My previous post began to touch on the issues/paradoxes within charity.  It discusses the convoluted motivations and incentives behind giving to organizations like NPOS.  As i previously stated I have an education in Architecture and design.  This as lead me to be very passionate about this subject for i view it has the ultimate problem to solve.  That embodies issues ranging from social, cultural, economic, and environmental issues. So it is not a surprise that I am truly passionate about the issue of inequality and the selfless work that NPO’s and NGO’s do.

When I look at the picture above what I see is a pure and genuine happiness.  I also can not help but see conditions that from my perspective can seem for below a standard I have become accustom to.   This picture  can conjure a range of emotions with people.  Emotions that can possibly range from happiness due to the infectious nature of their smiles, to the guilt for their less than acceptable living conditions.  Recently I have slowly  been experiencing a a sense of envy, optimism and opportunity.

These emotions have caught me by surprise and are more than likely related to my own internal questions about true happiness and issues of materialism.  Now I when I say that I am experiencing emotions like envy and optimism I am not speaking from a minimalist ideology that promotes happiness through reduction.  The envy I have comes from, or at least what I believe it comes from, is their remarkable ability to produce some much happiness with so little.  In capitalist terms they have an incredible R.O.I(return on investment).  Meaning that i do not believe their happiness comes from having nothing but that they have found a way to either A. produce happiness from very little, or B. challenge or remove the correlation between happiness and typical objects associated with quality of life.

The second and third emotions of optimism and opportunity are linked to this envy.  In this image I see not only lessons but how we have allowed guilt and pity to drive our attempts of charity and help in the wrong directions.  As I mentioned in previously post I have growing issues with preconceived ideas of happiness and success embedded in me.  Along with these I have voiced my concern and acknowledgment that in order to address inequality we have to ask what we are willing to give up.  I feel that these ideas and questions may  be impossible for us to answer or address on our own.  For we have built a system that is governed by a different set of incentives.  This is not to say that they are wrong or that what we have is bad, but just that these incentives produce certain results and that wont change.

So in this image i see an opportunity to not only help but study.  I see a set of values and culture unique from our own.  I see an opportunity build off of this system being mindful and careful to not impact it or corrupt it.  I see an opportunity to learn from them in order to better our selves.  I see an opportunity to not make them like us.