Celebrity Diplomats and Development

I found Dieter and Kumar’s article The Downside of Celebrity Diplomacy: The Neglected Complexity of Development extremely interesting. As technology and social media expands perception and public acceptance become increasingly important. When a celebrity tries to bring awareness to a cause such as Africa anyone working against them or saying donating money to them is not helpful would certainly receive a huge social media backlash. Though the points may be valid the perception to the general population is an obstacle we must overcome.

I can see why Dieter and Kumar claim celebrity diplomats may in fact be doing more harm than good. When trying to help Africa stand on its own without requiring a steady stream of foreign aid to survive the expression “Give a man a fish you feed him for a day, teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime” comes to mind. Simply providing donations will not resolve the problem where training, support, and awareness is needed. The problem is going against these well-known and liked celebrities is a very difficult task and social media is extremely powerful. Because it looks like these celebrities are doing “good deeds” and what is morally correct, no one stops to question them. No one questions where they are getting their information from or how educated/uneducated they are in development and underdeveloped countries in general.

Working to help Africa develop and providing awareness on areas that require assistance whether humanitarian, political or otherwise is important. However, rather than blindly following celebrity diplomats it is important to actually resolve the problems. Continuously providing the man with fish is not helping him in the long run, once you stop providing the fish he is just as lost as he was before you came along. Certainly, financial assistance will be needed in aiding Africa, however, merely providing supplies for them without actually helping to achieve development strategies will leave Africa in the same position it is in now. It is important to not only develop awareness for other states and areas that require assistance, but equally important to develop awareness in the best way to provide this assistance. If celebrities can provide this kind of awareness then maybe celebrity diplomats will accomplish what they are setting out to do.