Timnit Gebru (she/her).

A very important article by Anthony Kalulu ofhttp://www.ugandafarm.org/.

"EA is even worse than traditional philanthropy in the way it excludes those of us who are directly battling ultra poverty in the global south...Top-bottom approaches...have had more than a good run. This has been the default way of ending global extreme poverty since the dawn of time...The only thing this has accomplished, is that it has helped keep the world’s ultra poor on the sidelines"

http://dear-humanity.org/effective-altruism-worse-for-poor/

EA is worse than traditional philanthropy in the way it excludes we the poor.

Effective altruism is worse than traditional philanthropy in the way it excludes the extreme poor in the global south.   By Anthony Kalulu  @KaluluAnthony  |  December 3, 2022: —-   I have spent the vast portion of my life in ultra poverty. My region Busoga, is also Uganda’s most impoverished, yet Uganda itself is among the poorest countries … Continue reading ""

Dec 14, 2022 at 2:59pmWeb
Show threadTom StonehamDec 14, 2022

@timnitGebru
It is such a pity that the EA movement has appropriated a useful label for genuinely effective approaches to poverty like this:

https://www.givedirectly.org

GiveDirectly: Send money to people living in poverty

GiveDirectly allows donors to send money directly to people in poverty with no strings attached. Our approach is guided by rigorous evidence of impact and our values of efficiency, transparency, and respect.

GiveDirectly
Show threadsalDec 26, 2022
@tomstoneham @timnitGebru oh right! this is a thing I remember! I remember running into some people talking about "effective altruism" years ago, I remember them mentioning this program and the malaria nets thing plus encouraging people to go vegan. it seemed like decent stuff and then I heard nothing about that group for years, and then recently I heard again about how off-the-rails they'd gone about AI shit, plus learned about ableist/eugenicist ideas involved.

the GiveDirectly program still seems like good stuff.
Show threadPaul d'AoustDec 14, 2022
Ping @lucas_tauil -- haven't read this yet, but maybe we could both read and compare notes!
Show threadlucas_tauilDec 15, 2022
@pauldaoust I'm game!
Show threadmempkoDec 14, 2022
@timnitGebru EA is just trickle down economics by another name.
Show threadmhoyeDec 14, 2022
@mempko @timnitGebru Even trickle-down economics still admits the presence of the state, EA replaces that with daydreams of the ultrarich, fanning their farts at the rest of us with the grand gestures of their invisible hands.
Show threadPG&E Delenda EstDec 15, 2022

@mempko @timnitGebru rich people donating money and wanting accolades for it is them pretending to pay taxes but only for things they want.

I wish there was a way to voluntarily overpay taxes; the illusion would vanish immediately.

Show threadvegangsterDec 15, 2022
@timnitGebru Fantastic article. Thank you.
Show threadsalDec 26, 2022
@timnitGebru Yes! Anthony's spoken with The Guardian too. On his fundraiser page he breaks down his incremental goals:
"With $240k, we will install a cereal/grain sorting, grading and threshing system, ideally from Alvan Blanch UK, and then provide rural poor farmers with seed, training and market linkages for two crops: sorghum & maize. This will help put our sorghum and maize on a standard where it can be used by all breweries, and many other big buyers, across the East African region."
https://gogetfunding.com/dear-humanity/
#mutualaid #africa #farming #farmers #sustainability #socialjustice
Show threadsalDec 28, 2022
@timnitGebru Also from the article:
"In my region of Busoga, Uganda’s most impoverished region, we have one [well-funded] international charity which is among those described by the EA movement as being “effective”. That charity is also working with rural poor farmers here, principally on maize. ... But the thing is: every household in our region that depends on maize, lives in chronic extreme poverty, and has lived in chronic poverty for eternity. Neither the effective charity nor the other big antipoverty agencies that came before it, have changed this.

...By contrast, those farmers who are growing crops like sugarcane, no charity or antipoverty agency has ever supported them. But today, every village in our region that you visit, is covered with sugarcane. It is also the same with many other crops (rice, tomatoes, water melon etc) that are at least providing rural farmers with some tangible income. No one has ever supported farmers to grow these crops. But farmers end up growing them spontaneously, and on a sustained basis, while those crops that are championed by some well-funded agencies — or the newly imported methods of growing them — only last for a time.

Why? The answer is: there is a thing about local farming systems in general, and there is a whole array of underlying circumstances, which are known only to the poor themselves."
#farming #farmers #sustainability #colonialism #effectivealtruism #classwar

It would be great if we could boost his fundraiser to build infrastructure for farmers in his region to cooperatively make value-added goods and collectively bargain with international markets! 🎍 💚 🔧

( @rechelon seems like yr kinda thing maybe?)
Akkoma