From the American People - Philanthropic Colonialism

When composing my blog proposal, I did not anticipate the influence and presence American institutes would have on our trip and on our perception of tourist attractions in Jordan. It is difficult to give an unbiased and - most importantly – factual evaluation of what we heard from either the ACOR (American Center of Oriental Research) for or the USAID (US Agency for International Development) representatives. My focus will be on the USAID efforts, as the ACOR is mainly engaged in research, while the USAID is also involved in economical and political concerns. I do believe that in a world in which we are united we have the responsibility to provide help to those in need, the USAID however – next to many good and helpful initiatives worldwide – makes the impression of having the colonialist assumption that Endesor (2009) called “cultural backwardness”. The words Ibrahim Osta (Chief of Party to USAID’s Economic Growth through Sustainable Tourism Project) used did strongly indicate that the motivation in Jordan’s USAID department does not stem from a sense of responsibility to help but rather from what philanthropist Peter Buffet calls philanthropic colonialism. According to him philanthropic colonialism is “barging in as outsiders and forcing their solutions on other people’s problems”. Osta reporting that they changed the ticketing system in Petra “because we know a better approach” fits to the ideas of Buffet and Endesor. Tammy R. Williams says that in neo-colonialism the economic freedom countries normally enjoy does not exist and foreign actors take over the decision-making. Additionally Osta said that they are providing trained professors that are supposed to “teach them a more modern way of teaching”. Especially knowing about the conflict and the interest the US in particular has in that region the Good Samaritan image of the USAID in Jordan seems highly questionable.
LLM

http://news.usc.edu/30622/buffetts-share-thoughts-on-philanthropy/
Williams, T. (2012). Tourism as a Neo-colonial Phenomenon: Examining the Works of Pattullo & Mullings.

USAID presentation from Ibrahim Osta
From the American People.