely with what you and Anonymous have said on The Cool Party at the Mandarin and the Force of Nature. I am sure many people made money in the name of charity. I would like to suggest that the organisers publish their financial reports, to show how much were the expenses incurred, for what purposes and by who in order to raise the rm500,000/= and the rm10 million for the Tsunami fund.
 

Well well well. Apparently there are like minded individuals out there after all, althought I didn't think anyone would have the balls to say what Dave and anonymous #1 said.

I agree competely. Lay the accounts on the table.

Joe D'Zilva
 

It is a sad commentary on the whole "celebrity" fundraising business that celebrities will only turn up for lavish functions, and that the (not so general)public will only attend and fork out for occasions that suit their own fine-tuned sensibilities.
It has nothing to do with compassion for the needy, and everything to do with ego massage for the more affluent and insecure.
Not every one fits into these categories, but the very nature of "celebrity events" is anathema to the genuine spirit of fundraising for good causes.
 

A heated debate indeed.. well Rm10 million raised for FON and the Rm500,000 raised from the Ice Gala is still better than nothing..
Even when Sepang Circuit held their Charity Drive, they managed to raise over Rm650,000 in an event that definitely costed less. Sure it might cost a lot to do it (yes i do know how much it can cost).. but it was a win-win situation for all.. The profit of 10 Million after cost for the Charitable cause.. The Ego stroking opportunity for the VIP's.. The Food Catering people.. The Sponsors.. The Many Other People involved.. and all of us who were there able to have fun watching, singing, dancing (and mingling for me..) with the star studded cast till 3am in the morning.. You can't say that was not in spirit of charity..

Sure sure.. we could go on and on about why couldn't the money spent go to the charity direct instead of organising this massive concert? Let me point out a lesson in charity.. it still takes money to raise money and it takes money to raise sponsorship money because they do expect publicity (which still costs money..) to shout about their involvement. Fund raising events concepts are designed to work that way. Nobody is stopping anyone from generously donating directly. But the publicity and awareness generated does attract a lot of residual and much needed attention.

I agree about what Dave said on the FON Website. As a media, i too had the problem of finding out who we should've approach about the Media List and a few other media people asking me about it. Lucky for me, i eventually found that i knew most of the people involved.

We eventually did find out about Publicis (the company handling Press matters Pro Bono).. and even RAPR (for the high society invitation list), AvenueK (the After After Party venue), Eden Catering, Absolute, Yeng Gi, etc etc.. but sadly.. we are not big enough of a media house.. Yet!.. ;)

Even though some of them were long time friends i've personally known and even entertained.. i can imagine the tough decisions that needed to be made and so i can understand if they had to give some of us media people the cold shoulder. No hard feelings. It's normal to expect a lot of people to also ask for privileges. We were the first few to promote this event, with updates and even sold tickets for them.. we still managed to get into the hospitality areas, partied with the stars and all so i can't complain..

At the very least, the high society people came out to support than no support at all. Some of us majority folk also got a treat by being able to buy sponsored Rm552-182 tickets all at Rm82 on the concert day. And let's not be kidding ourselves.. we do get mystified and star struck by foreign stars. We just do. Sex, Glamour and Celebrity Sells. Understand that concept.
 

Just had time to read Dave's Blog
This is anonymous here...... for obvious reasons, i'll remain so.....

YES, i can see your point of view, U seem to have had a great time too.......all the buying of discounted tickets, after party..... yes, sure, can't blame you.... you are human too....

Can't beat them, join them right.....?

Let's face it, MEN must change before Nations can......
 

yeah,, sorry I forgot.....

There are people who completely lost their ALL and we were at after parties....

Can you even eat, drink & be merry when you know that the very cause you are in merryment or is it merriment...?

USE YOUR OWN TIME & MONEY......TO SATISFY YOUR UNENDING HEDONISTIC LIFESTYLE......


BUT don't do it in the name of CHARITY......
& at the Expense of the Suffering..............