REUTERS AND ALI JAREKJI
Wanting to make the world a better place is indeed a noble ambition. One way to do this is through voluntourism — paying for the opportunity to donate your mind, time and labour to a good cause, and, good grief, there are enough of them out there needing your help. Importantly, though, genuine voluntourism should not just be an altruistic short-term burst of energy to make you feel good about yourself. If you really want to “be the change” as Mahatma Gandhi put it, your efforts need to be sustained in some way. Also, you need to choose carefully. It might be a niche market, but it is a big, rapidly growing niche worth some US$2.8 billion a year. And when there is that much money in the kitty, there are as many charlatans as there are worthies competing for it.
One of the large images greeting people entering the arrivals hall at Johannesburg’s OR Tambo International Airport has been of a family playing with lion cubs. Innocuous enough it would seem, inviting even, but hopefully by the time you read this column, the panel will have been removed and replaced as the airport administrators have agreed to do.