Some of you may have heard of a new campaign called One Million Shirts. They want to collect 1,000,000 used and new t-shirts and send them to Africa to help people with no clothes. They are also collecting money for the shipping costs. They’ve got some NGO partners, and they are starting to think about how best to distribute the t-shirts.
When I first heard of it, I thought it was an another well intentioned mess. The project is taking criticism for obvious reasons (if they’re not obvious, I’ll come back to them at the end of this post). The consistently brilliant Texas in Africa blog vouched for the good intentions of the founder, Jason Sadler, despite the terrible weakness of the idea. I decided I was going to stay out of the argument. Other, smarter people were saying everything I would have.
Then I saw the video. Now I don’t think it’s a well intentioned, poorly planned charity effort. Now I think it’s a marketing ploy from someone who is totally uninterested in helping others. When you actually want your project to have an impact, you listen to criticism. You put your ego aside and learn from what people have to say. You don’t cling to your original idea with wounded fury and attack the people questioning you.
I watched the video seven times, and transcribed it for you. My notes are in red:
****
Hey internet trolls, angry people on twitter, whatever you want to call yourselves.
Angry people on Twitter seems accurate. I don’t know about trolls. Trolls make trouble for the fun of it. Not everyone who disagrees with something is a troll.
You all have a problem with me? That’s fine. I’m very easy to get ahold of. 904 312 2712. Call me.
I am not calling. I am writing this blog post, because I think public discussion is important. And you put your idea out into the world. It seems unreasonable to then demand that all conversation about the idea take place in private. Also, I live in Tajikistan, where I do international development work. Calling you by phone would cost me a fortune, and my internet is too slow for a decent Skype call.
Be a man.
This is sexist. I for one cannot be a man, without major surgery and life changes, because I am female. Are you assuming that everyone who disagrees with you is male? Or that everyone in the world is male? Or, wait – I get where you’re going with this. You think the people who disagree with you are cowardly, and you want them to be straightforward and courageous. Fair enough. But associating bravery and candor exclusively with men is sexist. And yes, your sexism is relevant here. I don’t trust you to do a good job working with women and children if you think they 1) don’t exist or 2) are incapable of courage.
Don’t sit behind Twitter. 140 characters. You don’t even have the time to email me, and you’re going to talk to me on Twitter.
Twitter is a pretty common forum for public discourse. This comment seems roughly equivalent to comparing that someone is hiding behind email or a telephone. I do agree that 140 characters doesn’t lead to useful, detailed discussion. That’s why people are writing blog posts.
I don’t care. I don’t drink hatorade. I really don’t. I don’t care at all. My dog doesn’t care. I don’t care. I don’t care at all.
That is not exactly the response of someone who is interested in learning from criticism. This isn’t personal. Nobody has any problem with you. This is about fear that this project you have founded will hurt the people in Africa that it intends to help. You getting mad does not change that.
If you have a problem with 1 million shirts, you probably really don’t like the fact that I get paid to wear t-shirts for a living. So, go to iwearyourshirt.com if you really want me to ruin your day.
Either this is a massive logical fallacy or a blatant plug for your business. I will assume the best and address it as a logical fallacy. Nobody is opposed to this project because they hate t-shirts or people who wear them. We are worried that sending a big pile of used clothes to African countries will hurt the local textile industry and people who sell retail clothes.
Otherwise I’m going to keep trying to give kids and families who don’t have shirts in Africa clothing to wear. Because you guys all seem to think that everyone in Africa has clothing.
Not everyone in Africa has clothing you would approve of, or want to wear. But yes, I am willing to state that just about everyone in Africa has clothing. Certainly in the countries that you are planning to target: Kenya, Uganda, DRC, Ghana, Liberia, Mozambique, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Sudan, Swaziland, and South Africa. For one thing, Kenya and South Africa are among the strongest economies on the continent.
So apparently you know better than I do. I’ve only been talking to charities who go there often.
Most of the people arguing with you are experienced aid workers and international development professionals with long histories of working with Africa. I am not. I have backstopped Africa programs from DC, and I have a degree in global health, but that’s all I’ve got. J from Tales from the Hood is a different story. So is Texas in Africa. I can pretty much guarantee they have as much or more experience with Africa than the charities you’ve been talking to.
