cale livingston

Injustice: Living in Bondage to Charity

Why Africa Is Still Starving – TIME

After reading this article I can’t help but become upset at the way America operates in the global community. Obviously I’m not surprised that our government takes advantage of any given situation to make a quick buck but how can they do that in good conscience when they know there’s death on the other end?

Ultimately, I’m and idealist and the main issue I’m pushing right now is “social responsibility.” I still don’t understand how anyone, in good conscience, can exploit the plight of those less fortunate like this. The US has created this deadly co-dependence cycle with starving African countries and I believe it’s our responsibility to correct the problem. We can’t just rely on living ignorantly and reacting emotionally, regardless of our good intentions. Once you get past the initial compassion response you have to deal with the sustained follow-through and end results of your effort. Personally, I don’t think we get credit for providing all that food if everyone starved to death a few years later anyways, right?

May I be so bold as to say I think America’s main sin in this issue is pride. On a deeper level we love the satisfaction of giving charity to others. While I don’t think the concept of charity is wrong, I do believe it’s easily tainted with out own selfish motives. In this case, we want to blow in and solve everyone’s immediate problem with our temporary, and heart-warming, solutions. But I would argue that if we truly did care about the lives and well being of these people then we would actually take the time to create a legitimate strategy to meet their needs both now and for the future. The article says it best with the “Teach a man to fish” adage.

Until then, this seems to be a missed opportunity at providing genuine help. We dropped the ball. But there’s good news, we can still continue to invest in these countries and change our strategies as well. Hope is not lost.