Prescriptive philanthropy

Listening to a radio appeal about contributions to a drive to raise money for congenital heart problems if felt moved to act.

Maybe it’s was the way they said it, the way you talk about someone’s misfortune that triggers apathy and vulnerability at the same instance.

Maybe being a victim myself of insistent bouts of asthma and sinuses at an early age I could relate.

Or maybe just maybe am a victim of selective or prescribed philanthropy.

I have never been able to justify why I walk past beggars my whole life. My reasons have varied, from the futility of my effort to the need to instill hard work among beggars.

I have doubted the honesty of their plight especially in Nairobi where I have been informed that beggars are richer than those actually giving them alms, facts I have not been able to substantiate in actuality.

I have held that since they are so many my ten shillings would make no difference in their lives, in fact the next day they will be there the next day begging more fervently than before.

I have also peculiarly held them as junkies. I have my own alcohol issues that gobble up my scanty finances yet I still imbibe with abandon. Knowing they are pre-disposed abusers of some substance to survive their plight I feel that financing their drug habit is not so philanthropic. So I don’t give beggars money.

Then I hate it when my maker is used to extort me. Whenever a beggar appeals to my sense of guilt or fear of hell I switch off. Keep my God out of it.

But generally I do not have a definite reason why my philanthropy does not extend to those crawling beggars with tin cups or babies spread to appeal to the little humanity townsfolk are left with.

This moment has however made me rethink my presupposition. Why is it better for a company to do Corporate Social Responsibility in a cancer clinic and not the homeless?

What would could justify the millions of shillings in targets for formal interventions that are usually surpassed yet we barely give a beggar a dime.

Has the capital franchise found a subtle way to exhaust a universal humane feeling by channeling our philanthropy through formal undefined causes while alienating us from the direct individuals seeking help.

Would it not better to help those we are most disposed to share their gratitude because helping is just a  base vanity of sharing gratitude.

May 5: Internship Unions

Labour day during college recess and students are all over the internet and newspapers and relatives looking for internship in Kenya.

It has become a very interesting trend in Kenya’s capital Nairobi as companies recruit interns for three months or so. The interns who are in abundance service this industry much of whom are never paid (some even pay the companies to ‘teach’ them). Like all businesses the companies can ‘outsource’ for this cheap labour instead of hiring permanent workers who cost them money.

The situation is further exacerbated by the fact that all jobs require a three or four year experience, and no graduate can make it into employment without having served as a pawn through internship and hope for absorption.

Just to throw in a little more for the fun of it universities have slotted that internship is in the curriculum so unless one goes through it they will never graduate.

Put all this ingredients together and you have scores of desperate students who are offering free, cheap labour or even paying organizations. It’s a capital system and business sense the opportunity use interns for the short time and dump them for other interns as universities constantly churn out new desperados every other time during the school year.

If this is a labour concern then I beg to voice it. I believe interns are a major skilled resource and by offering their services to organizations they deserve remuneration. Students have a heavy loan burden and barely survive through semesters. They are undeniably in need for money and thus they deserve to be paid and paid well.

It is a matter of fact, though, that organizations are important to students as they afford field experience to students. In fact, as a good recruitment policy its best to prove the worth of students through internships as a substitute to graduate trainees who might cost more.

However university students might have to consider an internship union that allows for interns to bargain while offering their services as a skilled resource and not just be workhorses. Universities can also consider teaching labour laws and union membership as a common course for all students to understand that as they enter the job market they should view themselves as integralcontributors to successes of companies rather than mere apprentices who work for free. It is undeniable that all workers who feel more appreciated contribute more and what better way to intern them.