Sharing Nicely

Yesterday, Paul Theroux wrote about misguided aid for Africa in the IHT. Today the face of a small girl looks at me from an online advertisement and says (not literally), “You can save me if you donate money to Worldvision“. I am not sure what Worldvision does, why this child needs saving, and why Worldvision would be the best organisation to save her, but that’s not important. The girl is cute, she is small, she has dark skin, hence she obviously needs help. Somehow this kind of emotionally charged advertisement seems wrong. We consume misery in small, multi-medial and digestible portions and donate money to keep it far enough away from us (and “them” from our countries) to not spoil the celebrations. Best to quickly re-read Paul Theroux’s comment …

By the way, I have nothing against Worldvision in particular, they just happen to be the ones advertising on the news site that I read this morning. I will keep my eyes open for other large charities running similar ads …