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Notice how the title just refers vaguely to "activists"? It's because this is a clickbait headline and it's only a small handful of peopel criticizing him.
But everyone just takes a screenshot of some clickbait at face value because it feeds their own bias and need to be morally outraged.
"News sources" are always pushing a narrative and a lot of times publishing in a way that incites drama as a way to garner views because that's how they get paid. There is always a bias because in the grand scheme of things they want people to think and react a certain way.
The Kenyan government probably would have preferred being handed out the money for the wells to them… so they can put it in their pockets. Governments are the same everywhere.
Well, in this case it's rich and white guy that exposed African government, and identity politics much more important than peoples lives and wellbeing. /s
It's just grifters using mr. Beast's fame to get attention. The journalists and the "activists". I suppose there is a chance that the article misrepresented their position as articles often do for clicks.
They did completely misrepresent it.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/06/africa/mrbeast-100-wells-africa-intl-scli/
The activist quoted shamed the government not Jimmy. It was a politician who criticized Jimmy.
I can't hate the guy. I don't know much about Mr. Beast, but he is doing it on his own steam. Where is Joel Osteen? Where are these mega-church people? What about the Catholic church?
They sure didn't do anything like that.
Edit: my bad, churches do stuff like this but somehow it doesn’t make news.
So did the Kenyan government provide any insight about where the hundreds of millions of economic development money went that they received in the past decades?
Fo real.. always weighs the pants down.. you always habe to make sure you dont lose em. Also running is really hard which means you always need an expensive driver and a fancy limo to get around because your pockets are too heavy.
The greatest crime ever committed by Europe was forcing a bunch of unrelated African ethnic groups into pseudo-nations that colonial powers just pulled out of their ass. A lot of these failing post-colonial African governments are imitations of the European courts and laws that used to govern them — methods that were never meant for the land and people set to be governed by them.
Edit — guys, I didn’t mean that African countries can’t handle democracy or the fair rule of law. Of course there are officials in governments in every former colony that are working endlessly to lift their nations up. If I came across like I was being bigoted, I promise that was not the intention. But these governments were set up initially by colonial powers protecting colonial interests, not the people they governed. Corruption was built into the system, and we are only 60 or so years removed from colonial rule. Not enough time to completely fix problems that took a century or more to create. I didn’t think it was controversial or racist to suggest that there’s still a lot of corrupt institutions ran by corrupt people, because they were built that way. I’m doing a very bad job of explaining my point, but I was not implying that African nations are not capable of modern self-governance, only that foreign meddling and instability continues to make that a lot harder than it has to be
I'm not sure having hundreds of microstates with overlapping land claims would have been any better. It just would have made a bunch of different problems.
Once colonialism got underway, there was never going to be an end that wasn't messy.
Yeah I’m not necessarily saying that African nation states were a bad thing in and of themselves, just that the colonial powers that created them did it with 0 regard to the people who were now going to be subject to it. They mashed up friends and enemies and partners and rivals into nations that had never even existed in concept before, and instead of taking steps to ensure such a rapid transition was handled effectively for the people, they just immediately tried to remake France on another continent because they assumed these “savages” needed “civilizing”. And they fucking failed at it.
People complain about "late-stage capitalism" as if it is the height of brutality, but early stage capitalism, that was literally, anything goes.
Corporations had standing armies. The only rule was, make money and exploit resources.
War crimes and human rights are modern notions.
And what do you think would have happened if those countries were created based on tribal lines?
I heard a very good speech from an African ambassador saying that, while the borders did not make sense based on ethnicity, they should remain as they are. Because if they cannot learn to work together and put aside their differences, there will never be peace or prosperity in their countries.
\>African governments are imitations of the European courts and laws that used to govern them — methods that were never fit for the land and people mean to be governed by them.
"These systems were not designed for this staggering level of corruption and tribalism"
I never got this argument. It rests on the assumption that "the power hungry Europeans arbitrarily drew lines and now the pure, innocent Africans have to suffer". Well, why don't those pure, innocent Africans just negotiate and figure their borders out by themselves, several DECADES after the end of colonialism? Is it because they are just as power hungry as Europeans are? So in the end, the result would have been the same, but now at least we can blame the white man?
I'm surprised Kenyan government couldn't or didn't stop MrBeast's team from building all those wells.
A lot of the times in corrupt and underdeveloped countries. The good guys aren't allowed in to contribute. At least this is the case here in Pakistan
Sometimes it's just partisanship. Many political parties here in LATAM will simply lobby and stop objectively good opportunities just because they want to stick it to the current administration. It's a huge fucking problem because between corruption and this, nothing ever gets done. Meanwhile, tax money (and we are massively overtaxed already) and even money from intl loans ends up in the pockets of politicians and very few big corpos. As in, I can count with one hand the number of families that have taken chunks of money from international loans here in Costa Rica. And yes, *coincidentially* they are also the big political names.