So just want to let you guys know 904 312 2712. I’m happy to talk to anyone who wants to talk like a man maybe step up and actually speak to somebody, not just sit behind a computer. I don’t do that. I step up and get things done. So have a great day, I wish you all the best.
I’m still a woman. Still interested in public discourse, not closed doors wrangling. And I still live in Tajikistan. You have a good day too.
****
For more information on why donations of used clothing can hurt Africans, see the following resources:
1) The T-shirt Travels – a documentary on used t-shirts in Africa
2) Dead White People’s Clothes
3) Oxfam Report on secondhand clothing in Africa
Photo credit: Kim_TD
Well, I was man enough to call him (via skype from another country and at my bedtime, I might add). I can think of less painful ways to spend my time which involve pins and my eyes.
Social comments and analytics for this post…
This post was mentioned on Twitter by alanna_shaikh: Here it is – my take on one million shirts http://bloodandmilk.org/?p=1592 #onemillionshirts #hatorade…
[…] more reasonable discussion here, here and here. […]
I’ve bought t-shirts (new and used) in Africa. They don’t need 1 million shrits and more than the average American does. To think they do is a high insult worthy of scorn.
i have been following this ridiculous back an forth banter and still have not seen in any of your defense WHY you think that sending clothing to another country is a bad idea, except for the idea that it would economically effect the textile industry? have you done research on this? do you have facts and numbers? your argument seems trite and immature, especially the “woman” part. i think we live in a time where you can be adult enough to know, that is a general statement. perhaps he should have used the word “adult” but maybe you are a child, who know when you hide behind a computer and attack a person for trying to be good. if you want to stop something, how about going after radical religious groups who go to Africa claiming they can heal the sick with the power of God. i’m sure you will not post this even though you claim you want a “public” discussion. it seems as though you have a revolving door of discussion all going in your direction.
Oh my gosh, thanks for the transcription. The video is blocked b/c of excessive bandwidth here in Congo, where I am sitting surrounded by naked people, because no one has shirts. (Oh, wait. No I’m not & yes they do.)
[…] appeals make these guys think they’re doing the right thing.” If the links supplied by Blood and Milk, explaining the impact of second hand clothes and the list of alternative means of helping supplied […]
Well, thanks for the shout-out, even though I’m not technically an aid worker. 🙂 I exchanged emails with Mr. Hatorade last night. It was about as pleasant as I’d imagine a phone call would be (thanks for taking one for the team, Joe), which leads me to conclude the same: this guy’s more interested in publicity than in actually helping people.
@ Kirstie – Interestingly, the organization that 1millionshirts is partnering with is a christian evangelical org (http://www.helpint.org/). Does that change your mind at all about the way in which this ill conceived campaign is built?
seriously Alanna, sexist? Get real! Not only does that change the topic & irrelevant, but also your personal sex doesn’t matter to this discussion. I don’t like what these guys are doing either… wait… ‘guys’… is it all men running this thing? Was I just sexist there? Shame on me.
I had something relevant to say, but totally got sidetracked by my sexist ‘guys’ comment.
Zulusafari –
I can’t literally be a man, as I said. And using the phrase figuratively as a synonym for strong and brave is sexist. There is no way around that.
You can argue (as my husband did when he read this post) that the sexism is irrelevant to their ability to run a charity. That I might be willing to accept.
Kristie – the articles I linked to had both facts and numbers
I initially agreed with your response Alanna, but it seems that Oxfam report does not and the “Dead White People’s Cloths” article is linked to a few articles that also do not agree. It seems that the second hand clothing (SHC) is beneficial to consumers in Africa and it is unclear how it affects the textile industry. All producers of cloth and garments are against it, but Oxfam argues that limiting or blocking imports of SHC will only benefit importers of new inexpensive asian.
I don’t think the argument against SHC is so clear.
Jim – I aimed for links that explored the complexity of the problem, to show how complicated it is to do this right.
My calculator and a mens large T-Shirt tells me that 1,000,000 shirts neatly folded would have a volume around 9000 cubic meters and would weight somewhere in the neighborhood of 180,000 Kilos. Wikipedia tells me that the cargo capacity of a C-17 Globemaster is 72,600 Kilos. But, of course, this has been analyzed in great detail again and again… So after spending a while engaged in serious head shaking and followed by a longer moment joking (price does not included shipping and handling), I’ll get back to the very serious matter of deciding what to do with the latest donation of cup cakes… at least the cup cakes have show up in the same hemisphere as the intended recipients.
