Religion and Politics

The Voluntourist’s Dilemma

Jacob Kushner of The New York Times Magazine reports on the moral dilemmas facing voluntourists. “Unsatisfying as it may be, we ought to acknowledge the truth that we, as amateurs, often don’t have much to offer. Perhaps we ought to abandon the assumption that we, simply by being privileged enough to travel the world, are somehow qualified to help ease the world’s ills,” Kushner writes. “Because the mantra of ‘good intentions’ becomes unworthy when its eventuality can give a South African AIDS orphan an attachment disorder or put a Haitian mason out of work.”

Read at The New York Times Magazine

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