Make Poverty History
I’ll be honest, I was stuck for a response to Joanne and Ed’s sneering at the Make Poverty History campaign. I took my banner down intially because it felt like the best option, I didn’t want to upset their white middle-class sensibilities. Then, after some research it struck me. Get a bigger banner. And now I feel much better.
«15 CommentsJune 19, MMV»
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You've arrived at the homepage of Stephen Stewart. The archive is available here for those who want it. This site is happily hosted by Dreamhost. Click for more?
More!? OK then, but I can't help feeling that this will be a disappointment to you.
I work as a web designer in Belfast, and I live by the sea in a shoe. You can see me here, doing my livejournal pose as idoru called it. If you need to you can email me at carisenda -at- gmail -dot- com.
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Here, isn’t my middleclass sneering (and meeting-stopping pedantry) worthy to be held up to ridule like those other two?
ridule \ri”duel\ n. A fireplace as used by the visigoths
Sorry, was I sneering? I though I was merely commenting that mph isn’t offering workable solutions, nor is it saying anything new. It is, however, massaging western consciences. A worthy aim if ever there was one.
‘tis a mighty big banner, though.
Well I can only speak from experience, and the two organisations that I’ve worked for who will benefit from MPH do good and useful work which has a real impact. On the other hand my experience of weblogs is that they are vacuous, predominately white middle-class sneer holes.
Thats the problem with mph: it seems to focus more on what it is than what it is doing. If you stop nine out of ten people in the street with a white wristband and ask them what it means, they’ll say “Well, it’s, like, a protest, against all the rich western countries keeping Africa poor, and we’re saying it’s got to stop.” It’s a quick, easy way for people to appear to care while not actually doing anything to help.
Instead of having celebs going saying “support our campaign”, they should be saying “hundreds of charitable and aid organisations have come together to riase awareness and carry out these specific goals, and we want to help”.
The debt relief seems like a good thing, yes, but will it help the poorest people in the countries involved? No, it’ll just be more money available for the corrupt leaders of most of those countrie to siphon off towards Switzerland. Oh, and it ruins the credit rating of the countries as well, so if they ever need to borrow in the future, nobody will be willing to lend anything. Unless it’s at even higher interest rates.
So it’s good in the short term, but long term it’s made the poorest countries in the world even more dependent on aid. Which helps nobody.
I bow to your excellent grasp of the theory and will be watching with interest as you implement this magical bullet.
I’m not claiming that I know how to fix it. I’m claiming that mph don’t either. The difference is that I’m not saying I can.
Well, I am glad that you feel you are making a difference by fugly-ing up your website. My sensibilities, rather than middle-class, tend to lean towards the practical - if I want to help fix something, I do something useful and I don’t feel the need to brag about it (because that is all these banners are, really - “look what I support! Look how good and generous and upstanding I am!”) on my website. Why don’t you add a counter showing how much money you’ve donated too? A lovely finishing touch and at least a good deal more honest, I think.
It must be nice to be so morally superior as to render us greedy, sneering, decadent, effete “middle-class” silently shameful, huh? Isn’t it satisfying to be offended by us (rather than to consider that we might actually have a point), to be able to smugly know that you are so much better than us because you have seen what poverty really is and so clearly your empty gestures and meaningful “protests” (didn’t people used to take to the streets to protest injustices? Now all you gotta do is stick a banner on your weblog?) must not be in vain.
As much as I’m sceptical about mph being able to make a difference, I disagree with these attacks against people for supporting it. Raising awareness isn’t a bad thing, even if it’s not the magic solution we’d like, and how much one person chooses to donate is none of anyone else’s business. Stephen feels like this is worthwhile (and since he knows organizations that might benefit from mph, I’d say he’s not just jumping on a bandwagon) so why not stand behind it?
Joanne, it’s great that you’re so involved in causes you really care about, but that doesn’t mean that everyone will be able to follow in your footsteps. It seems like you’re judging those people who aren’t as committed as you - but at least it’s a start.
Of course I’m being judgemental (I’d rather be that than a fence-sitter), doesn’t mean I’m not right. The fact is, sticking a banner on your website isn’t even “a start” - it’s nothing. It’s a piece of code, no cost, no energy required. It doesn’t help anyone, it doesn’t do anything, the only purpose it serves is to highlight the “generosity” of the “owner”.
Trish, I’d appreciate it if you didn’t twist my words to try to make me look all saintly and uber-committed (which of course I don’t, and you know it, but you do a good job of being insulting without actually insulting - you know that too) - I never said that I was, just that if I am going to do something, then I’d rather do something useful.
And yes, suggesting Stephen puts a counter on his site is crude - but these banners are equally crude, just in a slightly more subtle (ha) way. At least a counter would honest and if he’s going to be so self-righteous about his cause then let’s see exactly how committed he is to it.
We have a saying round these here parts that is useful in times like these: ” Wind your necks in”.
Oh, and Stephen, I don’t mind when people go upsetting my simple old sensibilities. If I was that sensitive, I’d not really be wandering about the ‘net as much, would I?
That’s me told then.
Young people today eh?
I’ll own to being vacuous, white & M-C but Nelly’s will never be a sneer-hole. But I like the term. Got a ring to it.
I used to have big opinions when I was young but, like my figure, I sort of let them go.
But I do hold this opinion - if Stephen wants to have a banner on this site, if he wants to support a cause that others may not agree with, then that is his right.