the goose

Niccolo Machiavelli

I’m writing this from the office of www.rescueargentina.com.  Rescue Argentina is run by an Irish priest who was posted to Oberá, Argentina over twenty years ago.  Although Argentina is a rich country, at one point the seventh the richest in the world, it is also huge.  There are parts which are in dire poverty and where there is poverty there are people who are left at the margins to die in filth.  Sounds emotive, but this is the language needed to divert the money from your Xtravision account, to something more worth while instead.

So here is the thing.  The first time I was here, feeding clothing and just keeping company the abandoned residents, I was way to embarrassed to admit it.   There was nothing worse than a do-gooder bigging up themselves and it seems icky to be talking about my own supposed benevolence.

So why fess up now?

Well, two reasons.  First up; I’d like to leave a legacy.  I don’t have kids, and have no current plans to have any, and I’m keen to make a mark on the world.  Twee as it might sound, growing up I was inspired by the efforts of Bob Geldof et al to make a difference in the world.  The guy has two arms, two legs, just like me and yet he’s arguably helped hundreds of thousands.  Wouldn’t it be nice if I could do something like that?  Rather selfishly, I’ve decided that before I can really get around to doing anything that great, I’ve got to free up time (ergo: have hundreds of people paying tens of euro for some service) but in the mean time, I might as well get practicing.

The second reason is that I’ve looked on with bemusement as Pat Phelan has lead the charge in taking lumps out of Evert Bopp and his Haiti Connect project.  Evert has been getting a lot of heat for his project, which basically aims to set up communications equipment in Haiti in a bid to help the humanitarian projects there.  I’m not going to go into the pros of this project.  Its up to whoever funds the project to decide whether it is worthwhile.  I have not chosen to support the it.

The attacks on him personally and his efforts seem strange as they come from what might be termed entrepreneurs.

Evert’s plans are unproven, untried, he has no experience and the outcomes are uncertain.  You might describe him as innovating.  He’s taking a chance with other people’s money and his own.  That sounds pretty much to me the definition of what an entrepreneur does.  I don’t hear anyone criticizing any of the myriad Irish tech startups in the same way, even if at least some of them seem doomed to failure.

So why is it okay to condemn an entrepreneurial charitable project and not a business one?  Are charities immune from the need for new thinking?  Do market forces not apply to them?  Are the best methods for delivering aid all discovered?

If the criticism came from anyone else I might understand but it is hard to see why Pat might decide this bone to pick.  He already has a successful blog, and business.  Maybe he has been revising his copy of the Prince.

The home in Oberá does fantastic work, and is funded in large part by the efforts of small Irish business owners.  Starting or running your own business is an inherently self-centered activity.  I think this is why many feel a need to search our projects like RescueArgentina.com and support them.  I might be self-agrandising myself here, as Evert was claimed to have been doing, but giving back is good – period.  It is dangerous to vilify Hait-Connect, if only for the fact that it puts off people sharing their experiences when it come to giving back in some way.  Worse still, it is an implicit criticism of a culture of giving. People who do make an effort to do something, while may not deserver to be lauded, certainly don’t deserve to be lampooned.

This isn’t my fight and I’m not sure why I’m getting involved.  I have met Evert once, briefly.  He may be the greatest bollox to walk the earth for all I know.  What I have read about him just doesn’t seem right.  Staying quiet didn’t either.