[Albion] Good on you Stacey Dooley

[ManOfSussex]

I'm no fan of his and it's an unfortunate choice of language by David Lammy, but strip away the celebrity aspect to this and I can sort of see his point - As a general rule of thumb, I always avoided any dealings or contact with NGO's in Africa. Yes, they're helping people and trying to do good, and not all of them are like this, but far too many of them for my liking - didn't they just know they're helping people and trying to do good in Africa and feel so much better about themselves for it, and act all smug, sanctimonious and condescending as a result, and tell everyone they meet that they're helping people and trying to do good in Africa and absolutely love a photo opportunity with kids less privileged than them despite not being a celebrity too. Doubly so if they were American and in The Peace Corps.

 

[crookie]

Surprised no mention of Dambisa Moyo's book... Dead Aid: Why aid is not working and how there is another way for Africa... in this debate so far.

Thanks for that, interesting and thought-provoking. One stand out stat, in the best case scenario, 20cents in every aid dollar actually gets to help people on the ground. Shocking. A massive gravy train the aid system

 

[Hugo Rune]

www.independent.co.uk/voices/david-...hite-saviour-charity-africa-a8801676.html?amp

Interesting read.

Lammy has got a good point but has the way he has gone about calling it out been right?

He has got the attention I suppose.

 

[The Rivet]

Oh well, let all the international faces and so called 'celebrities' bow out of promoting charity giving. It is not worth the hassle obviously if the likes of this racist MP is anything to go by.

 

[driller]

Would it help if Stacy put on black face make up?

 

[pastafarian]

Would it help if Stacy put on black face make up?

Yes........yes it would.
Would help escalate the arguement at least

 

[crodonilson]

Quite hypoctitical given the name most associated with Comic Relief down the years is Lenny Henry. I guess it would be okay if he was out there?

 

[Gritt23]

Why can't it just be people helping people.

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

It was until Lammy spoke up. Such a shame he had to see a difference in a persons actions because of the colour of their skin.

 

[portlock seagull]

I sat couple seats away at Wembley last night from Richard Curtis as the other instigator of Comic Relief, Sir Lenny Henry, hosted the evening. Sir Lenny Henry btw is BLACK. It’s utterly pathetic that Lammy has sought to drive race into this cause that for 30+ years has been nothing but a force for good. He should be ashamed his prejudices have damaged the incredible work millions of people over the years have contributed raising more than 1 Billion pounds for good causes along the way.

It’s only March 1st but we already have a clear winner for complete **** of the year.

 

[Paris]

Given that she died in 2015, that would be one ****ing surprise.

I heard two different versions.

 

[BLOCK F]

www.independent.co.uk/voices/david-...hite-saviour-charity-africa-a8801676.html?amp

Interesting read.

Lammy has got a good point but has the way he has gone about calling it out been right?

He has got the attention I suppose.

I have just read the article by a young lady called Habiba Katsha.
I can only assume she wants to follow in the footsteps of Afua Hirsch, a former barrister who is now a writer and broadcaster, and in my opinion a bit of a fruitloop.
If you haven't read anything A.H. has written, have a look on t'internet! or better still, listen to some of her utterances when she has been on Sky TV's The Pledge. She seems to thoroughly dislike this country.

 

[portlock seagull]

It was until Lammy spoke up. Such a shame he had to see a difference in a persons actions because of the colour of their skin.

It’s more than a shame, I know people who have said feck it, I’m not contributing to comic relief now because of this. His racist comments have killed people. Nice one Lammy

 

[portlock seagull]

Warning: The below will not fit Lammy's agenda.

