think of the consumers

To my disappointment, an entertaining rundown of the worst aid projects ever doesn't include a scheme to literally teach Africans to fish, but it does have an entertaining recap of the Zoe's Ark affair:

This is where the problems began. Before the plane could return to France, the Zoe's Ark crew were arrested by unhappy Chadian authorities, who quite rightly pointed out that the NGO should have complied with Chad's own adoption laws. Also, the Chadians noted, most of these Sudanese orphans were neither orphans nor were they from Sudan; they were local kids lured in by Zoe's Ark's false promises of a trip to the clinic or a better school (this was subsequently confirmed by UN agencies and the Red Cross). Blinded by their ignorance, moral righteousness and end-justifies-the-means mentality, Zoe's Ark was only just prevented from kidnapping dozens of children, all in the name of doing good.

Actually, this doesn't look so much like an example of White Saviour Complex in action as a straightforward attempt at mass kidnapping to order. The two prime movers are now in South Africa, a country which does not havge an extradition treaty with France, where they are on trial in absentia - for fraud. They took the money but never delivered the kids.

Comments

[ajay]

What, no Tanganyika Groundnut Scheme? No Iraq war?

[dsquared]

I couldn't help wondering while reading it whether Jimmy Savile had ever had any projects in the Third World but apparently AFAICT his version of charity stopped at the water's edge

[john b]

A proper traditional Yorkshire paedophile. No truck with boys or foreigners.

[Aircraft Avionics Testing]

The Chadian authorities will never realize the hardwork of the crew to bring aid to the people of South Africa. The place is governed with false Chad laws.

[Alex]

"Aircraft Avionics Testing". Now that's what I call spam.

[Tom]

""Aircraft Avionics Testing". Now that's what I call spam."

Would you buy a used TCAS received from this man?

[Barry Freed]

Considering one of the names mentioned in this thread among other things, not to mention the previous unpleasant inundation, it's what I call a vast improvement. OTOH, Chad laws aside, it would have been better suited to the Chris Williams' DC-3 post.