Author: Matt Whiteman

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Contributions Debatables

Student Letter To the Editor on Celebrity Aid

By Yan Xu

The below is a letter in response to the article on celebrity voices mentioned in Monday’s post, sent to the editor of The Province:

    EDUCATING CELEBRITIES ON BEST PRACTICES

Re: Jan 25th article, Why slam the good that celebrities achieve?

Firstly, allow me to acknowledge the wonderful work that Africa Canada Accountability Coalition (ACAC) is doing in bringing forth awareness of the Congolese situation to the fore of UBC campus.  While it is certain that there is still much work to be done, their initiatives have been increasingly gaining recognition from the University community.

I would like to pose more questions than answers.  And before I begin, a disclaimer: I am not an expert on the issue of development or foreign aid.

The concept of celebrity-aid fundamentally calls into question, “is it ethically correct to use the influence that celebrities have to raise awareness to an issue, even if some of the values that are portrayed through the entertainment industry are not necessarily positive?”  Specifically, I refer to the fact that much of the wealth legitimately lavished upon these talented individuals come from international policies that have directly or indirectly resulted in plight and poverty of the under-resourced countries.  And ironically, now they’re turning around and trying to “fix the problem.” But that’s for another time; ‘aid by celebrity’ is occurring all around us and will not be fading away anytime soon, so let’s take a critical lens at the acts themselves.

Assuming that the motivations of these celebrities in helping a country in need are not for selfish gains, I still believe that the issue of celebrity-based philanthropy falls into the gray zone of advocacy.  It raises the question, “are celebrities adequately aware of the scope and complexities of the issues to make public appeals for a country or its people?”  The majority of celebrities that have banded in solidarity for the cause of alleviating poverty or disaster relief, I contend, do not.  They do not fully understand the geopolitical situations of the area that is affected, or how its socioeconomic structures and cultural norms would affect the delivery of aid in those regions.  They are touched by the urgent disasters happening in the world, and perhaps believe, first and foremost, that the world ought to rally with them for what is happening in Haiti, Somalia or Ethiopia, and is for this reason that they resort to the portrayal of peoples in these regions as helpless individuals, to prompt us to act.  They have done well; Canada for Haiti, for example, raised more than $27 million.  But the collateral damage, as Bergen from ACAC has astutely mentioned, is reinforcement of the ‘helpless victim’ stereotype.

So, how do we address this issue? No, good intentions are not enough, but equally, it is not enough for us to slam them for their good intentions and move on.  What the celebrities (and advocates) need, I firmly believe, is meaningful, constructive and balanced dialogue, not only with researchers, but more importantly with the people that they hope to serve.  Too often we are too caught up in thinking about how to “fix” underdevelopment, and ignore the simple power of authentic conversations with the people that we are speaking out for.  After all, it is not a battle between celebrities and advocates; both parties would form a ridiculous circus if they do not realize that the real battle is fought by the everyday, ordinary people impoverished by war, famine or tyranny, and that they are the experts from whom we ought to learn and consult.

Yan Xu

University of British Columbia student in the Faculty of Science, currently coordinating one of 27 approved student directed seminars, semester-long courses facilitated solely by students that have received teaching and academic training.  This seminar, titled “Topics in International Service-Learning,” explores ethical, sustainability and intercultural concerns related to short-term service engagement by students in under-resourced countries, working with vulnerable populations.

    EDUCATING CELEBRITIES ON BEST PRACTICES

Re: Jan 25th article, Why slam the good that celebrities achieve?

Firstly, allow me to acknowledge the wonderful work that Africa Canada Accountability Coalition (ACAC) is doing in bringing forth awareness of the Congolese situation to the fore of UBC campus.  While it is certain that there is still much work to be done, their initiatives have been increasingly gaining recognition from the University community.

I would like to pose more questions than answers.  And before I begin, a disclaimer: I am not an expert on the issue of development or foreign aid.

The concept of celebrity-aid fundamentally calls into question, “is it ethically correct to use the influence that celebrities have to raise awareness to an issue, even if some of the values that are portrayed through the entertainment industry are not necessarily positive?”  Specifically, I refer to the fact that much of the wealth legitimately lavished upon these talented individuals come from international policies that have directly or indirectly resulted in plight and poverty of the under-resourced countries.  And ironically, now they’re turning around and trying to “fix the problem.” But that’s for another time; ‘aid by celebrity’ is occurring all around us and will not be fading away anytime soon, so let’s take a critical lens at the acts themselves.

