Charity is a
wonderful thing when done correctly. I have seen too much of it go wrong which
is why I clutch at my purse tightly when some approaches me to help people in
exotic 3rd world lands. Being a third world citizen myself I am
fully aware of the problems my country faces. It is manner in which this
charity is done which makes me angry. Now no longer savages we are noble
savages albeit starving ones who would not know what a tap was even if it hit
us. Gap year students visit us in the sprit of helping less fortunate people
their ancestors might have colonised. A deep sense of guilt and shame is chief
motivation to help and right all past wrongs. Yes, aspects of colonialism were
terrible however we are free nations now who want to forget our pasts- we have
moved on.
The sprit of the
thing never feels right middle class kids slumming it out in the third world
doing more harm than good. Never listening to us always thinking for us. Seems
like history is repeating itself. Are we never to be independent of their gaze?
Are we never to be treated as equals, only as poor beggars?
It also
positions the poor against each other the poor in first world countries realise
they mean nothing either to the government or to their middle classes. In short
they are scroungers. Now the same class of people in another nation are to be
pitied, deserving of charity. The hypocrisy and injustice makes me angry. It
pits people against each other and eroticises poverty in the third world. It
creates divides amongst races. Dark skinned people are not expected to do much
except wait for white saviours to rescue them, never allowed to aspire always
on display.
It is worth
asking where all this charity money goes? I am not the first person to ask this.
Foreign aid has had negative repercussions on our nations, it fosters
corruption and creates suspicion. It is not healthy for growth, but these are
not issues to bring up in front of a wide-eyed white student lest they accuse
you of racism and callousness. Yes brown as I am I am accused of racism. I am
the one who is to be reviled as a middle class person I am the problem in the
third world not its solution I am not a noble poor person. I am difficult,
which is another way of them saying we have met someone who can talk back.
The benign ,
patronisng gaze of the white aid worker is not as harmless as it would seem it
makes the same old mistakes but more gently, it still holds the same
assumptions about dark skinned natives.
