Thirst (Book Review)
After I watched a quite terrible promotional video from charity: water as well as ended upwards buying its founder as well as CEO’s biography Thirst. H5N1 Story of Redemption, Compassion, as well as a Mission toBring Clean Water to the World I was prepared for the worst.
But despite my extensive readings of assist worker biographies as well as a fairly critical approach towards ‘disruptive’ charitable ideas inwards evolution Thirst surprised me inwards some ways.
It is ane of the most, for lack of a ameliorate word, schizophrenic evolution tales I pick out read inwards a long time, the tale of a 21st century charity that fundraises millions as well as positively impacts the lives of millions-and a tale most a lot of things that are going incorrect inwards contemporary evolution whenever a white American human is looking for ‘redemption’ as well as needs to honour it inwards a hamlet inwards Africa.
Thirst is definitely a majority you lot should read, merely alongside a unlike educational trajectory inwards heed maybe than the author intended; rather than seeing Harrison’s journeying purely every bit a tale of ‘inspiration’ as well as background for donations to his charity, this is maybe a tale to heighten questions most how nosotros desire global evolution relationships to facial expression similar as well as what running a charity agency inwards the 21st century.
But despite my extensive readings of assist worker biographies as well as a fairly critical approach towards ‘disruptive’ charitable ideas inwards evolution Thirst surprised me inwards some ways.
It is ane of the most, for lack of a ameliorate word, schizophrenic evolution tales I pick out read inwards a long time, the tale of a 21st century charity that fundraises millions as well as positively impacts the lives of millions-and a tale most a lot of things that are going incorrect inwards contemporary evolution whenever a white American human is looking for ‘redemption’ as well as needs to honour it inwards a hamlet inwards Africa.
Thirst is definitely a majority you lot should read, merely alongside a unlike educational trajectory inwards heed maybe than the author intended; rather than seeing Harrison’s journeying purely every bit a tale of ‘inspiration’ as well as background for donations to his charity, this is maybe a tale to heighten questions most how nosotros desire global evolution relationships to facial expression similar as well as what running a charity agency inwards the 21st century.
The New York nightclub promoter who discovers a spiritual void inwards his life
There is no like shooting fish in a barrel way to tell this, merely afterwards struggling through the kickoff business office of the majority (the kickoff 75 pages) I was approximately giving up. The even of a New York City black gild promoter wanting to a greater extent than from his American life as well as discovering the ‘charity’ sector raised my blood pressure level as well as fright of how terrible his journeying may end.
Another rejection! My 3rd this week. Ever since coming home, I’d learned that volunteering wasn’t every bit like shooting fish in a barrel every bit it sounded.“No charity wants me,” I told my dad. “I guess promoting nightclubs isn’t high on the listing of skills they’re looking for.” (p.68)
In the end, Harrison is becoming a volunteer lensman as well as communication individual for Mercy Ships, a infirmary ship-focused charity that sails the seas of Africa to supply gratuitous surgeries, specializing on tumors as well as other facial ailments that oftentimes ostracize people as well as severely impede their wellness as well as well-being.
Harrison matures inwards his role, setting upwards fundraisers through his New York networks built during his nightclub promoting days.
There are a lot of people who similar a goodness even of personal transformation as well as helping kids inwards Africa as well as are happy to opened upwards their wallets for a goodness cause. That model of raising coin inwards the global North as well as passing it on to projects inwards Africa remains the backbone of Harrison’s work.
Such a model tin forcefulness out accomplish some peachy things, merely its limitations, peculiarly regarding the broader framework exterior a successful project, are never addressed.
There are a lot of people who similar a goodness even of personal transformation as well as helping kids inwards Africa as well as are happy to opened upwards their wallets for a goodness cause. That model of raising coin inwards the global North as well as passing it on to projects inwards Africa remains the backbone of Harrison’s work.
Such a model tin forcefulness out accomplish some peachy things, merely its limitations, peculiarly regarding the broader framework exterior a successful project, are never addressed.
And as well as thus he strikes, well, water…
We had no cash, merely enough of unloose energy as well as way likewise much confidence…It felt similar edifice a start-up…I was on a mission, alongside no bureaucracy or blessing procedure to tiresome me down…My even read similar a satire from The Onion…
The signs as well as handouts promised that 100 pct of every purchase would become toward edifice wells alongside our NGO partners inwards Uganda, Ethiopia, Malawi, as well as Central African Republic. (pp.144-152)
Setting upwards charity: water sure comprises some recognizable start-up elements, how it grows out of someone’s New York loft to a global operation, how personal, professional person as well as organizational identities are ever fluid, how surprisingly footling input at that topographic point is from experts who know the bailiwick as well as how fifty-fifty inwards this solar daytime as well as historic menstruum traditional relationships alongside ‘beneficiaries’ are maintained through sending coin from New York to the ‘field’ alongside footling overhead.
But this is also the business office that explains how charity: water did non plow into some other Kony2012 or Hollywood celebrity vanity project; this business office is non most orphanages, celebrity ambassadors as well as someone’s slightly regal dream of running a charity from their large theatre inwards Cape Town or Nairobi because they ‘fell inwards honey alongside Africa’.