Assuming that the motivations of these celebrities in helping a country in need are not for selfish gains, I still believe that the issue of celebrity-based philanthropy falls into the gray zone of advocacy.  It raises the question, “are celebrities adequately aware of the scope and complexities of the issues to make public appeals for a country or its people?”  The majority of celebrities that have banded in solidarity for the cause of alleviating poverty or disaster relief, I contend, do not.  They do not fully understand the geopolitical situations of the area that is affected, or how its socioeconomic structures and cultural norms would affect the delivery of aid in those regions.  They are touched by the urgent disasters happening in the world, and perhaps believe, first and foremost, that the world ought to rally with them for what is happening in Haiti, Somalia or Ethiopia, and is for this reason that they resort to the portrayal of peoples in these regions as helpless individuals, to prompt us to act.  They have done well; Canada for Haiti, for example, raised more than $27 million.  But the collateral damage, as Bergen from ACAC has astutely mentioned, is reinforcement of the ‘helpless victim’ stereotype.

So, how do we address this issue? No, good intentions are not enough, but equally, it is not enough for us to slam them for their good intentions and move on.  What the celebrities (and advocates) need, I firmly believe, is meaningful, constructive and balanced dialogue, not only with researchers, but more importantly with the people that they hope to serve.  Too often we are too caught up in thinking about how to “fix” underdevelopment, and ignore the simple power of authentic conversations with the people that we are speaking out for.  After all, it is not a battle between celebrities and advocates; both parties would form a ridiculous circus if they do not realize that the real battle is fought by the everyday, ordinary people impoverished by war, famine or tyranny, and that they are the experts from whom we ought to learn and consult.

Yan Xu

University of British Columbia student in the Faculty of Science, currently coordinating one of 27 approved student directed seminars, semester-long courses facilitated solely by students that have received teaching and academic training.  This seminar, titled “Topics in International Service-Learning,” explores ethical, sustainability and intercultural concerns related to short-term service engagement by students in under-resourced countries, working with vulnerable populations.

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Uncategorized

Guidance for Haiti-bound Relief Workers

The US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention released a short document of basic guidance materials for relief workers headed to Haiti.

Here it is.

Dr. Dharamsi, the Principal Investigator for the EIESL Project, reminded me: “Now try and imagine what the affected population is going through… just notice how well protected relief workers and others need to be!”

Also, here’s another good resource:

“Following the devastating earthquake in Haiti, The Cochrane Collaboration is working with colleagues in WHO, PAHO (the WHO regional office in the Americas), the Centre for Reviews and Dissemination and others to make relevant details from Cochrane reviews available through our Evidence Aid resources. Information was put on the Internet recently:

http://www.cochrane.org/evidenceaid/haiti/index.html.

The Evidence Aid project is continually improving its materials and processes, to ensure that the Collaboration is able to make an appropriate response when these dreadful disasters occur, and we will be thinking about how to better do this. If you would like to be involved in the project, now or in the future, please contact Mike Clarke (mclarke@cochrane.ac.uk).”

Categories
Debatables

In which people stand up and sit in arm chairs and yell a lot

By Matt Whiteman

One of our colleagues and occasional contributors, Tanja Bergen, was criticized in the Provice today for a rant she wrote for us at 3 in the morning in which she criticizes ignorant (yet well-meaning) celebrities for oversimplifying something kind of important.

As the principal writer for this blog (and Tanja’s room mate), I want to state that I fully support 3am rants against overly-privileged people who exploit human guilt and encroach upon productive debate around something that’s already pretty awful such as mass rape in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Never mind that the author of the article in the Province didn’t cite his sources (hint: us), denying Tanja any sort of context for the single, cherry picked line… readers are further distracted from more pressing issues (for example, what the connections are between (trans)national corporations and conflict in the Global South, or what the United States’ real motivations for sending thousands of troops to Haiti might be) and are reduced to squabbling over the questionable behaviour of celebrity figureheads.

I do however, thank Ethan Baron for at least portraying the Africa-Canada Accountability Coalition in a positive light, as it well deserves.

Badvocacy needs to be squashed, no matter where it comes from, and that’s part of what Tanja and company do.

***

Here is the response I left:

I love it. Armchair critics criticizing legitimate activists criticizing armchair celebrity activists criticizing rapists. I feel like I’m in a Beckett play. Or maybe Tom Stoppard.

Attention all ye anonymous strangers who criticize Ms. Bergen for “blather[ing] about what other people are doing, do[ing] nothing themselves, then mov[ing] on to the next story they can critizise [sic]”… pay a visit to the Africa Canada Accountability Coalition website: http://acacdrcongo.org/ and actually look at the work being done by she and her colleagues before making accusations of armchair criticism.