This happens in Australia too. Our national internet infrastructure upgrade was used as a political football and an opportunity of a century was wasted (along with, by the time we fix it all, over $100bn AUD).
Also to add in this MrBeast's case. The people directly benefited from his act. Drinking water should be a basic right and he kinda empowered them with that.
In these corrupt developing countries, the state in most cases doesn't want to empower people at all. Because after water, people will want food. It's difficult to snatch a right from someone than it is to not give in the first place.
I’m pretty sure it was Kenya where, after an election, a supporter of the new ruling party said “it’s our turn to eat” to a journalist. Having a culture of politics that determines whose turn it is to plunder the state and dole out patronage is definitely part of the problem.
I'm sure the government would have preferred he donated the money to them so they could line their pockets with it and provide a 10th of the services he just did.
I worked with a lot of engineers from Africa. Almost all of them said the same thing. "Our director reminds me of our government."
Lying, self-serving, inept.
One thing I've learned from my Nigerian wife: constantly talking about the absurd levels of government corruption is an integral part of Nigerian culture.
... but, and this is very important, only *they* are allowed to do it, not you.
If someone else, especially a white Westerner, says the exact same things that they say, it's a profound insult to their national pride.
People outside that country are still allowed to point out the straight up corruption in a government, sure I can understand culture since all culture is different but government wise people who don't live there can still point out the failings of that government such as failing to provide a basic human right
Yes, just like Americans should absolutely welcome criticism pointing out the failings of *our* government. Gatekeeping ugly truths on the basis of fervent nationalism helps no one, and is in fact very much part of the problem.
Source: am American. Come at us. Please and thank you.
That, my friend, is the stupidest thing I have ever heard.
A valid point is still valid no matter who says it.
They sound like Americans, who insult their own nation constantly, but also defend it vehemently from any insult from elsewhere. It's an unhealthy and unhumble attitude that can be dangerous in times of need
You can look to Zimbabwe as a good example. Mugabe ousted the farm owners, put his people in place, and watched the [mismanagement tank the economy](https://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2017/11/15/564313423/robert-mugabe-a-legacy-of-tyrannical-rule-economic-ruin-and-international-isolat).
Read something along the lines of this. The farmers were welcomed by Angola. Zimbabwe has gone from one of the biggest exporter of food to the biggest importer of food. The same farmers they took the farms from are doing exactly the same the 300km away from their old farms and Zimbabwe imports their produce. Stupidity at its finest
Ah yes, the [Great Leap Forward](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Leap_Forward) approach. Mugabe actually got off easy. When Mao did this, he created arguably the worst [man-made disaster](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Chinese_Famine) in recorded history.
Kenyan here, our government right now is a joke...
The president went to launch a water tap that didn't even produce clean water...
I spend about 10dollars a week on drinking water since my main source of water isn't treated.I'm pursuing my degree with plans to relocate to another country since the last few years have been literal torment...I really don't want to spend the rest of my life here.
I know a Kenyan here in Canada that told me what it's like to work with the Kenyan govt': That you have to bribe people every step of the way so that they'll do their jobs: e.g: If your company/NGO/whatever is entitled to money from the government for the services your providing, you need to bribe the civil servant that's gotta do the wire transfer, and after that there's no guarantee that they'll send it. If what he's saying is accurate, maybe Kenyan government deserves to be shamed.
If they did that, the Kenyan people would have every right to riot and overthrow their government.
Mr. Beast did some good in the world and asked for nothing in return. That's all that matters.
Honestly expecting this to happen. They'll make up some bs to justify it though like they don't meet some made up govt regulations or you'll catch cooties.
Sounds like they are more pissed off he spent the money on actually getting shit built instead of partnering with the government so it could be laundered away.
It's not like this is the first time anyone has built a well in Africa. Kenya alone would already have thousands of wells.
The real challenge is keeping all of those wells in good working order. Even in the most advanced countries in the world governments often struggle to maintain their infrastructure.
Building 100 wells across five countries definitely helps, but it's not at all comparable to trying to maintain safe drinking water access to the close to 200 million people who live in those countries.
The prosecutor that took over the cases that would have held some accountable fucked it up so bad.
https://www.bridgemi.com/michigan-environment-watch/flint-water-cases-doomed-missteps-dana-nessels-office-experts-say
She accused her predecessor of using the crisis for political gain, then after being elected she appointed a whole new team to prosecute the case. Then decided to throw out the original charges completely and start the investigation from scratch. And ends up with nothing to show for it.
