Are You Living Life To The Full?

[Scouse]

If its the same one she did the same piece for radio 3 or 4.

Well, she didn't call them "idiots". She said she was one of these well-meaning people herself. If "Ego" is what it is that makes people want to help, then so be it. It's not their fault that they are completely unaware about how the unscrupulous exploit their good intentions or the effect that a drive for money, above all else, perverts their generosity into something that can harm.

 

[rynnor]

Well, she didn't call them "idiots". She said she was one of these well-meaning people herself. If "Ego" is what it is that makes people want to help, then so be it. It's not their fault that they are completely unaware about how the unscrupulous exploit their good intentions or the effect that a drive for money, above all else, perverts their generosity into something that can harm.

I don't think it is generosity - its about seeing themselves as these great charitable people helping out 'poor foreigners'.

If they wanted to provide real charity there's a million ways to do so in their own communities but its sadly not glamorous and doesn't get you to a nice sunny place.

It's a form of selfishness that occasionally has fringe benefits for others - its not charity.

 

[leggy]

Well, she didn't call them "idiots". She said she was one of these well-meaning people herself. If "Ego" is what it is that makes people want to help, then so be it. It's not their fault that they are completely unaware about how the unscrupulous exploit their good intentions or the effect that a drive for money, above all else, perverts their generosity into something that can harm.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22294205

This article?

 

[DaGaffer]

Well, she didn't call them "idiots". She said she was one of these well-meaning people herself. If "Ego" is what it is that makes people want to help, then so be it. It's not their fault that they are completely unaware about how the unscrupulous exploit their good intentions or the effect that a drive for money, above all else, perverts their generosity into something that can harm.

Generally speaking I'd expect the type of people doing this to be quite well educated enough to look into what they're doing. But then I'm often surprised at how naive well educated people are. There's actually a long established mechanism for this kind of volunteer work; VSO, and it sensibly matches skills you actually have that the locals don't. Any fuckwit can dig a ditch, or "build a hut school", what developing countries usually need are people like civil engineers or accountants, not gap-year trustafarians.

 

[Scouse]

I don't disagree with much of the above but it's hard-hearted to say they don't give a shit and it's all about themselves when they could just as easily fuck off around Thailand taking drugs and getting wankered with never a thought to the locals. But they don't.

DaGaffer's point about naivety is spot-on. But that's humans the world over - from IQ's of 70 to IQ's of 170. We're all just dumb monkeys.