There were only two comments which actually followed my rule this week, so I used the random.org coin flipper to decide who would get the book (I used the Canadian loony in honor of my mom). Lynn was the lucky winner! Send me an email with your address and I’ll send you the book. You can email me at alannashaikhATgmail.com.
Author: Alanna Shaikh
Jargon of the Day: Leverage
Jargon: Leverage
Translation: Officially, it means to use one kind of funding as a way to inspire other donors. So you could leverage a $500 donation by getting a foundation to match it, and have $1000. In practice, though, it just means to use multiple funding streams to fund one project, whether or not the later funds were donated because of the first ones. NGOs claim all the time that they are leveraging your donation when what they really mean is “combining with other kinds of money.”
Book Giveaway #2 – The Baobab and the Mango Tree
According to its back cover, “The Baobab and the Mango Tree” is a thought-provoking and courageous book that brings the big questions about development to a wide audience of college students and interested readers.
Honestly, it’s not a great book. I think the logic is weak and I don’t really buy the conclusions. However, it’s well written, a pretty quick read, and it touches on a lot of ideas that are frequently mentioned when discussing international development. It’s worth the time it takes to read it, especially if you’re new to this stuff.
If you’d like to be entered into the drawing, leave a comment on this post telling me what topics you’d like to see more of in this blog. I’ll take comments until midnight on Friday the 25th, and draw a winner on Saturday. Good luck!
Jargon of the day: Transshipment
Jargon: Transshipment
Meaning: To ship to an intermediate point, and then on to a final destination. Always used when talking about smuggling.
Keep your banana to yourself
I read a blog post tonight about giving to beggars in India. The writer said that if you give them food instead of money, they will sell it back to shopkeepers to money. If you give them a banana, you need to peel it or they’ll sell it for the cash.
You know what? Once you’re at a place where you want to help people, if they ask you for money, give them money. Don’t give them the banana. Poor people are not stupid. They’re just poor. They know what their needs are better than you do. Respect that.
I know there are reasons – drug addiction, cultural pressure, poor organizational skills – that people will act against their own self interest. None of that is easily analyzed in the time it takes to give to a beggar on the street. Most of the time, people know what they need. If you are engaged in an act of charity, give that to them, not what you think they ought to need.
Street corner giving is not about sustainability, development, or creating long-term change. Instead, it’s a recognition of our common humanity, of the crap shoot that decides who gives and who receives. It’s reaching out to those who ask because it’s not our place to judge.
It’s really pretty unlikely that you are a donor instead of a beggar because you’re smarter, stronger, or wiser. Probably, you just got lucky and were born in the developed world, and the 20-year old in front of you knows more about street survival than you could ever imagine. Keep your banana to yourself, and hand over the cash.
Jargon of the day: Ground-truth
Jargon: Ground-truth
Meaning: What’s really happening in-country. Often used as a verb: “We need to ground-truth this before we move forward on it.”
Jargon of the day: Optic
Jargon: Optic
Meaning: What it looks like. (I kid you not)