It’s one thing to offer criticism and it’s another thing to act like a child. If you want to break down every word I say because you have nothing better to do, I’m sorry it had to be via a crappy quality yfrog video. I promise you I look much better in HD on YouTube (see that, it’s a sense of humor).
I wish I could say that you actually care about trying to help what I’m doing (creating good and having people join the cause) but it seems all you care about is making fun and joking around. I’d love for you to write a follow up blog post on examples of massive quantities of textiles being introduced to areas that don’t normally have access or people/organizations that don’t have access. I’d love to read more about Jim’s points about SHC and examples where goods have been brought to places they don’t normally go (not crowded marketplaces).
I don’t have the time to go back and forth with people on Twitter or via email/blogs, which is why I offered my phone number to the public. You can record my call and play it back to everyone, I’m not trying to hide anything. I don’t know all the answers and I’m not doing this for publicity. If I wanted publicity I’d just try and wear 1,000,000 shirts.
If you’re intentions are in fact in good order and you want to help me do something good, I appreciate it. If they aren’t, enjoy your hatorade with Joe. He’s the definition of the internet troll I was talking about.
Jason
PS – If you have time I’d like a breakdown of this response video: http://yfrog.us/5ml49z
Oh goodie, I AM a man but I’m also a troll. Does that make me a cross-breed in Discworld?
Jason, in all honesty you need to grow up before you lose yourself a lot of money.
Jim – I think you’re missing a very important element when you’re talking about second-hand clothing. What these guys appear to be proposing is not to donate clothing through the second-hand market to be sold by local entrepreneurs, but instead to do a dumping/handout of these t-shirts in a market that already has established second-hand retailers. You’re right in that the effects of SHC on textile markets isn’t totally clear yet (Although the T-shirt travels doc does an interesting job of broadening the explanation to blame imperialism in general for the decline in Zambia’s textile industry). But if you’re arguing about the positive/not negative effects of dumping clothing – well, it’s pretty much undermining well-established informal workers who are already tapped into the ENORMOUS SHC import economy and sell these clothes through local markets and communities.
I’m with Bill Easterly on this: If these guys really want to “help Africa,” why don’t they take a look in the mirror and consider what they’re actually GOOD at – social media, spreading the word, being creative? Frankly, if they wanted to enter into the wide world of development, I don’t think they should be too surprised at recieving widespread criticism. It basically seems like the norm of being a development worker.
I think there are valid arguments on both sides of the SHC argument. In all honesty, the trade in recycled clothing is far more ethical than any other part of the (extremely messy) textile market.
That said, the vast majority of the value of second hand clothing remains in the country of origin. And there is something highly obnoxious about economies where the vast majority of imports are other people’s cast offs. On the other side, many resourceful people scratch a living from the SHC in far flung places.
But as Kate says, this is largely irrelevant to the issue at hand.
“I don’t have the time to go back and forth with people on Twitter or via email/blogs, which is why I offered my phone number to the public.” – apparently you have found the time, your not exactly banking a lot of credibility Jason.
I say with all the “snark” and humor I can muster, which at this point is exactly none; learn to accept criticism and adapt, otherwise your going to be sitting on a large pile of old T-Shirts and have a lot of explaining to do.
By the way, humor is often used by those who stare the humanitarian tragedy you so carefully outline straight in the face on a daily basis, it’s better than booze and hurts less in the morning.
If I may chime in, I have worked in the humanitarian sector for years as a professional and as a volunteer. I am a logistics officer now, and in my previous jobs have managed a distributed in-kinds donation supply chain spread over twenty countries and totaling in the tens of millions of dollars. In addition, I have lived and worked in multiple parts of Africa over the past four years. Normally I wouldn’t speak up, but this puts me in a unique position to contribute a little more to the criticisms included here.
The example expressed by Alanna of donated shirts affecting local markets is true, but I think she is coming from a contemporary development theory context here. It’s safe to say that the sheer cost and man power associated with collecting, sorting and re-sending the clothes is absurdly inefficient. Take into account the fact that all of these clothes have to come from private individuals. You might say “but these individuals are paying for the shipping, what’s the harm?” The harm is that those dollars used for shipping could easily be donated directly to program costs, or be used to purchase items locally for far cheaper. Encouraging local textile production or no, the time and cost benefits are real.
