Ahh! Posted February 14, 2007 Share Posted February 14, 2007 I am presented with an interesting moral dilemna. My school is having a drive for a "relief group" that is helping the people of Angola in Africa. Upon further research, I have found that this a specifically missionary group and a fairly hardcore one at that. I would like to still help the people of Angola but I do not want to fund a program that to me seems more interested in converting people than helping them. I also want to explain to other people why I don't support this group (for the specific reason that I see them as cultural imperialists) but I frankly don't think most people are open-minded enough to understand (oh, you just want us to stop from sharing God with others!- nevermind that that shouldn't be your motive for feeding starving people you greedy Christian bastards!) What can I do to express my dissent at this action by my school and continue to support the Angolans? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Sage Nabooru Posted February 14, 2007 Share Posted February 14, 2007 DON'T DO IT. One of the local megachurches had their youth group standing around at a traffic intersection collecting money for their school and hospital in Tanzania. I refused. Let me tell you that these missionaries bring more problems to Africa than can easily be imagined. They not only enforce total destruction of native culture (because everything the natives have retained - right down to their traditional clothing - is "Satanic"), but also because they encourage outright small-scale terrorism and hatred towards different denominations and their missions to convert more to their own numbers. They force villages to depend totally on the mission and its church, so that all food, clothing, shelter, etc. is accessible only through them. The person that leaves the church is the one that is left to die in the streets without the neccessities the church provides. They force local leaders to make them the sole providers of education and most jobs in the area. Worst of all, they bring on disease and death by their anti-contraception preaching. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
♦ nivek ♦ Posted February 14, 2007 Share Posted February 14, 2007 Yo Ahhh!... I'm just a bit cynical when it comes to "missionaries" and African countries. See the big assed aircraft in the various African cities that can still support large turboprop aircraft like the uS C-130 and the Antonov AN series of similar size picking up lots and lots of white folks running for their lives? If you find films and tapes from, oh say, 10-15 years back, I'm on the ramp of that aircraft running the radio and bandaid box... All too often I got to play "tailgunner" as the C- or AN- was taking off just ahead of a whole herd of well pissed off "natives" armed with AkM rifles and assorted cutting tools. Seems just about wherever the Jebuzbots go, they end up pissing off the folks who live and toil there with their demands for change and religion. Not so funny when the uS.gov tells these idiots "...no thanks, we didn't cause your problems, but we won't stop you from paying for your own extrication." Makes money for we privateers who do (in my case, *did*) provide armed escort at the end of knifepoint out country. Just tell the kindly folks: "I don't support genocide in Africa" and let them figure out why you don't want dumbassed well intended stupid folks in a place they don't belong and are sure the fuck not wanted. k, "tailgunner with last beer out", FL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rachelness Posted February 14, 2007 Share Posted February 14, 2007 Wow.. missionaries, we still have those? So these missionaries believe Africa needs to be civilised and Christianized? OK.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LosingMyReligion Posted February 14, 2007 Share Posted February 14, 2007 Yes, the missionaries do more harm than good. Infact, I feel that they have been the biggest blight on Africa aside from European Colonialism(well, the two go hand in hand). As Sage said in the midst of the AIDS epidemic you have people going around preaching against condoms and contraceptives. How irresponsible is that? AIDS is an equal oppurtunity killer. Those people need to be armed with knowledge and not some prehistoric ideas of morality. Furthermore, missionary work destroys cultures. Everything intrinsic to the Angolan people will be stripped away when they start following Jebus. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Godless Wonder Posted February 14, 2007 Share Posted February 14, 2007 I just finished reading a couple interesting books about Africa. One was "Dark Star Safari" by Paul Theroux, who spent some time as a teacher there, in Malawi, in the '70s and went back in 1998 (or thereabouts) and travelled overland from Cairo to Capetown. He didn't have a very high opinion of the missionaries, or aid in general, and wondered if they did more harm than good, and there seems to be kind of an "aid industry" built up, which has an interest in preserving itself. He didn't have any good answers. I do recommend the book though, as it is interesting and entertaining. The other book I read was "Travels in the Congo" by Andre Gide, about a trip the author made in 1928 (if I'd have guessed the date, I would have almost guessed 1870 or so, excepting the occasional appearance of automobiles.) More of a remote history book than Theroux's, but still very interesting. Africa's got some hard problems. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leftofpunk Posted February 14, 2007 Share Posted February 14, 2007 Give to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. they help people and aren't a christian organization. that I know of. