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by Chris Klontz (this is the author, he is evaluating the book DomKen cited) I am posting it simply because his one-sided POV made me so mad. But he could have easily looked it up himself, had he been very interested. One POV: Because of all of Mother Teresa’s extensive media coverage, people lose sight of what she really wants to be seen as: “A little pencil of God” who only wants to serve the poorest of poor. Mother Teresa even said herself, “If I got to heaven, it will be on account of all this publicity; I hate it. Why all this fuss about us? Others do the same work as we do. Do it perhaps better. Then why single us out?” (Le Joly 299). The media has so extensively covered Mother Teresa’s work with the poor in Calcutta that people tend to lose sight of the other charitable work other missions are doing, particularly in India. There are a few thousand registered charities in Calcutta, some much larger than the Missions of Charity, yet Mother Teresa’s mission arguably gets more coverage than all the other missions in Calcutta combined. Calcutta’s largest charity by far is the Ramakrishna Mission. The Ramakrishna Mission cares for about 10 times as many people as the Missionaries of Charity (Chatterjee 283), yet receives roughly 84 times less media coverage.2 This massive unbalance in media coverage, which turns Mother Teresa into a celebrity, leaves major charities largely invisible to the philanthropic donations from generous individuals and organizations. One might think that all this media coverage is good because it brings the world to realization of the troubles in third world countries and compels people to donate money to the less fortunate. This is an admirable argument, but it has one flaw: the money people donate should be spread amongst all the charities. There were times when Mother Teresa had so much money that she didn’t know what to do with it all **and requested for a “Temporary halt to contributions until we have used up what we have” (Chitkara 15). A German newspaper 2 For example a search ProQuest for articles relating to the Ramakrishna Mission produces 64 documents. A search for articles relating to Mother Teresa and her Mission produces 5381 documents. Mother Teresa and Media Mayhem 6 claimed that “Excessive support to a single charity leading to the needs of thousands of others being forgotten was probably behind the request” (Chitkara 16). Other charities of Calcutta could really put to use some of the unused money that has been offered to mother Teresa. Other large charities that few have heard of like the Child in Need Institute (CINI) and the Bharat Sevadhram Sangha both could use the money that Mother Teresa had available to her. Most charities of India offer different services, and the Missionaries of Charity offer very few practical services that cater to the needs of India’s people (note: This is an opinion, and certainly differs from the second post source citation, below this one). For instance in times of natural disaster and wars, the Missionaries of Charity were either absent (note: not true in every case) from or playing a minor part in the effort to restore order while other charities were heavily battling for the needs of the Indian populace (Chatterjee 280). Other charities excel in other areas (Note: So what? Why should they not?)that Mother Teresa’s order lacks in, such as providing medical care and education (note: Maybe they do it better - but she does this work too. If they do, she already said she thought so too). It is the heroification of Mother Teresa that makes her virtually immune to criticism, and the small amount of criticism that she does get is hurriedly dismissed. The personalized image of Mother Teresa created by the media causes us to overlook the actual work she is doing and causes us to not recognize the perhaps more effective work other notable charities are doing to help the people of India (Note: Maybe. This doesn't make the work she does useless. Not by a long shot). Because of this, there are times when Mother Teresa’s mission gets more monetary support than they can handle, while other worthy charities are deprived of financial support. Note: Like this is her fault? She started her own order. Why would it surprise anyone that is her mission? It is through this process of media distorting reality, defined as sentimentalization that causes us to not realize that the wellbeing of the poor is being jeopardized by our biased views of Mother Teresa (I can agree with this, but think the author seems partly like an incurable idealist).
< Message edited by SusanofO -- 8/28/2007 12:50:55 AM >
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And sings the tune without the words,
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RE: Mother Teresa's dark night of the soul - 
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