Then you have to take into account these shirts have to go to a central storage depot (extra cost) and be resorted and re-packed, which will either be an extra cost, or as many low-end in-kind donors do, get a bunch of untrained volunteers to sort clothes for 2 hours on a Sunday. As this organization is closely linked to church groups, I can already see where this is going. Often the quality of work is poor, as it’s just a bunch of teenagers or people from local social clubs who feel like they are giving back some how.
Then you have to calculate the time and cost of international shipping. Luckily for those of us that actually work in disaster response, this would prevent 1MillionShirts from sending boat loads of unwanted shirts to Haiti until months after the fact, when some of the port congestion is worked out. However, freight containers are costly – in the thousands – to ship, and then you have to factor ground transportation and customs clearing fees.
Then you must consider the nature of the goods. This might boggle the mind of many Americans, but import authorities of many African countries actually have pretty high standards. They are protective of their local markets, and of their dignity. I have had more than a few containers stuck in port in Africa or elsewhere because someone thought it would be okay to put used towels or medication with less than an 18 month future expiry date in a container. Demurrage costs can run into the tens of thousands, and often goods are impounded and destroyed.
Lastly, who is acting as consignee, and who is distributing the goods? There are endless examples of fraud in countries like this, where goods are donated, and re-sold. It costs time and money to set up and follow through on proper monitoring and evaluation of donated items. It’s not enough to find a good local partner, one must be vigilant about the flow of material and arguably valuable assets around the globe.
In addition to a logistical viewpoint, I would ask readers on a more intrinsically moral level to consider their actions. Why should we be giving needy people sub-par or used things? Exactly what kind of an exchange is that? You think people want your used “Iron Maiden” T-Shirt? If you were so concerned with their wants, you could take the simple cost of shipping the shirts themselves, and use it to buy new, local and culturally appropriate attire, saving the need for all the extra logistical legwork.
1MillionShirts preys on people’s naive misconceptions about impoverished people in Africa, while bank rolling the creator’s own life style. It may be good to get rid of your old clothes and maybe get a small tax write-off, but it’s simply not a good idea through and through.
Well said, Kelly. Couldn’t have done it better.
Here, here Kelly. As the day has gone on, I’ve been thinking that there is a big chance Jason will lose a lot of money given that he hasn’t much idea or experience of what he is doing.
Joe –
There are a handful of sub-par medium to large in-kind donation NGOs and aid groups that – no matter how bad they are at what they do – continue to exist. All things considered, an in-kind donor managed poorly really does not require that much money. This is the non-profit sector; do you really think private donors require objective indicators or just to feel good about having “done something”? For all we know, Jason could be running this out of his living room, after all he has sent something like 600 T-Shirts so far… All he needs to do is get a few large private donors and quite a few small donations to keep on going. With good mastery of viral media, it’s very easy to garner the basic shipping costs, and then ship to “Africa.”
As Penelope points out the organisation Jason is partnering to distribute the shirts: Hearts and Hands/Water for Life, is a Christian missionary organisation. In fact, as Jason tweeted me, it was they who suggested the shirt idea. http://twitter.com/iwearyourshirt/status/13021431195.
Hmmm…well it looks like they certainly like giving out t-shirts http://bit.ly/bYH1Sq.
They also like orphanages, raising money to support overseas adoptions, and sending unskilled volunteers to run orphanages and do building projects.
Jason has a great core competence for creating internet buzz (somewhat more than he would want today) but not so much for picking winners when it comes to backing organisations that are effective in enabling development.
I hope he also has the entrepreneurs talent for failing fast, learning from it and developing a better model.
Great comments Kelly. I appreciate your experience. I think we are all failing to understand that this is a marketing ploy.
he doesn’t even acknowledge any of the professionals in the field telling him this is a bad idea. The fact that his first response is to be defensive despite enormous evidence stacked against him is a number one indicator.
This has FAIL written all over it! Alanna, I don’t even think he could point out there Tajikstan is on a map. Development is way out of his league, but he sure did jump in on the deep end.
Only in America, right?
This idea of ppl “going to Africa and doing good” just has to stop.
@Rachel: LOL!
