Do-gooders often do bad

29 July 2015 - 02:09 By Andrew Donaldson

The boxing book to look out for Bouts of Mania: Ali, Frazier, Foreman and an America on the Ropes by Richard Hoffer (Aurum Press) R220Hoffer, an award-winning sports writer, gives us a gripping, intelligent book about what many call boxing's golden age. It's the tale of three men and three brutal fights in the 1970s, but seen in context of the era's political upheavals and the US's psychological crises: Vietnam, Watergate, Harlem and Watts. First published in 2014, it's out in paperback early next month. Recommended.The issueThe Sunday Times in the UK is calling for submissions for its annual short story competition. Prize money for the "short-form Booker", as it's called, is £30000 (about R587000), making it the world's richest award for short stories. It's open to writers of any nationality who have been published in the UK and Ireland. Full details at www.booktrust.org.uk/prizes.Crash course"Good intentions can all too easily lead to disastrous outcomes." So writes Oxford philosophy professor William MacAskill in his provocative new work, Doing Good Better: Effective Altruism and a Radical New Way to Make a Difference (Guardian Faber), which is aimed at up-ending the soapbox upon which the fashionable moral high-grounders have placed themselves.Take, for example, ethical consumerism and the notion that we are helping farmers in developing nations when we buy Fairtrade products like coffee and chocolate. Wrong. The premium we pay for such products goes to middlemen - and very little of it actually reaches farmers. Elsewhere MacAskill argues that it's counterproductive to boycott products produced by children in sweatshops in the East simply because, as harsh as this may be, the alternative is having no job at all. The trade unions won't buy the argument, but he lists dozens of compelling examples where sweat-shops are beneficial to poor countries.MacAskill suggests it's a waste of time trying to reduce your carbon footprint by turning off lights and switching off TV sets rather than leave them in standby mode. If you want to reduce your environmental impact, bath and drive less. "One hot bath," he writes, "adds more to your carbon footprint than leaving your phone charger plugged in for a whole year." MacAskill's best advice, though, is that we research the charities we donate to. Many of them, he writes, are surprisingly rubbish at what they do.The bottom line"Much to my surprise, my turn was over as quickly as it started. By the time I was able to wrap my head around what was happening, Hef had already moved on to Candice, then to a few of his actual girlfriends. I have never had a more disconnected experience. There was zero intimacy involved. No kissing, nothing." - Down the Rabbit Hole: Curious Adventures and Cautionary Tales of a Former Playboy Bunny by Holly Madison (Dey Street Books)..

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