stunt

Thursday August 21, 2014

Thursday August 21, 2014
By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday August 21, 2014

When Stunts dictate our charitable giving

The choices we make about where to donate money for health causes aren’t always rational. We are probably more often driven to give by a disease that has touched a loved one than by utilitarian calculations about which illnesses impact the most people or receive the least investment from pharmaceutical companies.

Sometimes our decisions about donating don’t even seem to be driven by values or potential impact — but by celebrities and the entertainment value of the fundraising campaigns they endorse. Look no further than the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. The feel-good campaign works like this: you film yourself throwing a bucket of ice over your head, post it to social media, and then challenge your friends to either do the same or donate $100 to the ALS Association, which works to end Lou Gehrig’s disease.

Now every famous person — from Martha Stewart to Justin Bieber and Bill Gates — seems to be dumping ice on their heads in the name of the motor neuron disease.

The fun concept and celebrity heft are working. The ALS Association has said they’ve raised so much money so quickly, they’re scrambling to know what to do with it. Since July 29, when the challenge kicked off, they reported receiving $22.9 million in donations. That’s more than ten times the amount they raised in the same period last year ($1.9 million). Other charities are reportedly now searching for their ice-bucket equivalent.

The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, and its virality, raise some interesting questions about which charities and health causes we choose to give to. It seems to add further evidence to the fact that celebrities and gimmicks often drive our charitable donating more than, perhaps, they should.

To be clear: ALS is an awful, debilitating disease that is worthy of donor dollars. It essentially triggers a slow paralysis in sufferers by causing the nerve cells to stop working. It’s also a death sentence. From the time of diagnosis, most people live only two to five years. There’s no cure, and, more than 70 years after baseball star Lou Gehrig drew attention to the cause, scientists still don’t know what brings it on. (Continued: Vox)

 

Tuesday October 16, 2012

By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator, Tuesday October 16, 2012

Because it’s there

In 1924, asked why he wanted to climb Mount Everest, Englishman George Mallory is famously reputed to have answered, “Because it’s there.” A similar sentiment was likely on the lips of Austrian skydiver Felix Baumgartner on Sunday before he jumped out of a helium-filled balloon 39 kilometres above the Earth.

Mallory and his climbing partner, Andrew Irvine, died in their attempt to conquer the mountain, demonstrating, if nothing else, that extreme feats of courage and idealism can end badly. Baumgartner landed, happily and literally, with both feet on the ground.

In his descent of more than nine minutes, and before popping his chute at 4:18, he reached a speed of 1,324 kilometres per hour in free fall, or Mach 1.24, faster than the speed of sound. No person has fallen so far or so fast.

Humans have always attempted the impossible, for no better reason, it seems, than to prove it is not impossible. Escape artist Harry Houdini broke out of steel padlocks and chests buried underground in the early 20th century. Aviatrix Amelia Earhart flew by herself across the Atlantic Ocean in 1937. Just last June, the daredevil Nik Wallenda became the first person to cross Niagara Falls on a tightrope.

Every generation is transfixed by these feats and every generation thinks that the limits of human accomplishment — if not human foolishness — have been reached. But only one thing is certain: a new Everest will always be there. (Source: Winnipeg Free Press) 

 

Friday June 15, 2012

By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator, Friday June 15, 2012

Justin’s High Wire Act?

Justin Trudeau should, after a suitable period of introspection, politely thank those who would have him press-ganged into taking on the Liberal leadership. Then he should tell them to heave off. And enjoy the summer. – He’s not ready. Neither is the Liberal Party of Canada.

This latest effort to resurrect Trudeaumania, prompted by Bob Rae’s decision to bow out of the leadership rather than fight like a junkyard dog over the scraps of power, is manic. Trudeau says he’s under intense pressure to run. That can only grow now that he’s opened the door. But this is a mug’s game. The effort to drive the 40-year-old to jump before his time is a sign, not of his suitability, but of the party’s desperation. (Source: National Post)

Meanwhile, Nik Wallenda is hoping to make history Friday as he attempts to be the first person to walk across Niagara Falls on a tightrope.

On a walk scheduled for 10:20 p.m. ET, Wallenda will cross from the American side to the Canadian side of the falls on a 500-metre wire suspended 60 metres above the churning water.

Others have crossed the water on tightropes, but over the gorge downstream and not for more than 100 years.

Wallenda estimates that the walk will cost him $1.3 million – the pricetag includes the fabrication and installation of the custom-made steel wire, permits and security on both sides of the border as well as travel and marketing.

He is recouping some of the costs through a deal with ABC to air his walk on a live special, which will air on CTV in Canada.

The Niagara Falls Parks Commission expects 120,000 people to gather on the Ontario side of the falls when Wallenda attempts his walk. (Source: CTV News)

 

Wednesday May 2, 2012

By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator, Wednesday May 2, 2012

Daredevil Nik Wallenda will try to cross the Niagara Gorge on a tightrope June 15

The seventh-generation member of the Flying Wallendas spent months getting the necessary permissions from Canada and the United States for the cross-border stunt.

Conrad Black Cartoon Gallery

Organizers told a news conference in Niagara Falls, Ont., today the contracts have been signed and the date set.

Wallenda’s stunt will merge two pop culture traditions — his own family’s death-defying feats on the high wire and the daredevil acts at Niagara Falls that date back more than 100 years. 

Meanwhile, debate continues regarding the return to Canada of convicted criminals kept in jail by U.S. officials.

The Globe and Mail recently reported that Lord Black cannot be admitted to this country “without the special permission of the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration.” 

So, since Lord Black is a controversial figure who very publicly, and some of us would say quite insultingly, renounced his Canadian citizenship long before his legal troubles began, and whose contributions to this country’s public life are furthermore subject to widely divergent perceptions, Minister Jason Kenney really can’t wriggle off the hook by blaming his decision on faceless officials in his employ.

No, for good or ill, whether or not he decides to allow Lord Black to return to Canada, and whether or not all Canadians approve of his decision, the Chief Gatekeeper and Censor of Canada who banned George Galloway from our shores and who has actively road-blocked the return of the child soldier Omar Khadr, a Canadian citizen who has done nothing to warrant criminal charges in this country, is going to have to wear this decision himself. (Source: Rabble.ca)