 | Ceri Dingle Director, WorldWrite [1] | |||
DO WE SERIOUSLY THINK people in developing nations - especially Africa - are stupid? Judging from the rash of “awareness” campaigns, several western aid outfits seem to think so. The developing world is now awash with spurious ‘awareness’ campaigns which suggest that overcoming ignorance is the key.
The 1980’s “Don’t Die of Ignorance” HIV/AIDS campaign in the UK was thrown out after the acknowledgement that the communities most likely to be infected were the least ignorant. Gay activists castigated the campaign for its offensiveness. "It’s as though we suspect living cramped together in appalling circumstances makes people stupid" Now developing countries are getting the ignorance treatment. In Ghana’s shanty towns, Western-sponsored awareness campaigns on HIV/AIDS, family planning, child abuse, domestic violence, health and sanitation are everywhere. It’s as though we suspect living cramped together in appalling circumstances makes people stupid - or they are there because they are stupid. Apparently what these people need is a good dose of behavioural therapy and some ‘special needs’-level education to keep them in check. Meanwhile the real demands for factories, jobs, housing and infrastructure fall on deaf ears. Many Ghanaians are rightly sick of moralising and need material resources, not the educational medicine of the West’s new missionaries. Charities running overseas awareness programmes seem to be reinventing the idea that ‘these poor savages’ need to be taught a thing or two. This is a colonial attitude. They would be well advised to re-think, stop patronising and practise something other than the missionary position. > More features [1] > Watchdog articles [1] > Ceri Dingle: "Corruptababble!" [1] |