Philanthropy really a good thing?

[InfinityTruth]

This guy has such a balanced view. You can check his other vids too. Some might seem a tad racist, but I realized he actually is making a very good point, and his vids really aren't that racist. I almost unsubscribed when I really realized what he was saying was very true.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiSyS93gmjs&feature=channel_video_title

Edited May 30, 2011 by InfinityTruth

[Otis]

I agree with "Protean View" on the following: well-intentioned Westerners, mucking about in ecologies that are already internally sustainable, will probably do more harm than good.

 

However, one missing element from the video: the fact that the West has already done much of the damage.

 

Africa was not a poor continent, before Europeans introduced money and commerce, but it is now. Europe's legacy has been to first, turn Africa, South America, India, etc. into resource mines, to be extracted for the sake of Europe's well-off. The resources were plundered, and the indigenous people made into forced labor.

 

Slowly, Europeans have retreated from their Imperialist tendencies, through some awakening of conscience, among other things. So their way of making up for their previous bigotry and piggishness was to give these cultures the "gift" of Europe-like civilization. So roads are paved, property is claimed, nations and government are formed, and economy becomes all-important. Previously, a man could feed his family on a combination of hunting on tribal lands, of some gardening right at his home, and some foraging. Now, a man has to be an active part of the larger economy, or his family will starve.

 

So yes, the point of the video is valid, that we introduce unknowable consequences, when we interfere with someone else's culture. But I think it's also worth acknowledging, that the culture that we're interfering with, is often no longer a self-sustainable one. It is, instead, one that has been polluted and corrupted by European meddling, over the last several hundred years.

 

If we could turn back time, and leave Africa unspoiled by undoing all the white and Arab meddling, then I think we would have a happier and healthier continent. But it may be too late to avoid corruption of the societies that were there; now, we need to make sure our influence has the least amount of negative consequences. But I do think that there is still a very good argument for trying to help.

[riquelme29]

i like the video, and really it is only a one sided perspective that he is talking about.

 

i think that it is true, people can change the equilibrium ,but in doing so it starts a chain reaction

 

for others do the same, it creates more awareness and leads to future change. more people (westerners as he puts it)

are now taking more steps and going about to create change, and this can only be done if someone starts the

 

chain reaction. if no one did help then things would have stayed the same , this type of helping gives small

 

results but in the long run has benefited largely, with more people going on board with it, and even those

 

who have been help most of the time, try to achieve with their new opportunities more ways in order to help

 

those had not been chosen before.

 

theres my two cents into this topic