Do they know its my towel set they are eating?

Since we've been back from travelling i feel like a millionaire. This is mostly because i now realise that i no longer have to save every month for travelling and less to do with actually having the money.

In combination with this, and my increased world awareness through being able to access the news on a daily basis recently; (In fact sometimes the news seems like a relief from my overly depressing job.) I am now unfortunately aware of the massive and overwhelming drought in East Africa (perhaps the worst for 60 years). Now i studied development studies in order to change the world, i learnt a lot during my time but really all it did was politicise everything and make even the most basic things, like a right to water, a battlefield of characters so self important and crucial to the world, that choosing anyone to champion change would also result in utter destruction for everyone or everything else.

But what to do about these poor starving people? Politic agendas and long term solutions aside, i just want to put my life on hold, fly out there and get a truck to drive them all to those crappy refuge camps. Its hard to comprehend the desperation of these people to walk 7 days without food and water with a final destination which uncannily resembles Glastonbury festival permanently existing with all those pill-poppers and partiers hemmed in by large metal fences and no flushing toilets, hand washing facilities and all there is to do is sit in piles of dirt and rubbish and wait for the unsanitary conditions and lack of food to eat you alive. In June up to 30,000 people were arriving at these refugee camps a week, and queuing to get in. These people are desperate to get into these fetid conditions because they are better than where they live with no rain.

I desperately want to help- but how much so you ask? Well, i feel like i should give every penny i have to them (mortgage and bills excluded) and perhaps that will buy my soul some peace. This would also mean a sacrifice of my longed for matching towel set (white for Xss and Grey for me): Which i can live with, well without. But this sacrifice seems silly as i will simply use next months pay to get them, and then feel bad; which is what led to many a ridiculous situation before we went travelling where i never buy said item at all, because i feel so bad that i can live such a stupidly privileged life that i do that i can buy things that match when i have perfectly functioning items already. So should i just never buy them, or buy them now with the starving peoples money? The end result is the same.

I guess one solution is to get my friends (say 4 of them with £11 each) to buy these new towels for me, and then i will have not wasted any money on them. But then again, if i have the power to convince my friends to give money away, i really should be encouraging them to give it to a charity that benefits the famine victims.

So as always, i wont buy them, I'll wait for some 'bonus' money to come along that cannot be given to charity for some bizarre reason. The money i am giving is going to either the Red Cross or the DEC, both of whom are great at getting the infrastructures set up very quickly and providing immediate relief for these people for whom each day counts. My towels can wait. Think about if you can spare any money, it really will save lives.