Oxfam fights poverty. Unless Israel wants to give jobs. In that case it fights for poverty.

 As written by Max Fisher of Washington Post, Oxfam says it is against poverty in Palestine. Except when that poverty alleviation is created by an Israeli company which builds a factory that pays Palestinians far above Palestinian wages to lift them out of poverty...

Scarlett Johansson, associated with both, picked the ones providing jobs and thus poverty relief over those who want to boycott those who provide jobs because "bridge to peace between Israel and Palestine, supporting neighbors working alongside each other, receiving equal pay, equal benefits and equal rights." 

 This is a case of how NGO's are often less about help and more about politics. This may not go over well for Johansson because people prefer to keep poor Palestinians. People do not care that Palestinians are semi-autonomous, that they are living under a dictatorship. They don't care that the Abbas, the prime minister elected to a four year term has been in power for eleven.

 Why? Because poverty in Palestine legitimizes criticism of Israel, and those who criticize Israel use Palestinians as a pretext, not because they care for their lives, otherwise they would support Israel investing and providing jobs to Palestinians instead of supporting poverty created by corruption and dictatorship.

Luckily NPR has a much better coverage of the non-issue made into an issue than some Washington Post bloggers who avoid delving into issues under the cover of "complicated".

Free Palestine! In Jordan.

 Palestinian Flag   Jordanian Flag

Number of Palestinians in Jordan: 3,000,000 (50%)
Number of Palestinians in West Bank: 2,700,000

Size of Jordan: 89,000sqkm
Size of Israel: 20,000 sq km
Size of West Bank: 5,000 sq km

% of West Bank Palestinians with a Jordanian Passport: 100%

Funny how no one wants Palestinians of Jordan to have their country and Palestinians didn't care for their country before Israel won West Bank from Jordan.

Also, interesting how the Wiki Article mentions nothing of the number of Palestinians living in Jordan.

America You're Funny: Wealth Addiction

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/19/opinion/sunday/for-the-love-of-money.html?_r=3

Here's a trader who seeks to end something that America will never deal with, wealth addiction. For America to deal with this is like for a parasite to deal with host killing addiction. It's just the nature of the beast! And yet, sad as it is, it does so much harm to those who are fortunate enough to be affected. If I could be stricken with any addiction, I'm sure I speak for many when I say this: wealth addiction is the addiction I wish I had. 

looking for the one

I used to search for a good looking woman that was like me. Then she came along and made me realize that what I should have been doing was looking for was a good woman that like me.

America, You're Funny: Why Locals Fail After American Non-Profits Leave

    It is a constant occurrence in the developing world, a non-profit comes in and creates some kind of service: food, medicine, education or building homes. They find locals who are passionate and strong willed. They train these locals in all the basics and advanced techniques of running day to day administration and running the organization. They show them how to find human resources and where and how to spend their limited resources. Everything seems set for them to leave. And yet, a year later... the non-profit falters and falls. 

What happened everyone keeps asking? Money happened.

I briefly went on a trip to Argentina sponsored by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Agency to see their work there. JDC is a non-profit started by American Jewish community during World War I which has worked in over 180 countries. They developed medical, job help and education centers all over the world. They helped Haiti after the earthquake, Ethiopia after the famines and Argentina after their financial crisis. Amazing work helping those who are most in need. The best part of their sale is that they come in, work with local organizations and leave after they feel that things are no longer in crisis mode. This year they are departing Ethiopia and Argentina and both countries in spite of all their work, seem to be seriously grappling with the question, what will they do once JDC leaves. In spite of their help to build up local organizations, childcare centers are closing, schools are hammered shut and medical centers will be sitting empty. Because as each case it is not about what happens when JDC personnel leaves, but what will they do once JDC money leaves?

Money, that was the key component that lead me to the epiphany. Most non-profits do little to teach the most important and the most difficult part of the puzzle of the non-profit social good puzzle. The money they spend on projects comes from American donors. To my knowledge they rarely go into the country and find the local donors to create a local base to get donations. They do not school the workers in fundraising, marketing and management. They do not wine and dine local politicians and businessmen and tug on the heartstrings of their wives the way they do at galas in United States. These efforts and events are unseen by the staff on the ground. So once they leave, the non-profits which are well versed in how to run an organization, have no training and no access to the money that the large American administration brought in.

My guess is that the reason lies in the fact that the arm which is on the ground, does not deal with fundraising arm that is doing the work in United States, just spending. So they have no idea how to get money to continue the work and so they cannot train or retain local help.

This is not just that way with JDC. I saw the same thing with Engineers Without Borders. They would find projects in developing countries, find local engineers to work with but fund everything with the money they raised in the states. Sure those countries are poor but I've seen flat screen TVs and laptops there, as well as posh malls. I'm sure the work they do can be financed by the local middle class, if we just taught the locals to fund-raise the way we have learned to here in the states.

This is why American Non-Profits, you're funny. Because if we as Americans truly want to come in to these countries and develop their ability to help themselves and not just  make it about us feeling better about being better off, then we cannot leave out the money part of the non-proffit puzzle.