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eponymic Posted February 14, 2007 Share Posted February 14, 2007 What can I do to express my dissent at this action by my school and continue to support the Angolans? Talk to one of the administrators (preferrably the head cheese) and tell them how you know that this is not a good group to contribute to. Obviously making sure they understand you love the concept, just not the chosen form of practice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Fullmetal Atheist Posted February 14, 2007 Share Posted February 14, 2007 Give to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. they help people and aren't a christian organization. that I know of. Ehhh, they've got their own motivations, though. Gates only started the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation after he discovered that third-world countries were distributing computers with Linux instead of Windows, because Linux, being open-source and free, was all they could afford. So now Bill Gates gives them a small amount of money in exchange for them spending a ridiculous amount of money on Windows, so he can maintain his monopoly. The result is less computers for everyone, because Gates is a greedy asshole. Anyway, I did a Google search for "Angola charity" and came up with this: http://www.soschildrensvillages.org.uk/aid...gola-africa.htm http://www.soschildrensvillages.org.uk/spo...ship/angola.htm That appears to be a non-Christian charity, not specifically focused on Angola, but providing care for families hurt by HIV/AIDS in that area. You could sponsor a child in Angola through them! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nirrti Posted February 15, 2007 Share Posted February 15, 2007 Gates only started the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation after he discovered that third-world countries were distributing computers with Linux instead of Windows, because Linux, being open-source and free, was all they could afford. So now Bill Gates gives them a small amount of money in exchange for them spending a ridiculous amount of money on Windows, so he can maintain his monopoly. The result is less computers for everyone, because Gates is a greedy asshole. Doesn't any organization ever help out of selfless motivation anymore? What the hell ever happened to giving just because it was the "right thing to do"? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lycorth Posted February 15, 2007 Share Posted February 15, 2007 Sage makes a great point. Xian fanatics in Africa preach about not using condoms, yet AIDS is running rampant over there. Surely, part of the blame for that can be ascribed to the missionaries. That, and I am also skeptical of any sort of charity sent to the third world. It seems like nothing ever helps. No amount of money or whatnot is ever going to fix anything over there until the people in Africa pull their heads out of their asses, take an honest look at the shit direction Africa is going, and resolve to work on that, instead of ancient tribal squabbles or religious differences. Only the African people can genuinely help the African people. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thurisaz Posted February 15, 2007 Share Posted February 15, 2007 Doesn't any organization ever help out of selfless motivation anymore? What the hell ever happened to giving just because it was the "right thing to do"? Judging from my years of experience with the German St. John's Ambulance, there are many people who want to help "just because", and this can work for a while... until their organization gets large enough to need any kind of paid job, even if it's just roomcleaning. From there on you have no choice but to fight for profit. Sickening. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thurisaz Posted February 15, 2007 Share Posted February 15, 2007 ...instead of ancient tribal squabbles or religious differences. That, and the bizarre mentality many of them have "down there". I've read several articles about the Africa problem, and unless all the authors conspired to lie to the public, it's like this: 1. For whatever reason the people take for granted that everything they need comes from foreign aid very fast. A village is starving, you ship over a few sacks of food, next year is a good year, but no one works the fields seriously anymore... they just beg for the foreigners to help them again. Doesn't happen everytime of course, but disturbingly often. 2. The "share or else!" mentality. In many African cultures, if you are better off than your folks, no matter why, they all expect you to share the surplus with them... and they get really mean if you don't. Try to build up anything under these circumstances. Here in Germany we have a term that fits well I think: "Hilfe zur Selbsthilfe", meaning "we will help you where you can't help yourselves... but you first have to try and solve your probs without us". Pretty good principle if you ask me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ex-COG Posted February 16, 2007 Share Posted February 16, 2007 My school is having a drive for a "relief group" that is helping the people of Angola in Africa. Upon further research, I have found that this a specifically missionary group and a fairly hardcore one at that... Is your school run by a Christian organization? If not, it looks like it may be easier to challenge the school's choice of charity. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Sage Nabooru Posted February 17, 2007 Share Posted February 17, 2007 Also may I add that on a survey I found a while ago (might be on BBC.com), 80% of West Africans (who are now almost entirely Christianized or Islamized by missionaries) believe that there is only one true religion. That's the biggest percentage in the world of such a belief, not even NA has that many "one-true-religion" believers. I wonder who taught them that idea?....... Could it be that the missionaries want them to think that their church is the only right one? And because we've got such open-minded Christians and Muslims out there, living next door to each other, you can imagine how their relations would be. WW3 could very well start in Africa. Thanks, missionaries! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toxic Posted February 18, 2007 Share Posted February 18, 2007 "Missionaries are a perfect nuisance and always leave the place in a worse state than when they found it" - Charles Dickens Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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