Folks, we shd have a T-Shirt day. Just sayin…
[…] here and here , and have a giggle at some of the more snarky ‘hatorade’ here, here and here (imho, humour is a great tool for […]
[…] Million Shirts, and Alanna Shaikh made a list of the top five things people say to aid critics and took the time to transcribe and respond to the first video posted by Jason (mastermind behind this project). He also posted a second video. […]
oy! will it never end?! There’s underwear for us Africans, then they’re adopting our clitorises (for real!) and now flooding our markets with cheap used t-shirts.
Stop it already!
And the sad part is we’re supposed to be thankful!
-Thankless African
Jason – my response to your second video: http://undispatch.com/node/9832
Your response in undispatch makes a good point, Alanna. But it feels a little off somehow, especially on the matter of tone. Not way off, but just a little, and I can’t quite pinpoint why except to say that somehow it misses the fact that—for better or probably worse—incentives work differently in the aid world than in the marketplace. If I were rich and influential and felt a stirring to make the world better, I just might try to do so. But if I thought there was a good chance that I’d be raked through the mud for trying and making some mistakes, I’d probably decide that I’m better off taking care of number one, because nobody gives you a hard time for that.
Similarly, the tone I see in Easterly and others surely scares away potential talent. While my own lack of talent makes me a perfect example of what’s wrong with the aid world, the sharpest among my colleagues could easily get less stressful, higher paying jobs if they so wished. They do what they do out of ideals, and are therefore happy for any kind of feedback or criticism that helps their work accomplish more. But a new crop of bright young people might be deterred from a career that subjects them to the kind of disgust and scorn that’s now common in aid criticism. And I don’t buy the implication that needing a think skin for development work justifies this scorn, like it’s some kind of desensitizing boot camp.
Unrelated: could someone with access to NEXIS or WESTLAW do a search on how frequently the word “snarky” is used in aid criticism v. average use? And then how often it’s used in the context of defending the right of aid criticism to be snarky.
Hi…British journalist living in Nairobi. Can honestly say that have never seen a Kenyan topless in the city (apart from local swimming pool).
Ditto rest of Kenya. If anything people wear too many clothes for my taste…wooly hats and suits in 100 degree temp.
Ah sorry. I linked to the wrong place – this is the link I meant to post http://picasaweb.google.com/KSurritte/HeartsAndHandsTurkanaPeopleNorthernKenyaSouthSudan#5070189848958553042 – from Hearts and Hands, the people who told Jason ‘send shirts’.
John – it seems to me you are conflating two things. I don’t care if I scare people away from starting their own NGOs. I think it would be good if that happens. I would rather only the deeply committed do that.
If we’re scaring people away from wanting jobs in international development, or from advocating on development issues, or fundraising, that is a different story, but I haven’t seen any evidence that is the case.
Dear Thankless African,
On your advice and representation of the continent, I will now stop already.
Ah, my liberal conscious feels better already. I think I’ll buy that Ipad I’ve been wanting.
Thanks.
[…] There is widespread agreement amongst international development professionals that this is not good aid. In fact, it has the potential to be quite harmful. […]
[…] the other side of the snark divide, Alanna Shaikh takes down the initiators’ a couple of notches by analysing their video […]
[…] Aid Watcher Dear Jason Blood and Milk […]
Kelly, I learned a lot with your contribution, thanks! This is a link a friend of mine shared with me, abotu the same topic of the impact of SHC: http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/tshirttravels/film.html
I think the possibility that you might be raked through the mud for trying to do some good could serve as an excellent mechanism for winnowing out of the applicant pool for aid work those people who are either unwilling or just not ready to analyze their motivations, intentions, and thoughts-processes with the kind of gravity and humility all meaningful self-reflection requires, before they attempt to walk into the difficult and often intimate spaces in the lives of other people.
