Bobby Shriver and William Easterly talk about (RED)
The blog Aid Watch has a thought-provoking post today from William Easterly, Professor of Economics at New York University and Co-Director of NYU’s Development Research Institute. In the past, Easterly has been critical about ONE’s sister organization (RED)–and of Western aid, more generally– so it might come as a surprise to some that he recently sat down for coffee with (RED)’s co-founder Bobby Shriver.
Below is an excerpt from Easterly’s account of the exchange:
Displaying exceptional cool in the face of this mockery, Bobby Shriver, the other co-founder of RED, met me for a coffee. He could have gone all angry and defensive and preachy about His Great Initiative (which others in his place have done). Instead, he asked for suggestions on how to improve RED.
In response to my suggestion that RED source more products from Africa, he pointed to the “From Africa To Africa” coffee from Starbucks and said they had apparently not done enough to advertise they were already doing that. He also said he was open to discussing it more. I think RED marketing to support self-help by African entrepreneurs to sell in the US would be brilliant. (I have to report that the RED coffee I tried was OK, but nowhere near the Tomoca Coffee I purchased in Ethiopia – the best coffee I have ever had but difficult to buy outside Ethiopia.)
I too tried to be open-minded. He understands the politics of advocacy much better than I do: “You’ve got to get them talking about the cause at the Pig Roast” (the typical fund-raising event for a congressional candidate). Let’s give Shriver and RED credit for raising awareness of AIDS in Africa, not to mention of African poverty in general (although I’m sticking to my argument that the Bono/RED approach has led to some paternalistic and misguided remedies to those problems.)
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January 30, 2010 at 9:13 pm
I really don’t know what to say about this “meeting of the minds” except kudos to Bobby Shriver for reaching out in this manner to those who historically have not been “on our side”. The fact that Easterly wrote this rather positive piece about his coffee break with Shriver indicates that there was some encouraging movement toward understanding between our two “sides”.
That is always welcomed & no one could do it better with Bill Easterly than Bobby Shriver. THANKS BOBBY. ~
ALWAYS FOREVER, ONE – debbie
March 9, 2010 at 9:07 am
This meeting shows that relationships open people up to discussions. If Bobby Shriver came to the meeting with a pompous attitude, there’s a good chance that William Easterly would have written off much of what had to be said about the RED product. William Easterly’s openness may simply be a relational response to Bobby Shriver’s humble attitude.
Many times it’s just not about the how brilliant the product is, but it is about relationships. People with good attitudes, who are able to uphold community above individuality, are the ones who are able to build stepping stones to fighting global poverty and evil.