Facebook and Twitter have turned red for the day, Starbucks is offering 5¢ for every hand-crafted beverage, Nike is selling off red laces and Bono is somewhere out there like the political PR machine he is pleading on behalf of Africa. Yet the same problems people were exploiting 5 years ago seem to be repeated today, so where is the progress? What has become of Africa since, through the vast amounts of aid thrown at it?
The truth of the matter is that the problem is not the child soldiers and AIDS panademic but the fact that a bunch of outsiders think that they have the solution to an entire continents problems. That by buying US products we are benefiting Africa, instead of the logical sponsoring of African products. That the average American is less likely to name off 5 African countries and more likely to lump the continent together as a whole. Yet for one day a year we rally together drink our Starbucks and place our #Red hashtag to fight for the cause.
The missing link in this equation is the people, we help fund multinational ‘relief’ corporations and corrupted governments that sustain the problem and prevents a self developed successful solution. As any traveler who has spent time interacting with the locals of any nation knows, it is that we as Americans more often than not have this notion that the ‘poor uneducated third-worlder’ needs us to save them with our money and way of thinking. Our ego pushes us to think that our way is best, while the humbled traveler has learned differently.
“We can fight malaria by distributing free mosquito nets, which may cost $10-$60 each by the time you get them down often impassable dirt roads. Or, as Shikwati suggests, we can train locals how to operate a business spraying homes with an insecticide that will keep them mosquito-free for six months at about $2 a family.”
Jennifer Brea : Africans to Bono: For God’s Sake Please Stop
Countries that do work economically with Africa in the trade aspect give Africa even more bad press because it’s ‘Communist’ China. Yet our solution seems to be all the better and more affective.
So what is the solution, what should you do with your need to give to a charity? If you really want to make change start local. Narrow down what problem you wish to help with, specify a country and then a specific organization. The internet has given so many opportunities to research the information for free but the key is to thoroughly research where you are donating. A perfect example is Self HelpAfrica.com while I am unsure of all the work they do, they are located in Ireland and the UK. Who knows these may just be branches of their African chapters in these countries, but that is a question that you will have to discover on your own.
For more articles check out the following links
Africans to Bono: For God’s Sake Please Stop
LA Times: What Bono Doesn’t Say About Africa
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