To think Stacey Dooley was right in her response to David Lammy

[CoolCarrie]

“ Africa doesn’t need white saviours” says Lammy commenting on pictures of Stacey Dooley on a comic relief trip. Why pick on her? Loads of celebrities over the years have gone to Africa to show how money is helping the poorest of the poor, and the huge difference it has made over the years.
What Africa does need is governments that are not corrupt and better leaders.

downcasteyes

Would you mind giving the link to his work?

TIA

@theknacktoflying

"All I can say is that 4.5 million children in the UK live under the poverty line. "

that's total snowflake left-wing baloney. And if left-wing snowflake do-gooders really want to help, let them give all their collective millions to help those 4.5 million.

Instead of going on holidays, and instead of going to pop-concerts and festivals, donate every penny of what they would have spent to the appropriate charity.

And how do CR presenters justify taking a fee for their services, and even involve themselves in dodgy tax avoidance schemes?

So in the meantime I give CR a pretty wide berth.

I appreciate he’s saying there’s a better way to do it. But what if there isn’t a better way to publicise it all. What if showing film clips of cool young celebs (whatever their skin colour) is shown to dramatically increase the level of donations? Do we hang that out to dry on a principle?

A poster above talks about her friend doing fantastic humanitarian work in South Sudan with virtually no funding. What do you think would bring him more funding to his project? Being highlighted on BBC news or a circulated clip of Little Mix visiting his project and crying over what they see?

It’s shit but it’s unfortunately true. And I for one wouldn’t want to have to explain to a bereaved mother that the net that could have saved her baby didn’t reach her because we were offended on her behalf and felt that privileged white westerners were patronising her.

All I can say is that 4.5 million children in the UK live under the poverty line. Perhaps Lammy should be shown cuddling a white baby ?
Although typically the proportion of children under the poverty line in the UK who are from ethnic minorities is far higher than average so that wouldn't be representative either.

Not sure who I agree with. If she was there advocating maternity rights for women perhaps a photograph of her with a young black child isn't entirely relevant to her work and looks a tad posed

@claybakefan Thank you so much for taking an interest. It is heartbreaking to watch someone like him trying SO hard on such a good project, and not making any progress.

Bear in mind that they are tiny, and run on a shoestring! They got a grant for a couple of thousand pounds from a Catholic church and have been running for months just on this. (Their work, however, is not faith-based and aims to counter the hatred that exists across tribes by bringing individuals from all backgrounds together to sing). They only have these resources because the guy who runs them is good at IT - there is no way they can afford to pay people to develop things.

Facebook group: www.facebook.com/I-CAN-SOUTH-SUDAN-1049340371901693/

Website: www.icansouthsudan.com/?fbclid=IwAR2Xd8D9xeRUK4EcVcw5JnlphMd5vEDsiv8BOkWhHURnIKKq0v_4YQLdYOg

Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/user-371124983

www.instagram.com/nowhitesaviors/?hl=en

worth following for those of you who don't understand where David Lammy is coming from.

I think he should pick on someone his own size, tbh. Am fed up of Stacey Dooley being written off as journalism lite who only deals with wimmen’s troubles. No other bugger is doing a damned thing about them so credit where it’s due.

There’s no way he would have said that to Ed Sheehan when he visited Africa for CR last year.

Oh and Twitter too: twitter.com/ICANSouthSudan3

And for those saying David Lammy should have said it to Bob geldof, Bob Geldof is of the same opinion. He went to great lengths to avoid photos of himself with starving African children as he thought they were exploitative, when a journalist took a photo such as this, despite geldofs request not to, he called that journalist lots of bad words . Comic relief makes me uncomfortable.

To all the people saying that you wouldn't care who was helping as long as they help, that is not the case for many people in such situations. I was once personally involved in a situation where a lot of Moroccan people were stranded in a port due to a dispute between the port authorities and the company of the boat they were travelling on, and a charity came in to give food, bedding etc. However, they acted in such a culturally insensitive and patronising way that many people ended up rejecting their help and working together to find a way back to Morocco.

I also heard about a situation, in Cote d'Ivoire I think, where there was a Western NGO working to build wells for clean drinking water, but they didn't consult the local community and ended up building the well in an area that was always used for community meetings and discussions. So they let them build the well, but never ever used it.

