There's been a lot of buzz about Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg's letter to their newborn daughter where they commit to donating 99% of their Facebook shares. The comments from Melinda Gates, Gavin Newsom, Richard Barth, and many more seem to echo the sentiment that I had when reading the letter. More or less that...this is awesome, it may encourage similar people to do the same, and will really make a positive impact for our global community. My curiosity led to looking up some of the organizations that the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative has supported (well...not officially on behalf of CZI until now I suppose). They are largely focused around education and healthcare (not surprising given Priscilla Chan's background and work), which, given my interests and experience made learning about these organizations really interesting. Then I came across this Guardian article that challenged me to think more critically about the impact of not only western philanthropy but also the work that I, and many of the folks I'm meeting here in Kampala are doing and the system we are supporting.
Since being here, I've met lots of interesting people and have started to have some great conversations around this topic. I've been going back to some of the reading I did in college around international development (like Escobar's thoughts around the "Problematization of Poverty") now that I'm interacting with this space more personally.
I'm not sure I have any coherent opinions to share yet (would love to hear yours!), but general observations include:
Tiffany
12/2/2015 08:14:18 am
Good observations and analysis, Justine !
Tiffany
12/2/2015 08:16:53 am
Love you!
Mia Divecha
12/2/2015 02:01:53 pm
Interesting analysis. Cool to see that a lot of the locals are working on development and aid within the country and that it's not just foreigners coming in. I think that's when the best work is done. Interested to hear your thoughts as your experience progresses and how you feel about your role there as a foreigner.
Chin
12/2/2015 08:55:55 pm
I can't figure out why one would be critical about someone giving away $45B for good causes, whatever they are. We should ask ourselves what we would do in similar position.
Justine
12/3/2015 03:30:06 am
It's not so much just being critical about intentions or generosity but thinking carefully about the long-term downstream impacts, especially in a country and world where the wealth gap is increasing.
Justine
12/3/2015 05:06:24 am
To be clear, I am supportive, but just hadn't thought about how similar this type of giving can be similar to lobbying efforts that are more often criticized. In this case, I don't have any strong feelings against the "good causes" that they are financially backing, but that's not to say that others don't or won't (take the charter school example from the New Yorker article). Comments are closed.
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AuthorI'm eager to learn about the world around me and find that travel (and food) is one of my favorite ways in which to do so. Archives
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