Tolu Ogunlesi asks, Is Oxfam stuck on a planet that no longer exists?
Oxfam, the UK charity, recently released an updated version of the Book of Lamentations. Something about how “the relentless focus on ongoing problems at the expense of a more nuanced portrait of [Africa], is obscuring the progress that is being made towards a more secure and prosperous future.”... A distressed Oxfam has since gone ahead to launch its latest Africa campaign, in a desperate bid to shift the world’s attention from African Hunger, to African-Hunger-Backdropped-By-Stunning-African-Landscapes.More here
That’s, in a nutshell, the story.
It left me a tad puzzled. A w-t-f puzzlement. As in: is Oxfam for real?
Let’s even forget, for a moment, the unforgettable fact that Oxfam has probably done far more than any other organisation in propagating these images.
Let’s focus on something else that struck me about the story: the way blame is being placed squarely on the shoulders of The Images.