The capacity to take a long hard look at oneself, and to recognize that what we might call our ‘higher’ ideals are often confusingly and muddily mixed with our ‘lower’ fears and insecurities and selfishness, bodes well for one’s capacity to hold a lot of confusing and contradictory information in one’s head all at once (the kind of complex information evidenced, for example, in Kelly’s comment about donation logistics) and yet still be able to capably function in high-stress situations. It seems this would be an excellent trait for anyone in the aid field to possess, and indeed I’d be quite worried if they didn’t possess it. But if someone has never reckoned with all the gooey aspects of their interior lives and done the kind of serious self-questioning that demands an acknowledgment of how complex our minds and hearts can be– how narrow and base our motivations, and how resistant to any kind of scrutiny– then I question that person’s ability to even just sit with, much less understand and act upon, all of the difficult phenomena that take place in the exterior world, populated as it is by equally complex and inscrutable other people. Forgive me for just not believing that a wish to do good is a sufficient criterion for making one’s works result in actual good. The world is messy, we are messy, life is messy, and all these things opaque besides, and I think we like to fool ourselves that so many of our ideals and motivations are transparent and squeaky clean. And that everything is so darn cut and dry and measurable.
Also, there is no real evidence as far as I can tell, either in the aid world or in the world of human beings at large, that incentives work across a single channel of our psyches; that feeling motivated to “help” only emerges out of untainted idealist altruism, and “taking care of number one” only out of a blinkered and small-minded egotism. I have known many people who were in fact “taking care of number one” by “doing good,” if we absolutely have to boil it down to a dualism that pits those two things against each other as distinct and unalloyed behaviors; it’s just that in some situations taking care of number one looks quite different from how such a thing manifests, say, in the offices at Goldman Sachs.
(And at the risk of over-generalizing enormously, I would also say that the very behaviors that tend to make a person rich and influential do not suddenly unplug themselves from the catalyzing currents of self-importance and narcissism—more often than not the traits one is rewarded for with “riches” and “influence”—and suddenly convert to the far-less-socially-valuable voltage of empathy, compassion, and anonymous humility. What I mean is, how many “stirrings to make the world better” are not also driven by the desire to be influential, and to amass the kind of social capital that can come from “doing good,” which is its own form of riches?)
Please keep in mind that these sentences do not discount the very real presence of hardworking, kind, and compassionate people, influential or not, who are in fact giving up chances for money and prestige and comfort because they love what they do and think it is criminal not to do it. I’ve known people in the aid world who gladly accept criticism and are always, always the first to identify what parts of themselves merit strong criticism and when. I think there are many people out there who fit this description, and they tend to be quite multi-dimensional folk. But they also tend to be the kind of people who wouldn’t let snark—even a deafening uproar of disgusted and scornful snark—be enough to deter them from doing what they do. And this is because they probably have come to accommodate the fact that aid work is fraught, with plenty of potential for harm, and that whenever there is the potential that actual harm will be done to other people, strong– and often negative– tones will catalyze and color the discussion. But this understanding– of why there might be snark in the first place– and the determination to either ignore it or take it in stride and into consideration, doesn’t amount to or require a person’s being put through their paces at a desensitizing boot camp or having their idealist hearts reduced to an inactive pulp by a prolonged beating with a rhetorical meat tenderizer.
What bothers me is how easily simplified conceptualizations of people and their actions take root in our conversations; the t-shirt guy is either doing good or is self-aggrandizing, trying to make a difference or trying to make a buck. I would like to put forth the notion that maybe, just maybe, he is all of these things, all at once, albeit quite likely in unequal proportion. And that maybe the language and phrases used to compartmentalize his, and all human, behavior in this way might just be worn out. Surely we can come up with a way to talk about and critique our work in the world that acknowledges the paradoxical, mishmasingly motivated selves we have the tendency to be.
Alanna, you said: “I don’t care if I scare people away from starting their own NGOs. I think it would be good if that happens. I would rather only the deeply committed do that.”
Really? So except for allowing new entries from the “deeply committed,” we should seal off the aid world and be happy with the NGOs we’ve got? From what I’ve seen, the aid world desperately needs innovation more than deep commitment, and this looks like the opposite of how to go about getting it.
You also said: “If we’re scaring people away from wanting jobs in international development, or from advocating on development issues, or fundraising, that is a different story, but I haven’t seen any evidence that is the case.”
Ooookay, but have you seen any evidence that it’s NOT the case? What’s so implausible about it that it’s apparently not even worth considering?
[…] Blood and Milk » Blog Archive » Say No to Old Clothes […]
I’ve been following Jason for several months now. I admit also that the idea of sending clothing seemed a little too 1985 for me, but I thought, why not, it couldn’t possibly hurt. I’ve learned a lot now after following the discussions.
