Of course people enjoy the adventure and arent doing it out of pure good, of course their living standards are completely different (does seeing it next to each other really make it any more dubious than a kid reading the new yorker at home?) Of course many of these do-gooder projects dont really do much.

The truth is most of these kids are not paid, their projects are largely self-funded. Also, a lot of their $ doesnt save the world, but is used to buy beer, etc to help the economy. Tourism is a huge global business and is a growing popular major for Kenyan university students. Many of the people who do start out blind go on to to create better projects, pursue degrees and more education to actually learn skills that do make a positive impact. Or, often they just return home, remember their adventure and donate later on in life.

This kind of aid/tourism has been popular in south america, southest asia for a long time. That its growing/rising in Africa is probably a good thing, as it means the perception of africa is that its safer and open to entrepreneurship.

Some of the claims are valid, but arent really looked into. If youre going to talk about a need for greater accountability among ‘aid workers’, do it. If youre going to write about messed up perceptions of africa, do it. But dont write up an article complaining about how annoying those idealist liberal arts kids are and posit it as meaningful journalism about africa. The journalist himself is writing another ‘whats best for africa’ polemical. You do not avoid all this icky issues b/c your a ‘journalist’.

The only thing I’m really keen on is the use of the world Mzungu, and I think he hits the nail on the head about how and why westerners try to reclaim this word. (and Toubab in senegal / gringo in S. America, etc)

In some ways, it might be more helpful to interrogate how these more positive impulses can be better channeled. And this goes for people on both sides of the equations. Westerners end up viewing poor Africans as abstract totems, much as poor Africans end up viewing Westerners as abstract totems. It’s not healthy for either side.

It’s important to ask these questions from an African point of view rather than just critiquing what Westerners do, especially when it comes to often useless “charity tourism” or “poorism,” as Alex calls it. How can Westerners engage with Africans on African terms? What are ways to determine what these terms actually are? What are the kinds of projects, if any, that could actually be helpful for Westerners to work on if they come here to do charity work?

Of course, deeper, longer-term engagements will always be more meaningful and substantive, but naive good intentions should not just be dismissed out of hand.