In case you missed it, as I had, this is essential reading. "I noticed that a donor had the urge to “save the day” in some fashion. People (including me) who had very little knowledge of a particular place would think that they could solve a local problem... over and over I would hear people discuss transplanting what worked in one setting directly into another with little regard for culture, geography or societal norms... But now I think something even more damaging is going on. Inside any important philanthropy meeting, you witness heads of state meeting with investment managers and corporate leaders. All are searching for answers with their right hand to problems that others in the room have created with their left... As more lives and communities are destroyed by the system that creates vast amounts of wealth for the few, the more heroic it sounds to “give back.” It’s what I would call “conscience laundering” — feeling better about accumulating more than any one person could possibly need to live on by sprinkling a little around as an act of charity. But this just keeps the existing structure of inequality in place. The rich sleep better at night, while others get just enough to keep the pot from boiling over. It’s time for a new operating system... New code. What we have is a crisis of imagination. Albert Einstein said that you cannot solve a problem with the same mind-set that created it... Money should be spent trying out concepts that shatter current structures and systems that have turned much of the world into one vast market."
Posted on: Tue, 06 Aug 2013 16:00:08 +0000
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