http://kristof.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/08/05/dont-send-junk/#comments
I found this article today and think it's worth a read. It's especially interesting to those of you in Pittsburgh. Pete, Brother's Brother is mentioned in the comment section. It also addresses the very real idea that mass amounts of unnecessary stuff arrives in Africa every day.
We heard a story the other day about a church group from the US who donated a fire truck to a rural community in Mali. An American came to the city, decided that they needed the truck and set off raising funds for it. But he didn't stop to consider whether or not the folks here in Mali had the resources to use this fire truck. Nobody knew how to maintain/repair it, there was no fuel in the town, and here's the kicker: the people's houses were made of mud and brick, so they couldn't burn down anyway! So now the truck sits in front of the mayor's office, completely unused and rusting.
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1 comments:
I hope that the things Pete got collected don't fall into the useless category. The President of Brothers Brother is the one who commented on this article.
And, yes, Beatrice people are reading your blog but commenting for the first time is a pain. Aunt Christine wanted to comment but didn't because it took too long to do so.
Mom
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