International cooperation was created to help poor countries tackle urgent problems like child malnutrition, refugee crises and pandemics. A very powerful ecosystem of institutions arose, channelling funds and implementing programs throughout the least developed world for fighting hunger, stopping aids and other general humanitarian work.
The United Nations (UN), though originally intended for other reasons, has Branches entirely devoted to this, for example the Child’s Fund. There are also State Agencies like the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), GIZ (Germany’s Agency) and others. Today, this apparatus is devoting copious amounts of funds to advancing the radical feminist agenda and forcing poor countries to include gender indoctrination in programs related to other problems like hunger and health. For one nugget, just look at USAID’s1 and the UN’s2 so called “gender approach” websites, and the European Union’s approach is even worse.3
First a full disclosure, I used to work in this business but always had mixed feelings about it. On one hand I appreciate charity towards poor countries, as I was born in one and I personally always try to lend a helping hand to those less fortunate. On the other, professional charity and making money out of helping others is a deeply flawed and contradictory system.4
However, pushing forward feminist propaganda with such a level of aggression is a crime that is causing, and will cause much harm to countries like mine, because it channels much needed resources towards questionable ends instead of more urgent problems. Additionally, the official approach taken by Cooperation Agencies almost feels like a blackmail: if you want money for food you have to pass a law that will privilege women or give most of the funds to them or “educate” males to let them know how wrong they’ve being doing or find another way to empower women.
This cannot and shouldn’t go on. How would you feel if I went to your house and said “Well son. If you want to have that job that you so desperately need, you’re gonna have to teach your kid about all the good things that Princess Diana did for human race and how she was persecuted by male dogs.” Or something like that. That’s what the international cooperation system is doing with all the funds tied to empowering women.
Unfortunately for us poor fucks, because this is supposedly free money, we have no other choice but to accept these conditions if we want to keep on receiving the funds. I hope my country grows stronger in the future and we can kiss your cheeks goodbye, but meanwhile this situation is one more troubling sign of the age: Feminist propaganda being funded with public funds and forced upon the Southern countries. Hey, at least my taxes are not funding this…
Call me naïve, but shouldn’t international cooperation and charity be based on respect on both sides? If you happen to have the money, and you want to help those in need, that’s commendable. But don’t do it on the condition we do as you think right, let us decide what is right for us. Fortunately, some cooperation programs, like Microcredit, do follow that logic. Though still in those cases, they are mostly focused at women.
International cooperation should also be respectful of local culture. I’m writing from South America and I can assure you that Feminism isn’t part of our culture. It shouldn’t be introduced here by a foreign power. Moreover, International cooperation should go back to focus on urgent matters (remember hunger and disease) because resources are very scarce and acute problems are still plentiful. Every penny spent in teaching boys to behave in the new normal proper way, is a penny not invested in feeding malnourished children.
So, why is this happening? As I said earlier, this reflects the times we are living in. Radical feminism has become part of the mainstream promoted by media and subsidized by governments in some countries. I will not dwell further in this, because this website already has plenty of articles that elaborate on this subject. Instead is worth pointing that there are some sectors that have been almost entirely corrupted by the discourse that women are always victims of big bad men. Mainstream is probably the most notorious example; international cooperation and the nonprofit sector are examples as well. This is very worrisome, as these are sectors that have a strong influence over public opinion and governments in the US and, especially in the case of international cooperation for poor countries, abroad. There is no way we can let this roll.
References:
[1] https://www.usaid.gov/who-we-are/organization/bureaus/bureau-economic-growth-education-and-environment/office-gender
[2] https://www.unwomen.org/en/news/in-focus/women-and-the-sdgs/sdg-5-gender-equality
[3] https://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/sectors/human-rights-and-governance/gender_en
[4] You can check this book for more on the flaws of international cooperation: https://www.amazon.com/-/es/Graham-Hancock/dp/0871134691 or this other one https://www.amazon.com/-/es/Dead-Aid-Working-Better-Africa/dp/0374532125/ref=pd_vtp_14_2/141-0299663-8180150?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0374532125&pd_rd_r=981c8216-544b-4c69-97d1-0f26ab4ae869&pd_rd_w=IojaW&pd_rd_wg=mQcij&pf_rd_p=4c59963f-307a-4d53-b0f5-7922eec09cff&pf_rd_r=N8QXQ3B94TT6AZ3FTGJV&psc=1&refRID=N8QXQ3B94TT6AZ3FTGJV
