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Verification, Privacy, and Respect for Africa [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2023-07-31

I have been writing stories about my friend John in Ghana and his ministry of helping others for awhile now. Sometimes in panic, sometimes in despair, sometimes in joy. Because that is what happens when you write about someone who spends his life helping people in desperate need. They don’t even come to John unless they have terrible problems and so he sees the worst of the darkness and pain that is poverty.

A very few times I have asked for help but I try not to do that. I want what I write to be a light shining on some people who are mostly ignored and even actively disliked in the world- the poor, and especially the poor in Africa, historically one of the most abused and despised continents in the world.

It has been my policy to provide information on how to help if specifically asked by a specific individual because I felt it was not my place to actively block someone who wants to help. But I have reduced that to providing that information only if someone asks by kosmail. I think it is a disservice to the people who want to help and to the people who need that help by actively standing between them and refusing to allow it.

My stories are not fundraising. They are consciousness raising.

Yes yes yes, there are many frauds and scams in Africa. Anything that I can describe that John is doing, someone will be able to find something similar done by someone else that was a scam.

That is the nature of reality. Evil has shot through all of life and has corrupted every good thing in the world.

But to assume that all things are evil because some things are evil is to say that one should never get married because some marriages fail, or that one should never have children because some children kill their parents.

Almost every time I post a story I get comments describing how some scam somewhere in Africa was ‘just like that.’ And believe me, judging from the kosmails I am getting, it is having an impact.

I thought, and believe, that many people honestly care about Anabel the abandoned child that John has been caring for.

No, he did not seek her out and put her in a nefarious institution to use her for fundraising. I have explained fully what happened. Homeless children found her wandering on the street and took her to John.

To twist that into a tale of Evil John Exploits Homeless Child is grotesque. And it is incredibly unfair to someone who is trying to help others despite his own grinding poverty. Are the poor not allowed to do good?

And if one suggests that only large and ‘respectable’ charity organizations deserve help, certainly by all means do that, but the idea that large charities give money directly to the needy is naive. John does not have to pay for overhead, salaries, private jets, endless conferences in resort towns, and lavish offices. And he does not make the poor fill out forms and grovel before a bureaucracy.

But setting all of that aside….

I was going to document Anabel and I even asked John to provide names, details, and photos of the place where she is staying, including photos of the management and people working there. All to satisfy the bitter skeptics who insist that all Africa is a fraud.

But then I thought-

No

I am not going to dox these people and expose them to the thugs and beasts who stalk the internet.

Even with their permission, I am not going to do it. These are people deserving as much privacy and respect as anyone in the US or in Europe. It is not fair, nor is it reasonable, to demand that they expose themselves to the abuse of the savages on the internet simply to satisfy the cynicism of someone who is never going to be convinced anyway.

I am well aware that there are many frauds, liars, and criminals in the world. I would say, person per person, there are more of them in the US than in all of Africa put together. Trump filled his administration with conmen and criminals (none of whom have been held to the slightest account, by the way.)

But to assume that every single person in Africa is a lying criminal, a fraudster, or a scam is offensive and unfair.

It stinks of racism- ‘Oh no Timmy, you don’t want to talk to that dirty black person, you might get hurt; let the churches take care of that sort of thing.’

Those who are saying these things are condemning all of Africa because of the flaws of some of its people.

I am not asking for help and I do not have to justify my stories. I write as truthfully and honestly as I can based on what I understand of what John has told me. I sometimes get it wrong (for example the sudden demand for more money for Anabel to stay in that shelter was not due to bills for measles as I thought. John was simply too poor to buy phone time and so hadn’t been online when the matron sent the monthly bill.)

I have provided photos of all of the people I have written about whom John has helped, even though that makes me nervous because, again, it does violate their privacy. I have even provided photos of John specifically handing money to them. Though I know that could be faked and I assume some scammer has done that in the past. But similarity is not identity.

I am not asking anyone to believe me. I honestly thought- and think- that there are people here who care about Anabel and honestly want to know what is happening with her.

So I will continue to write these diaries about John and the people he is working with there. Because I think it is important.

If you believe we should not interact with individual Africans because “Ugh, not THOSE people! They’re all beggars and crooks!” then I feel sorry for you.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/7/31/2184335/-Verification-Privacy-and-Respect-for-Africa

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