As for Stacey Dooley, she is a rubbish journalist and her response is completely shallow and misses the whole context and what's at stake in this issue

Why do we need a British person, white or otherwise, to go over and look sad with some children and whatever and tell the camera how sad it is and the hardships

Because unfortunately, like it or not, the average tv viewer will switch off a factual documentary but will linger long enough on "her from Strictly" to hear some of the message.

Breeze why was Stacey's response shallow when it was to query whether he had said it because of her being white? (To which he responded quoting the fact she's white)

I've never heard of Stacey Dooley but I'm staggered that someone who calls herself an 'investigative journalist' has no understanding of why 'white saviours' are not the answer.

David Lammy is right, and he's been clear he's not personalising this. Comic Relief is outdated. It needs to change.

Buddytheelf85

I dunno, I really see his point. Her pretty-pretty selfies of her holding a Ugandan child who isn’t even looking at the camera are cringe. And her response reminded me of David Brent on Comic Relief day.“

Most charities who run sponsor a child schemes send out photos of the individual children whose own parents have signed them up. Desperate people clutching at whatever straw they can. The children almost always look extremely uncomfortable, possibly because they’re not as media/camera savvy as European children. Does this mean they’re being exploited? I don’t know. But I wonder if that’s their parents’ primary concern if sponsorship means an education and potential route out of poverty.
I think CR has done great work over the years and grew from the very best of intentions. I’ve always thought the films are cringey, FWIW, for Sports Aid and Children in need too. I don’t watch it. Wish people would just give what they could without the need for mawkish viewing. But generally they won’t, the great British public wants something for its money, and the producers do what they have to.

I kind of agree with him but would have been better if he'd taken it up with Lenny Henry or Richard Curtis.

I think I can see where David Lammy is coming from.

There's something about this sort of enterprise that reminds me of the Band Aid song Do They Know It's Christmas? and the lyrics therein.

I can see that those involved are well-intentioned and money certainly is generated but at the same time there's something rather patronising and demeaning about it all.

Yes, I do feel a bit mean for thinking this way! I wish there were a way to help that allowed more autonomy and dignity to those being helped.

And how much good have these big charities actually done over there?

The reality is that the bigger the charity, the more of the funding goes to the corrupt governments who actively prevent the funding from ending up on the ground where it should be and ending up in their pockets instead.

Far more good is done by the smaller, unseen charities than is done by the likes of comic relief, however uncomfortable that might make people feel.

Yes, some privileged white celeb holding an African baby may bring in the £££ but who do you think benefits most from those? The actual African babies? Or the leaders of the corrupt countries they come from?

Because she then suggested he could go instead of her, showing that she doesn't understand that the objection is about what a white (and culturally Western) person doing what she was doing represents in that context. Thinking it is just about her skin colour suggests that she doesn't understand the historical problems related to Western intervention in Africa. It's not just her as an individual, it's the whole history and the attitudes that go along with it.

Nice work David. No doubt you’re going to turn on the racist bullies in your own party now? David? I couldn’t quite hear you? David???

I see Conic Relief very crass anyway; a vehicle for celebrity exposure. Full of high/ earning stars, probably half of whom are on tax avoidance schemes, guilting the TV watching public to give money to charity, which they then don't give to a different charity.
Do the slebs get paid to do it?
And I agree that the white saviour cliche needs to go.

My point (badly made) is that sometimes it is so easy to fall in the lazy narrative of charity to Africa.

I applaud any venture that sets out to make others lives easier, but I question the narrative that CR seems to promote that poor only exist outside the UK. Sometimes needs are closer to home ...

I find it very frustrating that corruption exists that means people don't have access to clean water, food, medicine and education. These are basic rights. Why is it acceptable to have a government that doesn't make sure that it's people are properly looked after? I don't like how big events throw money at the problem rather than fix the cause of the problem.
But I feel the weight of the problem that was caused by the empire exploiting these countries.

I agree with David Lammy and Stacey Dooley's response shows the exact same failure at critical and analytical thinking that her documentaries do.

I can, however, see why most people support her. she's very representative of modern England.

Didn’t you know, DonaldTwain? Thats completely different, that’s just a tiny percentage on the extreme left of the party?
(0.1% of the membership, apparently. Just hth do they work that out, is it a question on the membership application? Anyway, it must be true because Andy McDonald said so)

Unfortunately for SD, there is a real cliche of pretty blonde white saviour from West bringing joy to deprived black children in .... AAAAAAFRicaaaaa ::drums:: :: sunset behind thorn tree:: See for instance this: www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-36132482 . Her picture is firmly in that tradition.

Don't get me started on that bloody Band Aid song.