Give Until It Hurts
A blogger fights with another. I recently received a message from a regular reader of my blog in my personal email. This gentleman started with his appreciation of my blog and the issues i talk about.
The message with my reader went back and forth for quite some time, actually for about 2 months. Here’s a gentleman who was born and raised in Europe, and married to an Ethiopian woman with whom he shares 3 kids.
The talk had, at times, turned into a heated debate where we both felt strongly about our views but yet remained respectful towards each other’s views.
We talked about so many issues, but the issue of aid to poor nations stood out the most. He happens to be a person who doesn’t believe in hand-outs. So i was forced to ask him, “why not help, if you can?”
Giving to those who are less fortunate is the greatest calling of humanity, in my opinion. And my friend ranted about all the money that was dumped into African nations for decades and how it hadn’t gotten Africa out of its misery.
Basically, he was saying we have nothing to show for all the help we had gotten so far. And that, maybe, we are not worthy of all the help we get. If anything, Africa had proven to be a failure, he says.
Now, i love to analyze someone’s statement and the root cause of his argument. And i believe in order to explain to him in a language he understands, i had to fully grasp his point of view from his stance.
Then, i carefully over time worked him back to one simple fact that would remain true. And that an african problem is his problem, if not his, it would be his kids or grand kids problem. If he and his folks think the African issue will not come back to haunt them, well odds are stacked against him.
With the 21st century and the war against terrorism, we have learned a cruciall lesson that a problem on the other end of the world can no longer be ignored. That’s the very reason why the U.S. has boots in Iraq and Afghanistan. So ignoring us is not going to help much.
But this is where my friend failed miserably - he failed to ask questions. He failed to ask questions about his own government and the effort they have put forth to tackle the Africa Dilemma.
Africa is a continent with a vast and complex problem. It needs more than funneling millions of dollars through organizations that are bureaucratic and have never failed to seize on their catastrophic strategy of solving the African issue.
Your money is not enough for us. We neeed assistance and a true one at that. We want you to pour your heart, energy and advanced technology into our continent, if your real intention is to help us.
Invest all your resources to analyze our situation by coming to our homes and walking a day in the life of an African. You can’t expect to solve our problems from the comfort of your chair from somewhere in distant Europe or U.S.
If you expect a society in which the majority is illiterate to do what it can’t, then you should do what you haven’t so far.
And that is - To Give Until It Hurts.
Trust me, only then would you see a true change in Africa. Until then don’t consider what you have done so far . . . giving. It is an insult to all people who think.
Filed under: africa | Tagged: africa, aid, assistance, europe, g8
I don’t think the issue is about giving… it has more to do with the Christian parable or saying of give a person a fish and he or she will eat for a day- teach a man how to fish and she will eat for lifetime.
I am not sure what it means give in until it hurts? Give to who and will that not create more dependency?
Aid or handouts will only be band aid… I just don’t get this whole aid philosophy- haven’t african survived thousands of years without european aid..