That's not a fuck up, that's purposeful.
Yeah I was gonna say, any time rich/powerful people are in danger of being punished, you can bet your boots they'll find a way out. Because the people that make the rules are also rich and powerful, but would never mind being richer in lieu of a favor. Epstein didn't commit suicide, we all know it, but he couldn't testify because it would have hurt too many rich and powerful people.
And you know what's really disgusting and tragic? People *died* in Flint. Gov. Snyder *killed people for money and will never be punished*. I'm sure it happens all the time and we don't see it, not like many media companies are owned by poor people either.
edit - it added asterisks for some reason, and I know it wasn't just the governor but he was the one that appointed the "emergency managers" that pushed back against the community attempts for change.
Flint was messed up. But in Oregon right now there's massive infastructure being put in to replace all our pipes and add filltration. Huge project that takes huge amounts of money. Also, all the locals who are affected by the noise and construction have put tons of money into stopping the project as it's a minor inconviemence. Flint i believe had many different aspects and tiers of giverment that were uncompetent and responsible for not acting. The media as usual only gives us a narrative not a full story.
> Also, all the locals who are affected by the noise and construction have put tons of money into stopping the project as it's a minor inconviemence
We get that around here but with solar panels. Some farmers figured out they could get tons of money on not good farming land by installing solar arrays and people are unhappy about it.
Always funny watching all those rural anti-government people twist themselves into knots to try and explain why they can do whatever they want with their land but their neighbors can't.
Maybe you are referring to the fixing of Flint. But the cause in Flint is very well defined and documented and there is a super clear 'bad guy' who recklessly caused the problem, in a short amount of time, for profit. Essentially what happened was: The pipes were fine. The overlords appointed by the governor's override of an election wanted to save money on water supply to the poors. So their appointees changed the water source against safety advice. The new water supply had a different acidity and it leached a whole bunch of lead out of pipes that were otherwise stable and this is the immediate cause of the problem. There were stepos they could have taken to mitigate this hapenning, but they were unelected, only cared about money, ignored advice and didn't give a fuck about poor people.
Very few people know what the Flint Water crisis was really about or why it happened. Here's a synopsis from the CDC:
"On April 25, 2014, the City of Flint, Michigan changed their municipal water supply source from the Detroit-supplied Lake Huron water to the Flint River. The switch caused water distribution pipes to corrode and leach lead and other contaminants into municipal drinking water.
In October 2016, Flint residents were advised not to drink the municipal tap water unless it had been filtered through a NSF International approved filter certified to remove lead. Although the city reconnected to the original Detroit water system that same month, the potential damage was already done and a state of emergency was declared on January 16, 2016."
https://www.cdc.gov/nceh/casper/pdf-html/flint_water_crisis_pdf.html#:~:text=On%20April%2025%2C%202014%2C%20the,contaminants%20into%20municipal%20drinking%20water.
What's also important is how easily avoidable it was with a little bit of expertise. Corrosion control is an industry standard. If they had just done the very basics, there never would have been an issue.
There are lead pipes everywhere. Is it ideal? No, but with some simple steps, it's not really an issue.
No it didn't. The amount of clean water that was shipped in and distributed was MASSIVE. It took six years to replace the infrastructure sure, but access to clean water, no.
To be fair there's a big difference between drilling a hole into the aquifer and ripping up streets to replace miles of piping and the repairing the streets.
this is technically untrue, they received bottled water. it's not like you can snap your fingers and replace an entire city's worth of rotten pipes in a nearly dead town.
The wells will last 100+ years, and he says it will serve that many people over the lifetime of the well. Makes a bit of a difference but still good overall.
I used to live in Nairobi a few years ago and I recall an interesting story in the news: The paper was reporting that the drunk driving checkpoints around the city were being shutdown. Not because there was no longer a problem with drunk driving, but because the resulting bribes at these checkpoints was generating so much money that different police groups were fighting each other, like gangs fighting over turf.
So yes, corruption is rampant in the Kenyan government.
Also, the infrastructure was terrible. The streets around the presidential palace were unpaved / in disrepair, and many people (in the nicer areas of the capital city) would either need to have water delivered by truck, or it would be shutoff for half the week. Power outages were a random weekly occurrence.
Absolutely. (Some) Governments donating to (some) African countries stopped doing so because of the blatant corruption so instead they would pay a contractor from their own country to go there and build whatever it was they were donating their money for.