A question we should all ask ourselves – celebrities included – is “who is being served by my actions?” We all have conflicting motivations for our behaviour, but what I do take issue with is that while lending your voice in solidarity is always well-intentioned, it is usually more harmful than helpful.

It is so easy to homogenize incredible complexity, and most people do it when talking about something they don’t understand. It is perfectly reasonable to criticize somebody such as Sienna Miller for perpetuating harmful stereotypes or for oversimplifying an issue as complex as rape in the DRC. Responsible advocates criticize anybody who exhibits ignorant, harmful behaviour – they don’t discriminate.

Of course you hear the criticism of celebrities more often. That’s why they are celebrities. To accuse people of taking pot shots at celebrities is a bit of a sampling bias there folks, don’tcha think?

To pose the question of “who cares why anyone does charity work so long as it’s being done?” is to incorrectly assume that the charity paradigm is inherently a good one. Why not focus on social justice or critical consciousness instead, which means respecting human dignity and valuing competence rather than paternalism.

Or as a friend of mine rhetorically pondered: “Who is served by the Make Poverty History Campaign? Why, I wonder, isn’t there a campaign called Make Affluence History?”

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Uncategorized

NY Times Article on Haiti: What not to give

By Matt Whiteman

Here is a timely article that focuses on teaching people how not to give to the efforts in Haiti…

…and here’s the post mentioned but not linked called “Nobody Needs your old shoes” in case you were wondering about that.

Please do also visit Ms. Schimmelpfennig’s most excellent blog for other great and related discussions, always linked from the sidebar on our homepage, “Good Intentions Are Not Enough“.

This is important, so do your homework.

Categories
Contributions Personal Experience

The week in review

By Chaya Erika Go

January 18-22 was a week for many things:

There was the Africa Awareness Conference Week, a hearty celebration of the continent and a campaign to further increase its presence in our campus. There was poetry, music, storytelling, fruitful conversations, and (oh so) much dancing! After all it is nice to be reminded, and as a Canadian archaeologist from SFU side-commented to a bevy of usherettes, that “We all came from Africa. ..It’s just that I faded out along the way.”

It was also Islam Awareness Week and I got a ticket to the lecture by Dr Jamal Badawi, a scholar on the Holy Qur’an. I was thrilled to learn that ‘jihad’, which in Arabic literally means ‘to exert maximum effort, to strive’, alludes more to an internal battle rather than an actual bloodbath (and true enough it is much harder to fight against one’s own anger than to smash your enemy’s head!). I got goosebumps at the revelation and remembered Mahatma Gandhi. But the debate on pacifism aside, the talk was a refreshing call to re-examine our many misperceptions of the faith.

The week also saw an overwhelming surge of support for Haiti across campus. It was indeed, and continues to be, an expression of com-passion. Seated in the Frederick Wood Theatre for the Help Hear Haiti event, I felt unusually patriotic to be part of UBC (kudos to our fellow students, faculty members and president!). Though struggling with devastating losses and a profound sense of helplessness, many of us still choose to be very much involved on and off-field, ready to engage with the complexities of the crisis.

This week blew me away –it was intense with festivities and grief alike– and I woke up on a Saturday needing to wrap my heart and head around all of it. And I was brought back to the slam poet Shane Koyczan and his piece “This Is My Voice” which we gave a standing ovation to at the UBC Student Leadership Conference. Perhaps his lines sum up this week pretty well –the difficulty of most situations but also the tremendous encouragement we give one another. And I’d like to think that on Sikiliza, the last cultural night of the Africa Awareness Week, some of us danced hard keeping the rest of the troubled world in sincere remembrance.

Categories
Debatables

Engagement in Haiti

By the EIESL Project Team

Several students have approached the EIESL Team asking how they can participate in the relief efforts for Haiti. Firstly, our formal role as a project is to develop our individual and collective capacity to participate in an ethically sustainable manner. In any crisis situation, the immediate need is for qualified and experienced emergency workers and logisticians, with the skills and capacity to begin to address the crisis effectively. Here at home, we can begin to participate in a number of ways, through dialogue, effective communication, and fundraising for “legitimate” relief efforts (e.g. MSF, Red Cross).

We cordially invite you to share your ideas on our blog about how we can most effectively engage from home. If you’ve never heard about Haiti, what do you know about it? What have we learned from the Tsunami in South Asia and from Hurricane Katrina?

We anticipate a substantial genesis of  ISL/volunteerism programs of all shapes and sizes over the next few months and into the summer during the rebuilding phase in Haiti. Compassionate volunteers will without a doubt flow into Port-Au-Prince eager to contribute, and their fervour will be commendable.

