Maybe their hearts were in the right place. Maybe not. Either way, these are solid contenders for the title of “worst attempts at helping others since colonialism.”
1. One million t-shirts for Africa
2. TOMS Buy-One-Give-One
…dumping shoes in places where people might otherwise be employed to make them.
3. Machine gun preacher
Problems with Sam Childers, the machine gun preacher, are so much more straightforward.
It’s dangerous and insane.
4. 50 Cent ransoming children in Somalia
So let’s break that down.
A. If you Like Fifty’s Facebook page — without even buying the drink — a child, presumably in Somalia, gets fed.
B. We can infer that there is a pot of dollars somewhere earmarked for feeding needy children. Two million meals worth of feeding if you count the million Like-meals plus the potential million bonus.
C. Those meals, while they could be donated, and have presumably been budgeted for, willnot be, except to the extent that you give Street King props online.
That, ladies and gentlemen, is called extortion.
5. Donor fund restrictions
6. Making food aid the same colour as cluster munitions.
Left is delicious. Right will kill you. You try tell the difference if you can’t read English and live out in the steppes.
7. Making USAID a foreign policy tool
In 1990, on the eve of the first Gulf War, Yemeni Ambassador Abdullah Saleh al-Ashtal voted no to using force against Iraq in a security council session. US Ambassador Thomas Pickering walked to the Yemeni Ambassador’s seat and retorted, “That was the most expensive No vote you ever cast.” Immediately afterwards, USAID ceased operations and funding in Yemen.
Seriously, people need to stop buying Tom’s they only hurt local economies and the free shoes you think people are getting for free are actually being sold at high prices at markets so only rich people can afford them.
Seriously, re: Tom’s (actually everything on here, please be aware before you toss your bucks to people).
Buuuuut, if you’re interested in Tom’s but want a much more positive program (I say this with the following caveat: there’s been a lot of good press, but I’m waiting, pun intended, for the other shoe to drop), buy Oliberte shoes. Rather than “giving” shoes away, Oliberte sources from communities of cattle farmers, leather makers, and rubber plant growers. In addition they pay to give training and support, as well as living wages (that is, not sweatshop scale paygrades, but actual, reasonable pay as far as I was able to find) to shoe makers. The idea being, in essence, to create a sustainable industry that utilizes and supports existing resource markets and ways of living, rather than put people out of work by giving away goods.
As I said in the caveat, what I’ve read has been overwhelmingly positive. However, I would not hold it as some fantastical out-of-this-world beneficence. It is a sustainable and positive alternative to Tom’s. I suggest everyone else do research, but from what I can tell Oliberte is a pretty well-thought out example of investing in an area without exploitation.
i fucking hate shit thats all “i will donate 10 cents for every proof of purchase, reblog or like”
bitch, if you got the money, fucking give it already and stop tryina act like you give a fuck about charity and its not all about your bottom line. gtfoh.
I hate Toms.. I hate the company they are, they aren’t even ‘donating’ shoes right now because they are on “backorder”
They are not fashionable, minus a few I have seen here and there
People get so pretentious about them.
There are plenty of other ways to help third world countries, that actually better community building, as oppose to throwing a handful of shoes at ‘em
(via stephensays)
