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Unless you're doing anything at all to help, maybe try being a little less cynical about the people who are.

I do agree with that, but at the exact same time, it is important to be critical of these actions and to understand our role and part in this. For me, thinking about this logically leads me to the conclusion that, while individual action can be good-willed, it is not enough to fix a systemic problem. Systemic problems need to be fixed with systemic actions, and that first step requires people to recognize and understand the problem.

The point that I read in your GP comment - and that I agree with - is that solutions need to be local: attuned to the local environment, which tends to imply invented by local people.

C.f. Mpesa; westerners generally wouldn't think of payment over SMS, because they don't have the right lenses.

Yeah i struggle with this as well. I don't know who GP is and maybe they are doing a ton, but every time I read a comment like this I think of a similar thing:

"Hello, I, a benevolent westerner am tasked with explaining how poor you are to others but will never think of you after today or do anything to improve your condition. However, I am very serious about my role of explaining how anyone that trys to help or implement incremental solutions is a bad person."

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