However, there is no better situation to exemplify the gravity of the ethical implications of service that we at the EIESL Project aim to put forth. This is an issue of competency:

If you do not have the appropriate skills to capably and responsibly enter this community and the situation it faces, which now more than ever can be described as ‘vulnerable’, you do not belong there.

Realize this with humility, and accept that although you may feel a helpless urgency, even with the best of intentions, you can do  much greater harm than good by being ill-prepared.

The EIESL Project Team is currently in talks to plan for a dialogue on what a responsible course of action might be during this later phase, once the situation becomes less critical.

*****

A quick note

By Matt Whiteman

Following from the note above, I heard a story of note on the radio this morning. Here’s a digital version.

Before I continue, I want to acknowledge that these are real people, and that they are somebody’s children. The earthquake and aftermath has produced a situation of unspeakable horror, and I stand quarely in solidarity with all those affected. The EIESL project members, like many others, are dialoguing to find the course of action that is most suitable to our collective capabilities. With the discussion below, I mean no disrespect whatsoever, and I welcome feedback from those who wish to give it.

On the subject of ethical engagement however, I began to wonder: why are there 18 high school students from Nelson, BC in Haiti?

What could they possibly know about “setting up a farm”? or about Haiti for that matter?

As a descriptor, “unprepared” just doesn’t cut it.

Another thing to think about as this story evolves: as you look at photographs depicting vulnerable people, think to yourself “is it okay to even take these photographs, let alone display them in public for anyone to see?”

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Uncategorized

What are we doing here TRAILER

By Matt Whiteman

So this is a neat looking film which seems from the trailer to sum up our basic argument. Only thing is, they won’t ship it to us because we live in Canada. This makes us sad.

Also, did anyone else catch the irony here?  Unavoidable I suppose. Anyway, strong work for an accessible criticism of the charity paradigm. Although, it sorta feels a bit like that ridiculous Invisible Children documentary… and I’m not sure how to feel about it yet (and I will never be able to hear the words “Cairo to Cape Town” without thinking of our dear friend Cecil Rhodes). This is why I want to watch it to be sure. Either way, I think it could be a valuable teaching tool.

Is it unethical to smuggle a documentary that teaches people about ethics across the border? It may come to that (I also tried to steal an ethics class  once, arguing that it was “for the greater good”, but caved under my own conflicted conscience and came clean to the prof after a few lectures).

In summary:

Stickin’ it to big aid = sweet.

Featured at many film festivals = right on.

“Featured on CNN, NBC, FOX etc.” = *soft, apprehensive Canadian liberal grumble*

Anyhow, here’s the website for the film if you want to know more about it.

Categories
Debatables

Coolest. Christmas gift. Ever.

By Matt Whiteman

As a non-religious person, I’ve asked myself for a number of years, “what does Christmas even mean to me?” Without putting too fine a point on it, for me, the Christmas tree is a wasteful and empty symbol. I don’t need it to get together with my family, nor to feel festive… and the presents have certainly never needed shelter from the snow. Our decorations are tacky and possess no sentimental value to me, and the decorating process always feels tedious and inevitably sparks petty conflict. None of us have ever practiced religion. But like many Canadian families, we’ve celebrated Christmas every year, and it hasn’t really made sense to me for many years.

Since entering university, the wishlist I send my family every October has been fairly modest, but I couldn’t properly express my discontent for a long time. This year, the thought of a Christmas tree in my house stuffed with gifts felt particularly unpalatable. Without trying to seem pretentious or ungrateful, or to paint myself as a yuppie liberal in sympathetic cahoots with the poor (see the video “How Not to Write About Africa“), I felt our holiday as a whole lacked a level of consciousness that I strive to explore and sustain in the rest of my life.

This year, I asked my family members, as a gift to me, to volunteer a few hours of their time for the United Way. I asked them to offset flights for carbon. I asked them to watch The Girl Effect and consider how they might respond to it (I did also ask for my standard books, socks, and roasted pistachios). All these things I got from one person or another. My parents even surprised me by decorating my mother’s yucca plant before I arrived, rather than getting a tree (oh how I wish I’d remembered to take a photograph!). This was a fair (and hilarious) compromise between my request and the members of my family who do still value the tree.

But the coolest thing I got came from my parents. They live in Gordon O’Connor’s riding in Ottawa. O’Connor voted against Bill C-300, which was tabled to address the irresponsible Canadian mining practices abroad, most notably in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (for the real skinny on this issue, visit our friends over at ACAC).

I asked my parents to write a letter to him, urging him to vote in favour of the Bill at its third reading (can I get a woot! for our prorogued parliament?!).