I also think maybe this project wouldn’t have gotten much attention had it not seemed like a BIG project. The fact that it is 1 million, a large number, got it more attention I think.
Also, I think Jason’s reaction to the negativity does show some more of his true intentions. That this baby was designed to reap “social riches” later on, as the previous poster mentioned.
It was quite obvious to me in the beginning that Jason was following some social media/marketing “playbook”, about positive PR etc., probably something he read by one of his heroes/gurus who have written bestsellers, that he is not shy about mentioning.
[…] self-serving) campaign to send a million used T shirts to Africans gets beaten up on the excellent ‘Blood and Milk’ blog (among others). Owen Barder heroically tries to extract something useful from the bunfight, […]
Thank you Kelly! Very well put indeed.
@ James, really, at the swimming pool? which one 😉
This conversation represents everything wrong about the NGO, Humanitarian Aid, and Development community. As always, its about some ‘mythical’ altruism that doesn’t actually exist over the actual substance or project execution or delivery of the service. You people should be debating how you can absorb 1,000,000 shirts into the African economy and have local people turn a profit on them through micro-economic programs, which actually give impoverished people TRUE equity to pull themselves out of poverty.
Instead its just blah, blah, blah, sexism, blah, blah, blah textile industry, blah, blah, blah…if the African textile industry can’t absorb a serious of donations from overseas spread across 15 countries then it should fail and be replaced with something different, as it has no chance of EVER finding success in either local or international markets. Furthermore; if you are going to claim the ‘textile industry’ can’t absorb 1,000,000 shirts then I’m sure the local and national economy in Congo, Uganda, Kenya, or wherever can’t also absorb the millions upon millions of wasted dollars that are constantly granted and poorly spent by NGOs, UN, and other Development agencies. It’s a non-starter of an argument and seems very amateurish. If you are going to stick to it, I would also hope you stick to the fact that millions of dollars of food aid also destroys local food markets, etc…
And who cares if this guy is doing this to plug his business. You don’t think IRC parading George Clooney around is not a plug for their business?!? All of this just represents everything wrong with the humanitarian aid and development world…just talk, talk, talk about nothing, hence, nothing ever gets done.
I’ll agree with you on one thing though, this guy’s response does make him seem like a douche bag.
Cheers
[…] Many development and aid analysts such as Aid Watchers, Alanna Shaikh, Marieme Jamme to mention a few all pointed out the folly of this campaign which is this: good […]
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[…] standards as well as the recent PSA contest. And I’m not alone in these efforts. AidWatch, Blood and Milk, and Tales from the Hood have all posted repeatedly about the problems with donated […]
[…] you to help me out too!) One of the favourite conversation topics is poorly designed development projects. While it’s fun to bash these projects, it’s harder to design good ones. I’d like […]
[…] you to help me out too!) One of the favourite conversation topics is poorly designed development projects. While it’s fun to bash these projects, it’s harder to design good ones. I’d like to use this […]
I’ve just started selling t-shirts and had until reading this been considering a buy one t-shirt give one to charity type campaign. Now I’m not convinced it’s a good idea because a) good intentions seem to be turned into negative views and b) I’m not really convinced it would help due to the possible negative local economic impact.
So I still want to do something to help and now I’m considering something like a charity t-shirt bank. Charities spend fortunes on t-shirts to promote themselves and raise funds. 1,000,000 t-shirts donated to fund raising charities that are on the ground in Africa and other areas requiring assistance may be a better option and could help generate even greater benefits.
Has anyone been able to measure the effects of Toms shoes, has that had a negative impact where they have been distributed?
Billy –
I saw an article that I can’t find now arguing that TOMS shoes had no negative economic impact because they wear out too fast to affect local demand for shoes, and boosted kids self-esteem by providing new shoes. And I was excited by their recent announcement that they’ll be making shoes in Haiti: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/at-clinton-global-initiative-toms-announces-that-it-will-manufacture-new-pairs-of-shoes-in-haiti-225208962.html
What a bunch of dicks. Sorry, Alanna, that can include you even if you are a woman. You could have helped, but it was more important for you to be a smartass on the internet. What the hell have you done for the world?
I never know how to respond to comments like this. I’ll just repeat that refusing to support bad aid doesn’t keep you from supporting the good stuff. I’m also going to assume you’re bad at research if you think this group of commenters has never done good for the world.