Travelers' Philanthropy Handbook - Center for Responsible Travel

dollar a day. But these statistics, while they stay for a while in my head, don’t enter my heart.What does engage me emotionally is that, right here and now, I’m in a village where I actuallysee someone who lives under a dollar a day. The abstraction called poverty suddenly takes ona human face. I hear that person, or members of the community, or the village chief, say,“Here’s what we need. Here’s what we would like to have.” They then ask, “Can you help us?”And I say, “Well, sure.”• Ethical Action = Good Intentions + Good ConsequencesThe question is whether my intention to help in this situation is enough for my transfer of funds,in response to a request for help, to be called ethical. That, in turn, raises the question of whatconstitutes ethical action. I’m going to define ethical action as requiring a combination of goodintentions and good consequences. This means that good intentions are a necessary but notsufficient condition for ethical action. The motive to act and the results of action have to bereasonably consistent with each other.We’re all familiar with the phrase, “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.” This phrasepoints out, wisely, that good intentions do not automatically translate into good outcomes andcan, in some cases, be counter-productive.Let me now suggest several ways in which good intentions might not produce desirableoutcomes, particularly for the indigenous recipients of travelers’ philanthropic activities.The first thing to note is a paradox: I as a traveler go out to places with a bias for the status quo,yet my very presence can be a factor undermining the status quo. I may want the natural statusquo: an unspoiled beach, a primeval rainforest, wild animals roaming the savannah freely. Iwant to travel abroad now because in a few years the beach will probably be littered with plasticbags and Coke bottles or swallowed up by rising seas. The tropical forest may be felled, itstrees sold to become timber for housing or cardboardpackaging. The wild animal herds may be seriouslydiminished as poachers take their toll and as open rangelandsshrink due to ever-growing human demand for alternative usesfor the land. I want to win the race against these undesirablesigns of “development” and get to enjoy what I consider an“unspoiled” natural environment.I may also want to preserve the cultural status quo. I want tosee indigenous people before they’ve become “corrupted” bytoo much contact with outsiders; before they’ve abandonedtraditional clothes they’ve woven themselves for khakis massmanufacturedin China and sun-glasses like the ones I wear;before they’ve abandoned traditional dances and musicalinstruments for American dances and electric guitars. Again, Iwant to travel now because in a few years the culture I value asbeing different, even exotic, may have come to look a whole lotmore like the American mall culture I left behind.Filming in rainforest, Costa Rica.Credit: CRESTBut if I’m traveling to see things which I find appealing and which haven’t changed - or which,probably incorrectly, I imagine haven’t changed - the paradox is that my very presence inanother culture is a major factor in altering it. I enjoy watching the local people; that’s onereason I’m here. But it also turns out that the local people are observing me, and perhaps with180