It was easy to presume that people needed our help. For us, Africa was more than a place on the map, it was a location in our collective psyche. Our idea of Africa had been shaped by years of advertisements and news coverage that portrayed the continent as poor and helpless. Growing up in an affluent Western society we were invested with a stake in the image of helpless Africa, starving Africa. In public affairs discussions the term "starving Africans" (or "starving Ethiopians" or "starving Somalians") rolls off our tongue as easily as "blue sky". "Americans leave enough food on their plates to feed a million starving African.s" charities raise money for starving Africans. What do Africans do? They starve. But mostly they starve in our imaginations. The starving African is a Western cultural archetype like the greedy Jew or the unctuous Arab.... The starving African exists as a point in space from which we measure our own wealth, success, and prosperity, a darkness against which we can view our own cultural triumphs. And he serves as a handy object of our charity. He is evidence that we have been blessed, and we have an obligation to spread that blessing... Sometimes it appears that the only time Africans are portrayed with dignity is when they're helpess and brave at the same time. A person about to starve to death develops a stoic strength. Journalists write about the quiet dignity of the hopelessly dying. If Africans were merely hungry and poor, begging or conning coins on the streets of Nairobi or Addis Ababa, we might become annoyed and brush them aside- and most aid workers ahve done that at one time. When they steal tape decks from our Land Cruisers we feel anger and disgust. It is only in their weakness, when their death is inevitable, that we are touched. And it is in their helplessness that they become a marketable commodity.

Too bad I didn't write this. While doing my isp on corruption with non governmental organizations such as Save the Children, World Vision and other humanitarian agencies, I read this superb book called 'The road to hell: the ravaging effects of international charity'. This is an excerpt from his book and it completely rings so true. We are the second generation of crusaders who believe that it is our higher calling to save people from their misery. Blonde, blue-eyed angels holding feeble African black babies. Our mothers told us "Finish your food. Think about how many people in Africa who don't have much to eat." So we've grown up with this paradigm... finding satisfaction within the poor black child and compare it with our luxurious lives.