A few weeks ago, Dooce announced to her readers that she was going to Bangladesh with Christy Turlington's group, Every Woman Counts, to witness the deplorable conditions of maternal healthcare in a developing nation.
Today, the Guardian published a stinging rebuke saying that Turlington's group was using Dooce for free publicity. Rowan Davies writes that the practice of taking wealthy, white women from Western nations and having them write stories about the poverty amounted to Poverty Tourism.
Dooce tweeted a response: "Shoddy journalism:http://t.co/drpM4Pk I paid my own expenses. Hey, Rowan. You have my email address."
I'm on the Dooce camp for this one. She brought attention and money to an important issue. I'm not sure what is wrong with that.
So, is flying bloggers to third world nations tacky or is it smart publicity?
Apt. 11d 
Both. 🙂
LikeLike
I thought the Guardian article was more thoughtful than stinging, though of course it includes typical Guardian sarcasm. The point he makes at the end — what comes next? — is fair enough. Dooce’s tweeted response misses the point: it’s not an issue of who paid for the trip, but the fact that Turlington’s group traded ‘access’ to the Bangladeshi poor for publicity.
Speaking as a thirdworlder, such trips typically focus on the Western NGO response, ignoring the local people on the ground who have a much better understanding of the social and cultural issues, and who have typically been working on these issues for years. Let’s see if Dooce avoids this trap.
LikeLike
Turlington’s group was using Dooce for free publicity
That seems kind of strange as Turlington would seem to be able to get all the free publicity she could want. I suppose Dooce draws a different audience.
LikeLike
“That seems kind of strange as Turlington would seem to be able to get all the free publicity she could want. I suppose Dooce draws a different audience.”
Right.
LikeLike
I understand the issues with visits like Dooce’s, and knew I wasn’t going to read about her visit when she said what she was doing.
But, on the other hand, I think demands for charitable purity are way over-rated. I’d ask, mostly, that people try to think about whether they’re doing actual harm. Sometimes they are, by undermining local efforts or imposing culturally impossible solutions.
I haven’t read the Guardian article, but I’d guess the complaint here is that Turlington/Dooce used poverty tourism to gain publicity for themselves. Maybe. But, as long as their organization isn’t doing harm, I don’t really care; I just don’t watch or follow along myself, in the same way that I don’t buy “Red” marketed items thinking I’m doing good.
LikeLike
“the local people on the ground who have a much better understanding of the social and cultural issues, and who have typically been working on these issues for years”
Well, if the local people on the ground are solving the problem and don’t need outside help, good for them and leave them alone. But if not, maybe some outside help, which won’t come unless there’s some publicity, is needed. I don’t know enough about Bangladeshi maternal health care to say which is the case.
LikeLike
I wouldn’t have heard about Christy Turlington’s work if it weren’t for Dooce. Is this a huge problem? Maybe my RSS feeds are super shallow but they are what they are. I agree some of it is a bit of poverty tourism, but frankly I think that is better than Louis Vuitton tourism, at least I learn something afterwards. Or (though I used to like her quite a bit) Mighty Girl showing us all the cool things she bought in Buenos Aires. If Dooce actively said “Send me somewhere and I’ll write about it” then maybe I’d be like “enough lady” but I feel like she is actually trying to do something good here.
LikeLike
It’s hard to look good when you’re enjoying a cheap holiday in other people’s misery, no matter how worthy the project.
3rd world travel has gotten very trendy, particularly with a service component. I think I remember reading somewhere that there’s been a big generational shift in attitudes toward charity where the younger generations want to get some sort of experience or personal connection out of their charitable giving, hence the popularity of international service trips. One caution I’ve read is to watch out for service that could equally well be done by local people who could use the work.
LikeLike
Do you suppose the Guardian would have written an article about this organization, or about maternal healthcare in Bangladesh, if they hadn’t had someone to criticize for going there for less-than-pure reasons?
LikeLike
I’m sort of with y81, in that sometimes the outside expertise (let alone money) can tip the diff. But I also worry about things like the post-tsunami response, where money was directed where it did less potential good, and sometimes seems to have done harm (see Crazy Like Us on PTSD).
And sometimes just giving it to locals with no strings attached leads to kleptocracy.
Man, something else to be depressed about today.
(As for Dooce’s trip: eh. As for the response, well, she didn’t get to be Dooce without a bit of lashing back, justified or not. So that was just as expected.)
LikeLike
What I could have gotten a free plane ticket in exchange for blogging? All this time I have been blogging about life in the third world free. Of course I am an itinerant university lecturer, not a charity worker. So maybe I do not qualify.
LikeLike
“All this time I have been blogging about life in the third world free. Of course I am an itinerant university lecturer, not a charity worker. So maybe I do not qualify.”
You are ineligible by reason of knowledgeability.
LikeLike
“All this time I have been blogging about life in the third world free.”
And of course size matters. Audience size, that is.
Having read neither Dooce nor the Guardian, I will just add that anything development-related is a tough nut to crack. What works in one place doesn’t work in another; what works at one time doesn’t work at another. There are always mixed motives among donors and receivers; there are conflicting values; and there are power structures involved. So yeah politics (and political science) is hard. God gave the physicists the easy problems.
LikeLike
Amy:
I do not have a lot of knowledge about Ghana which is where I am working now.
Doug:
It is not my fault I have a small audience. It is your fault for not reading me. 😉
LikeLike