Give for the right reasons

The English idiomatic expression about the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing has its origin in the Christian bible and it refers to charitable deeds. Matthew 6:3 reads: "but when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.”

It’s an instruction that you should give in secret, and without an expectation of praise or reward for doing so, and it’s relevant in the current ongoing debate about the recruitment of star rugby players by schools.

You’d have to be a miserable grouch to deny those young individuals the chance to live a better life, and for some of them to develop into players who will one day represent their provinces and even the country. But then please call what you are doing an elite rugby recruitment programme, or something like that, and confess that you are conducting your search in the poorest areas because that’s where the needs are greatest and the chances of a good return on your investment are best.

I saw a statement from a school involved in a player poaching controversy this week in which they claim to be funding boys who are in desperate need of help and, in the same paragraph, admit that contracts were signed to the effect that the boys would come to them when they progressed to high school.

That’s not charity, that’s giving with strings attached. It might work from a rugby point of view, but it’s the left and right hand working very closely together. It not philanthropy it’s patronage. The boys in question didn’t stick to the deal and have gone to a rival school. Blue murder was screamed as a result!

I’m the last person who is allowed to preach, but seeing I started off with a biblical verse, let me end with a short sermon.

We should all be doing good wherever we can. And because inequality is so great and schooling is so poor everywhere in our country, and because we are doomed if our children don’t receive a decent education, education is a good place to start.

Massive sums of money are being spent on attracting talented players to schools so that their rugby teams can be better. Fine, if that’s what you want to do, but you don’t get credit for addressing poverty and the inequality in educational standards by doing that. There are better, more sustainable, ways to spend your money

Give because it’s the right thing to do, and don’t let your right hand know what the left one is doing.