philanthropy culture: the beautiful monster
JULIUS OKOTH
The distribution of relief food, clothing, sanitary towels, disability aids, and temporary shelter to marginalized communities is on the rise in these abnormal times. This is commonly known as philanthropy. These gestures are noble, but an undesirable undertaking.
Close to 90 per cent of urban dwellers in Kenya live in poor, informal settlements and work in the informal economy—mostly self-employed—and are particularly vulnerable to social and economic shock since they are mostly not covered by social protection systems. They earn their livelihoods from low and irregular incomes, and are not adequately represented in local and national governance structures. These deficiencies have had devastating impacts on the lives and livelihoods of urban dwellers in Kenya living in the poor informal settlements, which have further worsened under the Covid-19 health pandemic.
As the pandemic hit hard upon vulnerable Kenyans, big business was flexing its Corporate Social Responsibilities (CSR) muscles for the world to see. These efforts took center stage deep in the heart of these informal settlements. But few understand how these philanthropic works weaken Kenyan communities.
Our communities have lost their vision for attaining basic economic and social rights. We are now behaving like a hunter who for hours has been chasing an antelope, but gets distracted by a dashing squirrel.
Studies show that frequent philanthropy work can lead to dependency syndrome. This serves as a threat to building peoples’ power on the right to demand for accountability. Philanthropy and charity models have also triggered the savior complex, thus disrupting the ongoing solidarity-based protracted struggles for economic and social rights by grassroots social movements.
Frequent philanthropy is not sustainable and does not build the economy. It instead weakens local social innovations, creativity, and energy to demand functional welfare systems from the government. A case study for how philanthropy can weaken social innovation and creativity can be witnessed among the baboons.
A frequent traveler in Kenya, travelling along Nairobi-Nakuru highway, noticed an increase in the number of baboons sitting idle along the highway all day at a place called Gilgil. These baboons had left their traditional way of life and survival in the wide, wild world. They had adopted a culture of sitting and waiting for passengers to drop biscuits, bananas, and any edible stuff. They had stopped hunting and looking for their own food—good food like meat that they used to get by working hard to catch small animals in the wild. These baboons had stopped searching and eating nutritious herbs and wild fruits from the bushes as omnivores do. They had in fact stopped working altogether. Dependency on human beings using the highway set in. They sat there the whole day taking chances, not sure if they would get food or not that day.
A closer look at these baboons reveals that they are physically weaker than baboons in their natural habitat because of the unnatural food they eat. They have no strength, nor survival techniques. How would they begin to search for fruits, safety, or security for their troop? Their survival is at the mercy of the highway traveler.
A community that pays tax frequently also bears the democratic right to demand that elected governments are accountable: not individuals or charitable organizations. What the oppressed people and working class in poor neighborhoods must know is that a philanthropist who feeds you controls you. He might even treat you like a chattel without rights and obligations: a thing to be treated and used or killed at the will of the master.
Photo by Rod Waddington
A community that depends on frequent philanthropy has no choice or bargaining power. It lives at the mercy of the philanthropists. It is time for communities to take decisive action in advance, to self-organize, mobilize, and revolt against philanthropists in their neighborhoods. It is time to stop these tax-evaders and dodgy multinational corporations distributing proceeds of crime and corruption in the name of CSRs.
CSRs play a significant role in fueling and perpetuating tax evasion, avoidance, and corruption. CSRs are the crumbs of philanthropy stolen from citizens’ taxes in the darkness of greed and abuse of power. Corporates practice CSR not because they are so compassionate or charitable, but to win exemption from various tax regimes and maintain the veneer of a “good” company. It is like giving or feeding a community using a tablespoon while stealing billions from the same community through taxation. CSR is not sustainable and does not build a nation, culture, or economy.
How the government utilizes our taxes should be a major concern to all. The Kenyan constitution grants citizens sovereign power, which may be exercised directly, or through representation. It is only through sustained mass mobilization that we will win against multinationals with reptile-like forked tongues.
A welfare system is not philanthropy. It is a right, while philanthropy is a favor. A welfare system is a right that any other citizen who frequently pays tax should demand. Everyone is a taxpayer, and everyone deserves to benefit from taxation. A welfare system caters for social protection for vulnerable groups: cash transfer to the elderly persons, orphans and vulnerable children, persons with severe disabilities, and even the unemployed.
Welfare systems should provide free and universal health coverage that guarantees quality and affordable health care, free and universal educational systems, and affordable and decent housing with sustainable clean water supplies. Our taxes more than pay for these.
Citizens have their own responsibilities, but the government has greater responsibility to step up to make sure a welfare system is efficient and sustainable. A government that encourages charity is most likely a corrupt government, hiding behind philanthropists and outsourcing its responsibilities to the charitable community. Corporates hide behind corporate social responsibilities in order to evade or avoid paying taxes. Where there is a lot of philanthropy, there is a high rate of corruption too. There is a thin line—and often no line at all—between corruption and philanthropy. The two have a symbiotic relationship.
Photo by Ian Macharia
