Comments on: Diversion/rant: T-shirts, child trafficking, and how to lose friends & alienate people

By: When the posts just aren’t flowing « Afro Geek Chic

When the posts just aren’t flowing « Afro Geek Chic — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 21:53:05 +0000

[...] Twas all heading towards resolution, till he found himself somehow seeming to advocate child trafficking. You can see how it started here from Project Diaspora (be sure to read the comments). Their downward slope towards child trafficking unfortunately has been removed from the www (imagine, you can delete wesbites!), but you can read the best response to it (IMHO) here from Michael Keizer. [...]

By: Good Intentions Are Not Enough » Blog Archive » Lessons Not Learned: The 1millionshirts guys are at it again

Wed, 30 Jun 2010 01:26:30 +0000

[...] Diversion/rant: T-shirts, child trafficking, and how to lose friends & alienate people – A Humourless Lot [...]

By: Michael Keizer

Michael Keizer — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 02:42:33 +0000

Thanks, Peter, it looks like 1 million shirts have requested Google to take it down. I have now linked to the Yahoo cache, which still has it.

Jason et al: it is, of course, within your rights to ask the search engines to remove the caches. However, I would ask you not to because these incidents are important learning moments and should not disappear into the great bit heaven. Also, it will not help you at all: several people have now secured the cached version by downloading it as well as making screen captures, and I will not hesitate to post the relevant parts to the blog as fair use if you would take the yahoo cache down as well. Thanks.

By: Peter

Peter — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 02:05:48 +0000

Michael,

The cache link to the original post no longer works.

By: N

Mon, 31 May 2010 18:10:37 +0000

Your comment “It’s hard to hear a story in person, one as gripping as we heard, and not want to share it and help,” shows how new you are to the aid and international development world. It shows that you haven’t learned to put these stories in to context. More importantly, it shows that you haven’t learned to master your own ego in thinking that you know HOW or even WHETHER to respond.

You say “I thought sharing the story with an audience that never would have the opportunity to hear about these things would be helpful in some way, it’s not.” I’m sure that’s the same logic that my mom follows when she forwards the latest e-mail warning that canola oil causes cancer or crayons contain asbestos. There isn’t a snopes.com for international aid, but as you’ve discovered, there’s a network of expert bloggers who perform effectively the same service.

By: Michael Keizer

Michael Keizer — Thu, 27 May 2010 22:17:52 +0000

Allow me to be a bit sceptical, Jason. I think that your track record implies that we cannot take your assurances at immediate face value. I hope you will prove me wrong.

By: Tweets that mention Diversion/rant: T-shirts, child trafficking, and how to lose friends & alienate people - A Humourless Lot -- Topsy.com

Thu, 27 May 2010 19:37:09 +0000

[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Alun McDonald, TMS Ruge, Wronging Rights, Michael Keizer, Michael Keizer and others. Michael Keizer said: @Civoknu Well, here it is, in all it's 'glory': http://bit.ly/cwQ8Pf [...]

By: Jason Sadler

Jason Sadler — Thu, 27 May 2010 17:07:44 +0000

You are right Joe. We have too many people coming at us and should be focusing way better. I am going to talk with Teddy and Mirame. They have offered advice and I need to lean on them instead of my emotions or own uneducated thoughts.

I need to learn my place in the non-profit world and stop trying to do everything. If we have a good cause I can promote, that’s what I need to do.

By: joe

joe — Thu, 27 May 2010 15:15:16 +0000

Which are what, exactly, Jason? Seems like you change your goals/missions every other day.

By: Jason Sadler

Jason Sadler — Thu, 27 May 2010 14:18:35 +0000

The post should not have been written, research should have been done and I honestly feel foolish for it now in looking back. It’s hard to hear a story in person, one as gripping as we heard, and not want to share it and help. That’s where I came from and realize my emotions took over any thought process. I thought sharing the story with an audience that never would have the opportunity to hear about these things would be helpful in some way, it’s not.

This isn’t about us and posts like the human trafficking one won’t happen again. We need to stay focused on collecting shirts, I need to gather all my information about a village in Uganda (Masese) that we’re focusing on and tell that story.

Someone left a comment on our blog post that was well put. Because of the reach of 1MillionShirts people are going to come out of the woodwork looking for help. We need to direct them to the right and more intelligent/experienced people and focus on our goals/missions.