You’re not the only one losing your idealism over work. *sigh*

"Not superficial" sounds like agood thing to be. I think my training — in software design — makes me want to have a model for how things work (See the next item for more piffle on that subject). Here’s an example"

One of the other local volunteers works with an aid agency (one of those that looks different when seen from different perspectives: from the wealthy countries it offers opportunities for donors to sponsor disadvantaged children and receive personal exchange of letters with them, from the poor countries it seems to dissapate money vaguely within the communities in which those children live). She runs workshops and talks on HIV/AIDS, healthy living, etc. She was very pleased to hear the "youth" who attend these workshops (youth who seem not to belong to any useful category as some are old and have children of their own) asking for more. Only later did she discover that each one of them gets an allowance of 150 shillings (about a Pound, but remember we are in a location where many people live on less than a Dollar per day; mamas bring a bag of banannas from their gardens on market day and hawk them at 10 bob per bunch to passengers on busses) these guys generally don’t have transport costs and if they do it would come to about 40 bob max.

At first it looked like a kind of corruption: healthy handouts for simply attending a meeting. Clearly people like to come to those workshops and get money for nothing. And I mean nothing: there are many people in those meetings who don’t understand anything the leader says after "Good morning", they just don’t have enough English. But they sit there patiently, sign the attendance sheet and collect their "expenses". But this doesnt make sense. Its completely open. The management explain that it is completely necessary and proper to give that much: "The youth", they say, "Wouldn’t come otherwise".

Clearly the connotation is that its more important that they **come** than that they get anything from it. Seen from the point of view of the charity, they like to see statistics which say so many youth attended workshops in certain months. So, to make that happen, the sponsorship money is dissipated within the community in the form of expenses to grease the wheels.

My **theory** is that even though what that charity is trying to do in the area **is** genuinely worthwhile, that is not enough to convince the community to take part. Oh I’m sure they’d join in at first but, I believe, forces such as those I have described above come into play and people get bored and go back to doing nothing at all, even to help themselves.

This is a very big question.

What else is there?

Capitalism is a form of slavery, and economic growth relies on exploiting workers. Discuss…

"… a reward you get for solving a problem"

This kinda overlooks the issue that money only has any value at the point of transaction, but Its an interesting perspective on the issue of remuneration.

Even if we did not **expect** to get paid for working (for someone else’s benefit) we might still do so as part of an agreement. Theoretically every contract of employment should be such an agreement. Mutually agreed upon and reviewed from time to time to make sure it is still aggreeable to both parties. When we take a job with a remuneration package that we dont really like because we have no other choice — thinking of the two major classes of exploited workers that No Logo talks about here: sweatshop factory workers in EPZs and part-time shop staff in multinational retail outlets — we are being exploited. On the other hand, if we consider there is no other choice, then that contract is, in a way, acceptible.

But why should I have no other choice? Because the society in which I live is one in which there is an expectation of cashflow nad I need to be plugged into a cash-source in order to participate in that culture.

Coming here to Kenya has shown me that this need not be the case. Many Kenyans might hear of how much I earned monthly in my part-time job in Richmond before I volunteered, and be shocked by a) how wealthy I was and b) how stupid I was to come here and work on the salary of a Kenyan teacher. But its different. I required that job in order to sustain my desired lifestyle: living in Shepherd’s Bush and Swing Dancing 4+ times a week. The rent on that flat cleared most of my monthly salary in one go. Moving about london took a big chunk of the rest (riding a bike helped a bit but that already meant I was in some way opting-out of the society’s norms — **and yes, unlike George Bush, I can ride a bike!**). I can travel 70km to Nairobi for 80 shillings which is approximately 60p. How far can I get for that much on The Tube?