Oprah Winfrey
Talk show host Oprah Winfrey founded Oprah’s Angel Network to promote helping others, but her most notable work to date has to be the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa—opened in 2007– which aims to help low-income girls receive an education.
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Don Cheadle
Ante Up For Africa is a non-profit organization founded by Don Cheadle, Annie Duke and Norman Epstein dedicated to raising money and awareness for Africans in need.
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Blair Underwood
The actor co-founded Artists for a New South Africa, a nonprofit organization working in the U.S. and South Africa to combat HIV/AIDS, assist children orphaned by the disease, advance human and civil rights, educate and empower youth, and build bonds between our nations through arts, culture, and our shared pursuit of social justice.
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John Legend
In Africa, Show Me works with Millennium Promise to provide clean water, health care, education and other basic tools that break the cycle of poverty.
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Dikembe Mutumbo
A well-known humanitarian, the now-retired Congolese American basketball star started the Dikembe Mutombo Foundation to improve living conditions in his native Democratic Republic of Congo in 1997.
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Isaiah Washington
Actor and philanthropist Washington (who played Dr. Preston Burke on TV’s Grey’s Anatomy) has teamed up with the organization Waves 4 Water to provide water filters and construct rain water catching devices to promote sustainable water systems in some of the poorest villages in the world. Waves 4 Water has been involved at ground zero of disaster relief efforts in places such as Bali, Sumatra and Haiti to make drinking water safe again for earthquake and tsunami victims and villages affected by diseases such as cholera.
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Liya Kebede
The Liya Kebede Foundation is committed to ensuring that every woman, no matter where she lives, has access to life-saving care. The Ethiopian model, actress, fashion designer, and activist, who is the World Health Organization’s Goodwill Ambassador for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health, started her charity in 2008.
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Akon
He started the Konfidence Foundation, a nonprofit organization, dedicated to increasing public awareness of the conditions in Africa and providing underprivileged youth with access to learning and recreational environments equipped with modern technology, educational materials, recreational resources, and health and wellness services.
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Denzel Washington
Washington definitely has a soft spot for helping others. Besides being the national spokesman for the Boys’ and Girls’ clubs of America, Washington supports the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund where he is a lifetime founder member. In 2006, he donated $1 million to Save Africa’s Children, a charity based in Los Angeles that cares for orphans in Africa, where he is the honorary chairperson and where Angela Bassett sits on the Board of Directors.

Quite. These ‘black saviours’ make me sick with their African charities...

 

[MJsGhost]

An interesting (and balanced in my view) take on this from Romesh Ranganathan:

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeand...lief-despite-white-saviour-romesh-ranganathan

The argument involving Comic Relief and MP David Lammy in the run-up to this year’s Red Nose Day made me reflect on my own involvement, and on charity in general. Comic Relief has raised over £1bn for many incredibly deserving causes, something I wholeheartedly support and feel proud to be associated with. I am, however, writing this before the show, so it’s possible I will make a career-ending error, in which case; goodbye.

My take on the Stacey Dooley incident, if anybody needs another one, is this: it was naive. Dooley has made some excellent and challenging television, and went to Africa with the best of intentions. The photograph of her holding a young boy was, however, taken without proper consideration of what that imagery signifies for people of African descent. It can’t be denied that fundraising and televised charity have led to the stereotyping of African countries as disease-ridden poverty zones. Swooping in and picking up kids for photo opportunities is, at best, insensitive. I may not completely agree with David Lammy, because the direct result could well be that fewer people made donations. But his central argument – that these photos promote a stereotype that has been reinforced by charity work of this nature – echoes concerns that many people have had for a long time.

I went to Ethiopia last year and was shown around by a local, Mike, who found it simultaneously amusing and frustrating that a three-year famine that had occurred before his lifetime had led to his country for ever being defined as a charity case. Nearly 35 years after Band Aid, visitors still commented in surprise at the level of infrastructure and abundance of food. Nobody is denying parts of Africa need help; but if this publicity is not balanced with coverage of the continent’s more successful side, can you blame the British public for having a skewed perspective?

Social media is not a great place for debate, but even for the internet, some of the arguments defending Comic Relief were depressing: “Saying a white person can’t pick up a black child and take a photo is racist. You wouldn’t say that if it was the other way round.” I am not of the school of belief that racism cannot be experienced by white people, but the argument that the reversal of ethnicities is an equivalence is so flawed I cannot bring myself to engage with it.

The obvious question is: why does it have to be this way? Part of the answer is that we are desensitised to the needs of those less fortunate. We are only motivated to donate money by simple, unnuanced images and causes. Of course Comic Relief doesn’t just give money to that kid with flies all over him. There are many complex issues they engage with, but these are not easily explained and do not encourage the public to reach into their pockets and help. Think I’m being harsh? Remember there are people in the UK who dismissed the Syrian refugee crisis because they saw photos of some of them with mobile phones. Comic Relief has the difficult job of motivating an increasingly indifferent nation, and that means losing a bit of nuance.

I myself introduced a video about a family describing their son’s suicide, particularly poignant for me as a close friend took his own life last year. I found it challenging to watch, but it certainly inspires you to do what you can to help. I’m not saying this excuses the “white saviour” phenomenon, or the “African poverty” narrative. What I am saying is that Comic Relief needs to improve, but that it has done an incredible job when it comes to helping many people lead better lives. Perhaps we should force change in a more collaborative manner

 

[Bry Nylon]

Really moving film from multi-millionaire Ed Sheeran, asking me to spare a few quid.