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Ambiguous Victories and Real Progress: Behind the Beautiful Forevers

2014-07-22 · letter vlog · John · 3:43 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Global development (also: Nerdfighteria) · mode: Personal essay · tags: recurring series, community lore, punishment or challenge, heavy topic

John, discussing charity in the Nerdfighter Book Club pick Behind the Beautiful Forevers, argues that charity's results are rarely unambiguous, that givers should look at what charities do and how well, and that we must embrace complexity while data shows real progress.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Reply to Hank's punishment rant: John will do a punishment though he believes he owes none; data lies less than your heart

  • ★★★ Answering Hank's rant about punishments, John says that although he still believes he does not owe a punishment, he will do one because data does not lie. — 00:00:04 · Punishment, Hank Green
  • ★★ John says data sometimes lies, but less than your heart, and that this is kind of what the video is about. (playful, hedged) — 00:00:11

00:00:16 — Charity in Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Sunil and the orphanage, fraudulent charity schools, World Vision amenities timed to elections

  • ★★ John says his favourite character in the summer book club pick is Sunil, a 12-year-old garbage picker who is not an orphan but grew up in an orphanage. — 00:00:16
  • ★★★ John says the book's first mention of charity is complicated: the nun running the orphanage lies to raise money and the orphanage sells clothes collected for the kids, yet Sunil needs it and learns to read there. — 00:00:40
  • ★★★ John says such non-straightforward stories about charity are rarely heard, especially from charities, because admitting uncertain, imperfect results is a terrible fundraising strategy. — 00:00:58 · aid effectiveness
  • ★★ John notes that in the book the charity-run school in Annawadi is taught by a teenager and substandard, and many charity schools are frauds, like one that closed once its leader had photos to secure government funds. — 00:01:18
  • ★★ John says government-charity collaborations are also problematic: Annawadi's corrupt representative gets World Vision toilets and gutters timed to elections, though good toilets matter for public health. — 00:01:37

00:02:03 — From East Africa: judge what charities do and how well; data shows real progress; no unambiguous victories; embrace complexity

  • ★★ John says that as Hank watches, he is in East Africa learning about work people there are doing with the help of the Gates Foundation. — 00:02:03

  • ★★★ John argues that everywhere, including our own neighbourhoods, we must look at what charities do and how well, and not give just to feel good or ease guilt but to actually decrease world suck. — 00:02:11 · aid effectiveness, world suck

    “We want to actually decrease World Suck.”

  • ★★ John concedes that health and poverty are incredibly complicated problems and that money can be misallocated and used to bolster corrupt regimes. — 00:02:32

  • ★★★ John says much data shows that over the last twenty years people with the right resources have transformed their communities: rising income, food security, literacy, lower infant mortality. — 00:02:36 · progress
  • ★★★ John says he keeps rereading Behind the Beautiful Forevers because it contains no unambiguous victories, not for its characters nor for foreign aid, government spending, microfinance or charity. — 00:02:58
  • ★★ John says non-profit spending doesn't always work, partly because non-profits are not equally effective and partly because no one succeeds all the time. — 00:03:09 · aid effectiveness
  • ★★★ John thinks data is probably ultimately a better guide than anecdote to what works, though data can also be manipulated. (hedged) — 00:03:16
  • ★★★ John's takeaway from the book: we will either embrace complexity or be lying to ourselves. — 00:03:23

00:03:28 — Looks forward to comments after his return; hopes to learn and listen on the trip; sign-off

  • ★★ John says he looks forward to reading viewers' thoughts in the comments when he returns. — 00:03:28 · Nerdfighteria
  • ★★ John hopes to learn and listen a lot on this week's (week of 21 July 2014) trip, and says if he comes home with straightforward answers and simple solutions he is probably doing it wrong. (hedged) — 00:03:31

In the description and comments

  • ★★ As data to start the discussion, John points to WHO figures on infant mortality and trends in child mortality, the EIU Food Security Index, World Bank figures on global income distribution, and The Economist on global inequality. — video description · child mortality, economic inequality

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: aid effectiveness · Behind the Beautiful Forevers

Also: Projects: Nerdfighter Book Club

Organizations: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation · World Vision International

Rituals: Punishment

Terms: world suck

Concepts: anecdotal evidence · Charity (practice) · Development aid · Food security · Government spending · Income · literacy · microfinance · political corruption · progress · sanitation

Places: Annawadi · East Africa

fact: infant mortality rate

Only in the description or credits: child mortality · economic inequality · Global Food Security Index · Katherine Boo · The Economist · World Bank · World Health Organization

Also centred on Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Walking the Red Carpet: Thoughts from Los Angeles · Influence, Airports, and the Nerdfighter Book Club · Our Old Friend Complexity: Behind the Beautiful Forevers · Exciting Announcements and Mosquito-Borne Illnesses

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