The rising of charity: water goes manus inwards manus alongside the ‘disruption’ of the charitable sector.
Harrison’s production of ready clean H2O is likely what children were to UNICEF inwards the 1980s-it is an ingenious marketing tool that hits the nervus of the time.
From selling H2O bottles to establishing a platform for private fundraising campaigns to tapping into wealthy donors as well as re-telling the even of wells as well as ready clean H2O inwards a modern way is a source that keeps on giving. Just similar AirB’n’B ‘disrupted’ couch surfing as well as Uber revolutionized ‘taking a taxi’, charity: H2O is re-inventing the evolution trope of ‘building a good inwards an African village’.
The rising of charity: water goes manus inwards manus alongside the ‘disruption’ of the charitable sector.
Harrison’s production of ready clean H2O is likely what children were to UNICEF inwards the 1980s-it is an ingenious marketing tool that hits the nervus of the time.
From selling H2O bottles to establishing a platform for private fundraising campaigns to tapping into wealthy donors as well as re-telling the even of wells as well as ready clean H2O inwards a modern way is a source that keeps on giving. Just similar AirB’n’B ‘disrupted’ couch surfing as well as Uber revolutionized ‘taking a taxi’, charity: H2O is re-inventing the evolution trope of ‘building a good inwards an African village’.
I wanted to ready an optimistic, imaginative, hopeful organisation that people would donate to because they felt empowered as well as inspired-not because we’d guilted them into it. (p.161)
Like the pinkification of pectus cancer awareness, the commodification of mindfulness or the depoliticization of Oprah’s majority club, this mix of American ‘can-do-ism’, a goodness dose of ignoring learnings from the yesteryear as well as a theatre neoliberal outlook that avoids whatever tough political questions (I don’t holler back ‘climate change’ or whatever other create for dry out wells is mentioned inwards the book) are saltation to write a charitable success story!
Water is ever a source of life-never ane of conflict or power. Wells are non business office of broader civilian infrastructure, merely holes inwards the soil that at worst pose technical challenges.
And similar to Silicon Valley-invented platforms all of this tin forcefulness out hold out managed yesteryear a grouping of spiritual, dedicated Americans from an former printing warehouse inwards New York City.
And similar to Silicon Valley-invented platforms all of this tin forcefulness out hold out managed yesteryear a grouping of spiritual, dedicated Americans from an former printing warehouse inwards New York City.
A charity for the historic menstruum of platform- & philanthro-capitalism
Harrison admits that he ‘was terrible at managing people’ (p.166). His time to come married adult woman Vik ‘outworked all of us’ (p.184) when she starts every bit a volunteer as well as the squad ‘were hardworking novices who figured it out every bit nosotros went along’ (p.210). As the organisation grows as well as brings inwards double-digit 1000000 dollars of annual donations charity: H2O is professionalizing:
We needed someone alongside years of international NGO expertise-in other words, a bureaucrat, merely without all the baggage.
But non those people who
Having worked for top global NGOs, merely as well as thus they’d facial expression to clock out at five p.m. (p.260).
Charity: water does non cooperate alongside other NGOs or builds capacity inwards the countries they function in; they also produce non seem to attend evolution conferences or verbalise alongside academic H2O experts. I am non maxim they must, merely it is this schizophrenic nature of the organisation raising 43 1000000 dollars inwards 2014 (‘a duet of Twitter’s employees as well as investors had donated generously’ afterwards the IPO (p.279), edifice lots of wells, significantly increasing sustainability of these wells as well as all the same beingness a traditional outfit that sends coin to Africa.
At the cease of the majority at that topographic point is no like shooting fish in a barrel resolution.
Thirst is nutrient for thought, fantabulous to hash out alongside students or non-development experts to pick out a struggle most ‘charity’, most lessons learned from yesteryear decades of evolution as well as why charity: water is such a successful story-yet fails to actually reinvent development, solidarity as well as giving inwards the 21st century.
Thirst is nutrient for thought, fantabulous to hash out alongside students or non-development experts to pick out a struggle most ‘charity’, most lessons learned from yesteryear decades of evolution as well as why charity: water is such a successful story-yet fails to actually reinvent development, solidarity as well as giving inwards the 21st century.
I should likely give credit to co-writer Lisa Sweetingham as well as everybody from the editorial squad who turned Thirst into such a good, quick read that leaves me alongside inspiring stories of the mightiness of ready clean H2O as well as the frustrations most the ways development, disrupted or not, should hold out to a greater extent than political, transformative as well as inclusive maybe at the expense of slower increase as well as to a greater extent than reflection.
Harrison, Scott: Thirst: H5N1 Story of Redemption, Compassion, as well as a Mission to Bring Clean Water to the World. ISBN 978-1-5247-6284-1, 322pp, 22.95 USD, New York, NY: Currency, 2018.
Harrison, Scott: Thirst: H5N1 Story of Redemption, Compassion, as well as a Mission to Bring Clean Water to the World. ISBN 978-1-5247-6284-1, 322pp, 22.95 USD, New York, NY: Currency, 2018.
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