Are we doomed to repeat every North-South development mistake globally like #SWEDOW?
It is maybe a bit unfair to single out one bad idea like donating used bras to ‘underprivileged women’ , an initiative from Malaysia that has been shared in my social networks. From a research and teaching perspective the short post about the campaign is, shall we say, interesting to read and includes a reference to ‘the late Nelson Mandela’ and a cringe-worthy quote that ‘the problem of (...), however complicated it may seem, is actually really simple’. My concern is that this will definitely not be the last well-intentioned project that originates in the global South and that is criticized extensively (just as another ‘charitable hero’ is challenged right now for very different reasons, though). As ‘South-South cooperation’ increases, the BRIC countries continue to grow and a bigger global middle class emerges in more countries the finger-pointing at your local church group’s shoe donation, North American college graduate gone social entrepreneur or European voluntourist gone to an