This isn’t a post about voiceover. The only connection with voiceover work is that voiceovers are done by human beings, and this story is also about human beings.
I encourage you to watch this YouTube video. It’s disturbing, but not oppressively so. And, it’s important to realize that sometimes efforts to help people can do more harm than good. The speaker is Martin Rapaport. Google that name to find out why he’s someone to hear. But whether you do or not, please watch the video.
Feel free to leave a comment with your thoughts. I’ve love to read what you think.
(My thanks to Roy Williams and his Monday Morning Memo for pointing me to this video this morning.)
The other side of my life (aside from the voice over/broadcast industry is as a Pastor and Missionary. My wife and I spend 7 months a while back in West Africa. We were lucky enough to be immersed in the culture and really got to know people on ground living the life and fight the fight.
Both sides of this argument are guilty of easy answers. The one single that my friends in West Africa point to that leaves Africa in it’s poverty state is the issue of wealth distribution. The wealth in Africa is SHOCKING! But it’s confined to small number of people (mainly corrupt government official’s and those who cozy up to them). It never filters down to the those workers seen in the YouTube clip.
In lies the crux of the issue. My friends on the ground feel that the issue is 2 fold. First to to cutoff the cash flow in corrupt systems like this (diamond trade…FYI they’re just shiny rocks… people are what’s important)… and secondly, business must see what’s happening and invest in Africa. What Bono’s being promoting with the “Red” line, where percentages of profit’s to to AIDS medication is AMAZING. But it’s still a patchwork.
Also, while I’m ranting, let me tell you that the West African people are a shining beacon of what humanity should be like. They are more kind than us… more generous than us… and frankly more content to be happy than us… and that is while being taken advantage of by the world. I wish more people could get catch a glimpse of what we’re silently doing to a great people.
Dave,
Thank you for your passionate and insightful comments. My experiences in the third world match yours, though mine have been in Latin America not Africa.
I believe every Westerner should spend time in the third world. Especially every Christian in the Western world. It has an amazing effect, clarifying which are the important and which are the unimportant matters of life and faith.
Be well,
Bob
Wow, I have seen similar things myself. I have to agree with Bob. I think it would do every American good to go to a “third world” country and actually live with a family in whatever conditions they are living and experience some of the things they have to go through.
The only problem? I’m not sure the rest of the world would be willing to put up with us!
Christian Mission Trips