Edgewater Hotel Sign Comes Down
The Art of Not Knowing
If You Tweet It, He Will Come
Historicist: "The city that nobody loves"
Vandalist: My Dog's Name Is "Shadow"
There has been a lot of debate recently about how and to what extent corporations should be allowed to fund community initiatives. City Hall is currently ablaze with lobbying and ambivalence as we draw nearer to City Council's vote on land transfer and vehicle ownership taxes, a decision that could easily blow the door open to more private sponsorship of community services and public space.
Meanwhile, over three hundred volunteers from twenty companies, including Molson and Home Depot, who are involved with Volunteer Canada's corporate council will be taking part in a unique form of corporate philanthropy on Friday as they renovate and repair a community centre in Regent Park. Unlike the controversial sponsorships of Nuit Blanche and skating rinks in December, participants will not just be dropping some cash on the table and heading back to the office to see what kind of slogan mash-ups the media can come up with for their headlines; they're actually going out and doing the renovations themselves.Though the materials are being supplied by Home Depot, we have been assured that no ads for bathroom fixtures and kitchen countertops will adorn the newly-painted walls of the community centre. The only brand that will be visible at the event is Volunteer Canada, which has partnered with the the businesses.
Somebody's got to get this stuff done, and this initiative means that over three hundred people will be investing a day's worth of labour into a high-priority neighborhood building. We'll drink to that.
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Someday, when corporations own EVERYTHING and are in every aspect of our lives, we won't be able to say we never saw it coming.
Give me a break, WannaBinToranna! Sometimes charitable work is just charitable work.
When a corporation does it, it's never just charitable work. Their only concern when it comes to interacting with humans beyond the cash register is public image.
Corporations cannot "do" anything. Acts are done by living, breathing human beings who dedicate their time, their money, their efforts, just like any other person who does charitable work. And I can't believe the anti-corporate crowd has crawled so far up their own asses that they can't see a distinction.
Aaaand... who cares? Why does it hurt you so much to know a corporation is trying to improve its public image? Are we not getting something out of this, something free and not plastered with ads? I guess that should probably be addressed to Toranna but... I usually don't address psycho alarmists/extremists.