They did, and here it is.

I was so grateful for this that I was speechless. It is well written. The three of us think that the reply was a wholly inadequate response to a major global challenge. I won’t post the whole thing here; however, it concludes with the following:

“Passing Bill C-300 would represent a step backwards for Corporate Social Responsibility in Canada, and for Canadian business.

While the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development is currently studying the bill, this Government cannot support it because not only are there problems with the legislation, but if passed, Bill C-300 would undermine the competitive position of Canadian companies and potentially render Canada a less attractive jurisdiction for mining investment.”

We are not amused. There’s more, but I’ll leave it at that. The point is that I found a way for Christmas and I to more or less peacefully co-exist.  Yes, UBC, you’ve trained me well, I’m now turning my private family matters into experiments in global citizenship. Little do you know my nefarious plan to turn every holiday into a super social justice extravaganza, mua ha ha ha.

Categories
Debatables

5 Important Questions

By Matt Whiteman

In order to reach as broad an audience as possible (in our humble way…), I’ll re-post 5 questions from the fantastic blog, Wronging Rights. Read them over, tell us how you’d answer the questions, and then read this post… then this one.

1. Is it ever appropriate for foreign citizens, governments, or international institutions to intervene in crises overseas?

2. If the answer to #1 is “yes,” then when is it appropriate?

3. Do we know how to do it? That is, do we understand the technological means that will allow us to accomplish our stated goals?

4. If so, are those means available to us?

5. If they are, are we willing to expend the resources necessary to use those means?

Categories
Debatables

Falling Whistles

By Matt Whiteman

Okay, for anyone who has read Ishmael Beah’s Long Way Gone or who knows anything about the Congo (or even if you haven’t/don’t), can you poke holes in this 2 minute video? It’s like the girl effect video, but more of a downer.

I say tough call. “THEIR WEAPON = OUR VOICE” >> kinda yikes… definitely oversimplified, but with human attention being a commodity, the video did exactly what it should have done…

Obviously, DR Congo ≠ child soldiers, rape and lions, but if it means more people trying to hold those prolonging the conflict to account, is that better than complete silence and apathy?  Does this  allow  people to symbolize their solidarity, or is this just more badvocacy? A friend pointed out that it’s sorta like “now you too can play child soldier” and that in itself is offensive enough.

As for sad music + saviour man… well, dime a dozen perhaps, but at least he admits it began with wanderlust, admits that he learned more than he bargained for, and at least he remains in the background to some extent.

An effective ad campaign, no doubt – and after reading Ishmael Beah’s story, it’s tough to argue against rehabilitation of child soldiers (as one part of a much larger issue). It’s also one of those issues that is impossible to fit onto a t-shirt and have it remain totally PC.

At first glance, I think to be even more transparent, they should post their reports with budgets etc. I’d also include a section where people can access resources to learn more about the conflict if they have more questions (Gérard Prunier’s book, for one). I wasn’t as outraged by this as I have been by some other campaigns, until I got to the photo journal (on the main page after the video, go to “story”).  A large helping of  white man’s guilt, accompanied by a hefty slice of “we are helping!”. They effectively “Other” the people of the DRC back to the 15th century. Come on guys, watch your language.

On the one hand, you’re buying a $300 trinket. On the other hand, the war whistle is a haunting gift if you imagine how it started (and this is totally my imagination and in no way represents reality, by the way). Guy comes home in pain but with overwhelming ambition – family and friends expect beautiful artisanal handicrafts from archetypal ‘noble Africans’ and instead he gives them a whistle carried by a small child in a war zone. I respect that he notes the “powerful irony” associated with the item, that “In DR Congo it is used as tool for war, but here at home it is a symbol of freedom.”[1] If I were the one receiving the gift and didn’t already know about the DRC, I’d probably jump on board as well. It all fits together really well; he tells a ‘tidy’ story (although perhaps a little too tidy in some ways). Regardless, I think when a campaign grows to this size, it becomes far easier to poke holes in it. Credit where credit is due, I think.

A friend who I think very wise always says to me that to understand an issue like this one, you can’t just critically analyze it. You have to feel it. This is what the campaign does.

Lastly, they quote this man, whose words echo Paulo Freire:

“If you came to help me, you are wasting your time, but if you came because your liberation is bound together with mine, then let us walk together.”[2]

~Just some fella living through a war

That’s something I can get behind.

—

[1] Retrieved Tuesday, December 15th, 2009. “Just A Bunch Of Kids: A FALLING WHISTLES BENEFIT”. Here.

[2] Ibid.

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