Developing International Pornography

Oops. I meant to write "International Development Pornography". Certainly caught your eye though, no?

I don't know about you guys, but I've been receiving some interesting envelopes in the mail lately. These envelopes, usually from an organization with a mission to end child hunger, are covered in and contain images of little brown children with dirt-smudged cheeks staring out at you with imploring eyes. The envelope is encouraging- "You can help feed this child for only a nickel a day". But the weird thing is that there's an actual nickel in the envelope! If you tear open the envelope to get the nickel (and to figure out why they are sending you money) – BAM! You come face to face with an even more devastating photo of a hungry child – this time, the kid has even dirtier cheeks, possibly a cleft-lip, and his teary eyes are as wide as saucers.

By now, I've figured out how to open the envelope just enough so I can fish out the coin without seeing any of the actual contents. I've collected about $1.25 in change so far which I’ve re-distributed to some homeless people around Dupont Circle. But that’s besides my point, really.

My curiosity lies in the creation, selection and motivations of such images. Since those billions in aid dollars that were raised for the famine in Ethiopia some thirty years ago with the wide distribution of images of emaciated, naked, black toddlers, the library of so-called “international development pornography” has only grown.

How effective are these images? Have we become desensitized to them as we’ve faced increasing exposure to such pictures? And most importantly, do these images inform our concepts of worthy beneficiaries of aid?

Going beyond the targeted mailing campaigns of select US-based aid outfits, what kinds of images are associated with international development issues being discussed in mainstream media? Given the extraordinary reach of international news networks these days, it is incredible to think of how narrow and shallow most news content is.

I will never forget - three years ago, I picked up the Washington Post Sunday Edition at our neighborhood Safeway. On the front page, above the fold, was a large centered photo of a black woman in the middle of a birthing room in Sierra Leone. Even if you missed the picture, the author paints it for you in the lead paragraph.

The special edition was about maternal mortality in Sierra Leone, voted the lowest ranking on that specific development and global health indicator with one out of every 8 women dying in childbirth. Certainly something extremely important to raise people’s awareness about, but why not mention that the District of Columbia itself, the home of The Washington Post, has a shameful maternal mortality rate for being the capital of the United States? Furthermore, maternal mortality stats across the United States show that black women are three or four times more likely to die in childbirth than white women. But it's certainly easier to commentate on maternal mortality in an impoverished, poorly governed country in Africa.

No pictures for this post. I couldn't find any good ones. Don't even get me started on the Google image results you get if you search for "hungry American kid". I'll give you a hint, anyway. Google asked me, "Did you mean: angry white kid?" or "Did you mean: hungry African kid?"

Oy vey.