Sometimes Good Intentions aren’t Enough
- slingshotmagazine
- Mar 7, 2019
- 2 min read
Updated: Mar 11, 2019
by Molly Long
When Stacey Dooley released behind-the-scenes shots of an upcoming Comic Relief film in Uganda last month, it’s doubtful she could’ve predicted a backlash. Like many before her, Dooley was making a celebrity pilgrimage to the developing world, armed with good intentions. It’s a tried and tested recipe: Comic Relief has been a British cultural institution since 1985.
And it’s hard to object fundraisers that routinely appear to raise millions for those in need; in the 30 years since its creation, Comic Relief alone has raised over a billion for projects around the world. It sounds great on paper, and this is why MP David Lammy’s call-out of Stacey Dooley as a ‘white saviour’ caused such upset.
But Comic Relief has raised this money thanks to a hefty, ever-increasing dose of poverty porn given to the British public each year. We’ve had Ed Sheeran paying for homeless Liberian children to stay in hotels, Tom Hardy filming starving Yemeni babies, and although Stacey Dooley’s film hasn’t be released yet, I’m ready to bet it fits right into this narrative.
The truth is, perpetual charity on the part of western countries does nothing to alter the systemic imbalances that make it necessary in the first place. Many of the countries Comic Relief raises money for are former colonies. It is true the UN ordered the remaining empires to decolonise in 1960. But the economic structures remain largely unchanged. No amount of charitable giving will change that.
The juxtaposition of wealth and poverty, haves and have-nots: at best an example of bad taste. At worst: another tool to further subjugate the developing world. Regardless of good intentions, of which I’m sure there are many, contributing to the stereotype of non-western countries being destitute, awaiting salvation is pretty tone deaf when you consider the context.
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