There are 2 pretty awesome events happening today: Blog Action Day and The Worldwide Blogger Bake Off (Hosted by Breadline Africa SA, Breadline Africa UK, Breadline Africa Ireland, Breadline Africa Nederland)
Stop right there! This reminds me of many many talks heard at TEDglobal2007: To alleviate poverty Africa does not need hand outs, we need investment. Is this another case of a mainly third world problem trying to be solved with a first world mindset? Money or baking a bread will not solve our problems. Much respect to both Blog Action Day and The Worldwide Bloggers Bake Off.
Sorry, but Your Web AddiCT will not be donating any money or baking a bread. Why do we need one day to to make people aware of Poverty, the environment or any other cause? It should be part of every day.
Here are a few ideas:
Give A Man A Fish, He Eats For A Day…Teach a her how to fish, she eats for a lifetime
How does one break the cycle of poverty? As an entrepreneur, I’m a strong supporter of those who try to make a difference by creating products and solutions that help their local, national, or global community. All ideas are not created equal, but the people behind them are the ones who can cultivate them into something life changing or learn from their failures, pick themselves up and help others on their paths to create something great.
How to get foreign currency into the hands of those who need it legally?
There is this little website called www.tourguide.co.za that puts tourist guides in South Africa in direct contact with foreign nationals via the web for free and bypass the many foreign owned tourist operators. It has been in beta since forever but is functional enough to have changed many of the tourist guides lives for the better.
Unemployment in South Africa is high and getting lower. The usual minimum requirement for most jobs is a drivers license. There are also many “driving schools” who go around forcing people to prepay for many lessons with money they do not really have, give them one lesson, and disappear with their hard earned cash. Luckily we have the South African Insitute of Driving Instructors that help ensure that driving schools are fully qualified and not con joe public. On top of that there is a website that connects those who want to learn to drive with driving schools certified by the South African Institute of Driving Instructors called www.idrive.co.za
Education is also a key ingredient to alleviating poverty The awesome stars at Quirk have released the first emarketing textbook in South Africa for free. 
The Shuttleworth Foundation are and have done some amazing work by getting open source computer labs into schools in poverty stricken areas.
Give us the tools or assist us in building our own tools to solve our own problems.
Then again, what do I know? All the above tools can be implemented all over Africa or the wwworld.
*disclaimer – I volunteered with tuxlabs, donate regularly to the Cape Linux User Group and may have come up with the idea for www.idrive.co.za and was involved with the development of tourguide.co.za in the beginning.
Moral of this blog post – We do not only want money, it leads to $700 billion bail-outs.
Do Web AddiCT(s); really need 1 day to focus on poverty?.
Have you read these yet?
We have to buy the Cape Argus
The ‘Make Africa Wealthy’ campaign
Want to be a Beta tester for a new MXit service?
Some MXit & Blogging Positives for Patricia de Lille
Blog Action Day – Help create environmental awareness
I think you may have mis-read what the campaign and Breadline Africa is about.
To understand what Breadline Africa does…read here – http://www.breadlineafrica.org/how/project-types.html
Breadline Africa is more about hand ups, but they are not about to deny well needed food programmes and community kitchens just because its not a hand up. People still need handouts while they develop, learn, find work and begin to sustain themselves.
Can’t work or learn on an empty stomach! If anything we may need to make this clearer on http://www.bloggerbakeoff.com
Hi Rafiq – good to see you earlier. As I mentioned, I think maybe you have the wrong idea of who we (Breadline Africa) are, and what we do. If you’d like to have a little Q&A chat for your blog, drop me a line! Else, thanks for participating in the conversation anyway. Sarah @ breadlineafrica.org.za
I agree with you Rafiq that education is key to alleviating poverty in Africa, but the money, food and education needs to get the people that really need it – not your tourguides or driving school instructors. Do you honestly believe that idrive and tourguide are having any effect on the starving children in countries like Ethiopia who live off less than $1 a day? These are the people that need your help a lot more.
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs applies directly to poverty – the first thing a person needs is food, water, shelter and sleep and if you not getting the basic commodities such as these, why would someone want to be educated on how to feed themselves (remember, eduction is a lot longer term than having to eat 3 times a day)?
And yes, we should make this a daily cause, not a “once a year highlight the issue and move on”, but 1 day is better than never.
BTW, at least you blogged about it, so much for myself!
Thanks for the link! Education is a long process and we have to start somewhere…
I was very excited, after our conversation last night, to do this. That was until Quirk CEO, Rob Stokes, called what bloggers write waffle on twitter? How can the CEO of the emarketing company, namely Quirk, call what bloggers write waffle when they are a key ingredient to successfully executing the World Wide Blogger Bake Off strategy?
Some bloggers have spent many years growing their blogs, personal brands and their online influence/reputation. Have we as bloggers been waffling all along?
I am perturbed by this statement.
https://twitter.com/robstokes/statuses/961268529
Thank you Smallz. Have you miss-read this post? A question was asked at the end. My reasons for not donating is not because I do not support the cause. Would you like to know why?
Here is a blog addressing the world food crisis more in depth:
http://brainalert.wordpress.com/2008/04/21/this-is-silent-mass-murder-jean-ziegler-food-crisis-threatens-security-says-un-chief/
@Rafiq – I tried really hard to bite my tongue and say nothing BUT I have to ask … do you really believe that driving lesson and a little tourism site are going to make a difference to staving children like this:
http://tcor.files.wordpress.com/2007/09/vulture.jpg
This child needs food, vaccinations and HOPE – surely?
Rafiq – I agree there is a desperate need for education and skills development in South Africa – but driving lesson… you are joking right?
Hi Jay,
Here is an article about the photographer who took that photograph and a write up how this sort of stuff affected him. (He commited suicide eventually).
The girl in that picture was on her way to a feeding centre when she collapsed, but the photographer chased away that vulture. I think people should not criticise food crisis until actually either experiencing it, or witnessing this grim situation.
To us a piece of bread might be trivial, but to some it is separating life from death. It is so depressing, I don’t even feel like having lunch anymore =(
http://www.flatrock.org.nz/topics/odds_and_oddities/ultimate_in_unfair.htm
Hi j9
If you ever speak to Suzan ask her about my wooden spoon. It has now been put to rest. I just started a conversation, my intention was to ruffle some feather and bring attention to many ways to change lives locally and internationally tha was all.
Do you remember that 25% that I signed off with a smile ?
Why not donate that to Breadline Africa?
That is no joke.
Have a great weekend.
Thanks for the feedback Rafiq! I’m really relieved that you were just stirring again – maybe you should keep that spoon ; )
Have a fab weekend too!
J9
Thanks for the feedback Rafiq! I’m really relieved that you were just stirring again – maybe you should keep that spoon ; )
Have a fab weekend too!
J9