Date: Sun, 18 Feb 2001 21:59:35 -0500
Subject: Re: World Vision/CCF etc


Hi rebecca,

I presented a paper on World Vision Canada and am in the process of reworking it
for a special issue of the journal Peace and Change, and hope it will be
accepted.
One of my research interests is critiquing the myth of Canadian benevolence.
Email me back and i'll write more about my thoughts on World Vision Canada and
can send my paper if you want.
Off-hand:
A) they don't actually sponsor children - purely a marketing ploy (and the
person in charge of their television spots told me so...)
B) key on images/ideas that Canadians can identify with and present these as
normative - ie: house, notion of family, the importance of western style
education - regardless of how inappropriate such concepts may be in countries
with vastly different cultures, economies, climates.
C) dehistorize poverty - as if it is a natural phenomenon - quite literally, the
presentation of poverty in Ethiopia (including the the 1984 famine) ignores the
war there. By dehistorizing poverty in the third world, hide fact taht to some
extent Canadian affluence is dependent upon the exploitation/poverty of "others"

My main concern is with how World Vision Canada uses colonial-like discourse to
create an image of the "Canadian" and so the fact that the idea of the good
Canadian needs an impoverished, "hopeless" (here I am quoting from the TV spots)
other.

David

Rebecca Fenton wrote:

> Hi,
>
> Does anyone have anything to say about the neocolonialism of World Vision,
> Christian Childrens Fund and other relief agencies?  Or can you direct me to
> any websites?
>
> Just inquiring - it's a personal interest more than scholarly research.
>
> Rebecca
>
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