Year of the African Child

You see pictures of them, snotty nosed and ragged, on tv; accompanied by ads from organizations that cliam to need YOUR money to help them. If nothing else, Peace Corps is going to save me a lot of money in the future because (with a few exceptions) I am very unlikely to fall for it.
I feel most Westerners conceptualize African children in the same vein as puppies and kittens in the humane society commercials. They’re so cute! Awwww so sad! I just want to take him home! A group of Americans – known for tying to adopt children after spending an hour or two—ok, sometimes four—with them came last month. I side with the group calling them baby stealers. We had a small argument which included the following—But their parents didn’t care!—They don’t belong to their parents, they belong to their communities. They’re living in squalor! That fact that you call their living conditions squalor shows what you think of their culture—besides you should probably wash you feet and iron your shirt. How can you possibly love someone whose culture you don’t care one whit about?
Here, a person\s value ins not only individual; it is defined as part of their communities- families- and ethnic groups. To rip them away creates fissues in both community and child. Furthermore, I wonder if it is really so altruistic. Imagine a childless person—she wants to give a child a “better life”—but demands lifelong love and obedience from a child at the expense of his/her identity and community in return. Is that love? At this point, I’ve decided that if you really feel bad for a kid, it is less selfish to sponsor a kid through school than to kidnap.
Sponsorship, which I have done in the past and may again do in the future, is not really that great either. Research shows that as GDP goes up, which implies a monetary society, indicating wages and increased importance of educated employment instead of agricultural labor—birth rates go down. Unless, that is, a large amount of foreign aid is involved—in which case both GDP and population growth rise. My interpretation is simple—if someone else will care for your kid, don’t worry about how many you can feed and educate—let the rich muzungu do it.
In the end, the environment will suffer and the unequivocably passive- aggressive mother earth will kill us all. If I have more money than I know what to do with, I am going to buy as much land as I can and let it grow wild—for the sake of us all.