Am I a hypocrite?

[Yao]

So this is the deal:

Me and my uncle are middlemen in arranging investment funds and subsidies for projects in Africa.

I have the contacts over there, who present me their development plans which need funding. I present the plans to my uncle and his company, and they go search for investors and funds.
Whenever a money flow indeed occurs towards the project, the company my uncle works for gets payed for the mediation, and I get a cut as well.

In potential this is something I could do to make a decent living, but now I get people accusing me of ripping off the African people and being a hypocrite? Say what? So...I should either bust my balls for that continent without getting any money from it (so act as a volunteer, but then working normal hours), thus ending up in the gutter at some point.

Or...

Get myself a regular job, and donate my 5 euros a month to some fucking NGO which gets about 25% of all donations to the places where all of my money should be, and don't care for Africa at all.

I cannot believe this...so combining capitalism with humanism is bad, and practising sheer capitalism is good?? Man, the way I want to do it I'd be getting tonnes/millions into that continent, while making a small profit for myself (we're talking less than a percent here!!). I think I'd get more money into that continent in one year than most donating moralizing fucks in their whole lifetime. Not to mention an effective rate of over 50% of the fundings, possibly 80-90%...compared to those top-heavy NGO's pretending to be the last straw for development for African governments.

Shit I'm so angry right now... I feel like kicking some lefist do-gooders in the nuts.

[davetlv]

Re: Am I a hypocrite?

So the choices are you can make a small amount of money (percentage wise to what you bring in) or you can give a small donation and raise nothing. . . . interesting problem you have there. . . . . NOT!

If you think you can raise a decent amount of money for causes that need them you do, fuck what other people think. More and more charities today pay teams of fundraisers for them to raise the cash, this is no different.

Raise the money, spend your share on what ever the fuck you want and tell everyone else to mind their own fucking business.

No problem really!

[thesightless]

Re: Am I a hypocrite?

rule of thumb, if you can make money legally and enjoy what you do, then do it. dont feel badd, everyone is wins here.

[skahound]

Time is money Yao and this case is no exception. IMO it is hard for many to accept the hybrid captialist/humanist approach. Just because a company is not-for-profit doesn't mean that the CEO and executives are barely scraping by. You deserve to be compensated for your work. As you eluded to, it's for the betterment of their continent.

[Yao]

Re: Am I a hypocrite?

Thanks guys, I feel a helluvalot better now. Somehow peepz just always focus on [Africa+Making Money=Bad]. Crazy...

[shosh]

Re: Am I a hypocrite?

sounds like a win-win situation for both africa and you... i bet those people criticizing you are doing a hole lot of inserting thumbs in their asses...

[superdave]

Re: Am I a hypocrite?

Sounds like you know what to do and what is right. Ignore those mindless people who just criticize and don't think.

[skahound]

I would call you an asshole if you were making money from a tragedy. But, I'd like to tell these critics, "Welcome to the real world! You want to compete in the global economy? Then you have to be prepared to part with some money."

[shosh]

If any DJ really was in it for the love of the music, they would all play for free...

[Yao]

Re: Am I a hypocrite?

LOL...

One's gotta make a living tho, but if I can do that helping people out, I'd rather do it like that than simply make a living just for myself and helping a big company accumulate it's profits...

[rewing3]

Yao sounds like you know what to do. It is not wrong to make a little money and help people as well. You have to survive as well.

[FM]

as long as you aren't sending out letter saying your rich king uncle Zagadba died and left an estate worth $10million, then you're all set..

[face]

Re: Am I a hypocrite?

as the old saying goes, give the man a fish and he'll eat dinner that night. but teach the man how to fish...

what i'm saying is that ideally, these "contacts" in africa with development projects should learn how to sell their own ideas. the term "middleman" generally gets a bad rap, and is, more often than not, an unnecessary function.

in reality, however, the logistics of eliminating the middleman in your case present a significant issue. i see no moral dilemma in doing what you do. just make sure you're doing it for the right reasons.

[Yao]

Re: Am I a hypocrite?

Well I'm hoping to make a shitload of money....but not for me. If I can keep what I need to lead decent life, I'm happy. I have already been thinking ahead of setting up somekind of fund, from where I can privately help people out there set up their own businesses and provide an income and possibly even jobs for their family and friends.

I even already have a few people/projects on my list I want to help in the future, but I still have a damn long way to go before that will be happening though...

Fuck, i'd be glad to turn my DJ-ing into a profit generating acitvity if it allows me to execute those plans as well, though in that case it could only come to the benefit of a few people, instead of many, which would be the case if these subsidies/investment projects would take off.

I don't need a Ferrari, no villa, no private Jet. All I need is music, a roof and friends. And food of course. And maybe a pair of shoes to walk on.

[sammwalk]

Re: Am I a hypocrite?

If there's no payoff then there's no motivation. So you making money off of this business should be encouraged, because that's how economies start.

Think of it this way: if there was no profit in helping in some way, then that many less people would do it, and less aid would occur.

You're fine, man. Go for it!