In class today we analyzed the non-profit, Heifer International. We scrutinized their website to see if they are a legitimate organization, looked up their allocation of funds data, and evaluated the language that they used on their website. Heifer International is like online shopping for charity. There is a page with tons of "things" that you can buy for people in need like clean water, cattle, goats, vegetable seeds, stoves, and even send a child to school. The can also be made in someone else's honor.
The organization looks legitimate enough to me, however I had a very strange sort of feel when I looked at the catalogue of items you can purchase. The catalogue appears on the screen like something you would see on Nordstrom.com. There are little teaser pictures showing what the item is with a title. When you click on the picture, it brings you to the item page with a bigger picture and a short description of the item.
More prominent than the feeling of shopping online, I felt like I was playing Neopets or the Sims. I felt, just like playing Neopets, like I was in control of this little world somewhere far away - that these little boxes of items I could purchase with my set amount of money was like a game. Now, I don't have any idea as to how I would set up the Heifer International catalogue differently, but I think that discussing this reaction and feeling that I had is important.
Neopets Shop Inventory for the Pharmacy in Neopia Central
Heifer International Gift Catalogue
The sentiment that I had slightly reflects a bit of control. The intentions of this organization are undeniably excellent. It would be very hard to argue that this organization was founded to be a detriment to people in developing countries. However, I also think that the ideas of this organization can be analyzed through a paradigm critiquing imperialism. Historically, Western ideas have shaped lots of the world. Heifer's catalogue reflects bits of imperialism in my mind. It is Western cultures imposing our control on other people. It felt to me like I was the designer of a developing country - I could choose what was most important to spend money on, where the improvements were most needed, etc - as if I know that with my limited experience.
In Global Health 101, we talk a lot about NGO's - non-governmental organizations. When I thought of an NGO before taking this class, I thought that they were perfect. After learning about the complexity of NGOs, I am more informed and have seen that they are not perfect and can have failures, even with the best of intentions. In Global Health we watched a TED Talk called "What happens when an NGO fails?". The talk showed how an NGO went to a country in Africa and built a water well system to provide clean water for the community. A few years later, they went back to assess how the wells had been performing. To their surprise, all of the wells had malfunctioned within one year and none were still working, the community now burdened with a bunch of large, non functioning metal apparatuses. Even more shocking was that they found out another NGO had done the same exact thing ten years ago, only to have the same outcome - and the non functioning apparatuses were still there in the community. The water pump systems failed because the NGOs that put them in place didn't schedule maintenance for the pumps.
What failures occur when these gifts from the Heifer catalogue reach their destination? Someone in class today asked, what if there are no male cows in a community to impregnate a cow, necessary in order to obtain its milk? What if the animal sent to a community is not suited for the particular climate? Someone found that in fine print Heifer said that they would always pick animals suited for the area, if possible. That "if possible" clause could mean that the gift is beneficial or detrimental to a family.
Now, I am not against NGOs or Heifer or charitable organizations or non profits by any means. I think that they almost always have good intentions - why else would people in these organizations get into that line of work in the first place? There are far more profitable professions. As I said before, my dream job is to work for an NGO. My intentions are to do good. However, I think it is extremely crucial to complicate matters as I have discussed in my previous two posts.
Heifer International has brilliant intentions, and I think that their way of presenting their catalogue increases consumer participation. I think that NGOs have done amazing work and will continue to do so, and they will get better and better, learning from past failures as discussed in the NGO failure TED Talk. When I work for an NGO and possibly do work overseas, I will be working for the betterment of the population I'm serving, not for my own benefit.
Just like it is important for NGOs to complicate their missions and make sure they learn from previous failures, organizations like Heifer should complicate their gifts. Now, I don't know the internal structure of Heifer International, so maybe they do just that. But as a consumer, as a member of the public that donates and works for the betterment of people, I must ask these questions when I look at that catalogue, instead of acting like I'm shopping at Nordstrom.com or controlling a game-like far away land like Neopia. If I don't, I run the risk of blindly following something that could potentially have negative side effects. I must ask questions like, how does my gifting of catalogued items in some ways induce sentiments of control? In what ways don't they? How do they improve the lives of the recipients? What is included in the gift, and maybe what crucial part is missing? In "Simplicity" I mentioned that I want to complicate the world to better understand it. Furthermore, I want to complicate the world to better serve it.
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