Let me preface this by saying that I am not the first person to arrive at such an idea and there’s probably lots of well-written literature on the topic but I’ve gotten to a point in my Peace Corps service where I just want to share my thoughts on the topic from my personal perspective.
What topic?
Foreign aid / Development work / Giving out free shit
First of all – the intentions are no doubt good. Hungry people deserve to eat; children deserve to be educated… etc. etc. I don’t know anyone who disagrees there… but is there a way to guarantee people basic human rights without such negative consequences?
What negative consequences, you ask? (Here comes the rant part)
SELF-DETERMINATION DOESN’T EXIST! This is like the main belief behind the Code of Ethics for Social Work… the idea that everyone is capable of helping themselves and moreover, that everyone has the right to make decisions for themselves because each individual knows what is best for him or her. (This is my definition and if I had internet access I’d probably be able to formulate it in better words so feel free to Google it/dictionary.com it) It’s not just that we’re creating such dependence on this foreign aid but perpetuating the idea that (in my case) Togolese aren’t capable of helping themselves without the help of America. (This applies to other underdeveloped countries in conjunction with America/Europe/developed countries)
I’m going to sidestep and take it a step further that in Togo, there’s an idea that all Americans are white, all white people are rich, all rich people are white… etc. For many years, it has been “the white people” who have built churches, roads, water pumps, schools, etc.; therefore, Togolese must not be capable. If not this mentality, try this one on for size- Why should I pay for my child to go to school when last year some white person paid for it? “No, my daughter, I am not paying for you to go to school… you found a white person last year, find one this year.” Not to mention this leads to parents encouraging their daughters to find men with money which leads to disease, early pregnancy and ultimate dropout anyways. In a less harsh scenario, they might become somewhat successful merchants in order to pay their school fees but then eventually dropout or fail anyways because they don’t have enough time to study (and work and cook, wash clothes, dishes, go search water and do all the domestic work)
It also hurts the economy of Togo. Take this for example: there’s a couple from a developed country giving out notebooks, pens and other school supplies. Not only does this cause controversy between ethnic groups (those who get more than others brag and the others are jealous and problems ensue) but it hurts business. Instead of purchasing these supplies in that village, they brought them from home, therefore taking away the business that the woman (who sells school supplies in that village) should normally get. And with that money she’d spend it on food and that farmer could spend it on gas, and so-on and so-forth… circulating currency instead of doing the exact opposite of taking away business (ultimately for everyone)
Obviously it just creates this dependency, perceived incompetence, potential laziness and to top it off, it’s just not sustainable and can cause more harm than good. Why work when someone will do it for free?
From the perspective of a Peace Corps Volunteer, this is beyond frustrating. People see me and the color of my skin and automatically expect money. The 3 Peace Corps goals are to 1) share knowledge 2) learn their culture 3) share American culture. Nowhere does it speak of money.
This causes more problems than I can even articulate. Take this example: A volunteer did a large conference for 40 students in 7th grade- she planned for months. The day before the conference the presenters asked how much they will be paid for working with us. How much? ZERO. Nothing. We’re volunteers; we’re not paid, not only are we not rich but a lot of us are poor/in debt. They don’t believe this. They refused to work because in the past- some white person did a similar project and gave out money and gifts.
Yes, this is stereotyping foreigners and more precisely, white people but can you blame them? Children who don’t speak French, or even speak at all know how to say “White person, give me money” because there were white people who have done this for years and years. (Not to mention they also brought Christianity, bought and sold slaves and colonized the land/created arbitrary boundaries)
This is a rant. This isn’t necessarily coherent or sequential in thought… but if you took the time to read this I just hope you took one thing away from it – giving money to other countries might hurt them more than it helps them. (And “money can’t buy me love” which seems to be the common misconception)
/rant
Other than that, life is good. Some days are worse than others but I’m still having the experience of a lifetime and honestly, I’m scared to one day come back to America… more about this later