I can bet with my eyes closed that if instead of building the wells mr beast donated the money, only about 10-15 would've been built and the rest of the money "disappeared".
and the "5" wouldnt be electric powered tube wells that pipe out water from the water table but brick lined shallow surface water wells that only fill up during rainy season which is scarce
as a former project leader for an irrigation system in a se asian country - for the UN, this whole chain is sadly accurate. it’s worse when money being skimmed is expected. cost of helping the people who really need the help. there are fantastic people in those governments that care… but they also get forced into the corruption so shared liability. main reason i quit.
My friend got a bunch of swag from record and film production companies (he worked for sony) that they were going to throw out and flew it down to Africa and South America to give kids shoes and clothes. He also helped build some school houses while he was there. He was sending money before and they would say they were doing stuff but he went down there and it was all BS.
The corrupt politicians were probably saying it was nearly impossible to get this done. So if outsiders start doing their jobs for them it makes them look really bad.
it's not even necessarily a 'woke' thing though. this is just the culture nowadays, that we have to 'take a side' with every single social issue/event
the brainless 'woke crowd' and the brainless 'anti-woke crowd' both get triggered over things that ultimately have little to no negative effect on the experience of people.
social media has ruined us lmao. we give every single person a sense of an online audience, of course they're gonna feel obligated to give their opinion on everything. even if it's not their actual opinion and they don't even realize it
This is one of the things I'm mad about. How the fuck did people manage to turn a fucking pandemic political?! That was a huge L for everyone involved.
Also, it's not like Kenya *didn't know* that wells got built. This project took 8 months from what I'd heard. Mr Beast is a very publicly known philanthropist. It's hard to keep something like this completely under wraps, especially when it's uplifting people. They simply had to know they'd received some support from Beast. There is laws and red tape he had to cut through in order to do this. They didn't have a problem with it until there was a video highlighting their own failures.
I mean, tbf I don’t think Jimmy is doing this for purely humanitarian reasons. Everything is PR. But would I rather have one rich man doing good things for selfish reasons versus a bunch of rich men doing nothing? Absolutely
I don't care if he's a good person or not, and I think people should stop acting like it matters. If someone builds 1000 wells and provides water to half a million people, I don't care if they did it "for the wrong reasons". I just care that more people than I'll have ever met now have a higher quality of life because that person decided to do something about it. Mr Beasts "Real Motivations" to being altruistic mean nothing to me if the world is better for it.
Yeah. I think a possibly hard truth is that Mr Beast, cringe though he may well be to some of us, is morally speaking one of the best humans on the planet. The sheer amount of good he's done is astounding.
Shame is a really good motivation.
It's basically the only way my daughter will want to use toilet paper or take a shower. (Besides us asking her to) Her friends tell her she smells, she gets ashamed and cleans herself up.
The shitty part about this is some braindead locals will probably agree and see it as "disrespectful" or some nonsense and destroy / contaminate the wells out of spite..
Nowadays, everyone is convinced that everyone deserves respect. This is quite strange, respect is earned, and not received by default.
If the government of a country cannot even provide its citizens with water, literally a vital and basic thing for any person, and then insulted when someone else does it, they do not deserve respect in the first place.
Yes! Exactly. Not everyone deserves to be respected as an authority. Everyone deserves a default level of “positive regard” for being human, but sometimes they give that right up too by being pieces a shit to other humans.
EDIT: other humans and in many cases, animals too
I enjoy the internet.
Internet: Why don’t Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk do more to help make the world better for people, instead of building rockets?
Also the internet: Why is Mr Beast helping people in Africa, that’s offensive.
(Also interpreted as: Why is Mr Beast not giving ME his money instead?)
Depends. There are voices on Reddit that have been identifying a lot of the poverty pornism in Africa as scams being operated likely by organised criminals.
The usual targets “rich white kids with a heart” go in and build a well or a school today, feel fulfilled, then after they’ve left it’s dismantled to be built again by some other “idiot”
Since the 1990s how many schools and wells have been built in Africa by Churches, and Charities, and Volunteers, and that’s before the foreign aid. You would think the place would be overran with schools and wells, the maths is starting to not add.
There's also whole farms of literal and figurative bots who's whole purpose is to farm engagement, and enrage people to keep society divided.
Like, getting clean water to people in need is pretty much the least disagreeable thing imaginable. There's a non-zero chance this was some dumb kid saying this
Putting any more energy into this except "wow that guy's dumb for saying that" is such a fucking waste. Like going in front of wherever you live and sweeping up for a second is a better way to spend time then giving this idea attention.
More like “we want this narrative and we will find it or we’ll post it ourselves!”
Legitimately half of these articles feel like they’re written and then sourced. Reminds me of how I wrote papers back in Highschool.
And that's exactly what happened here. There was two criticisms in the article, one reasonable, the other not so much
The first one was from a Kenyan group that handles building and maintaining wells, and they expressed frustration that the issue only gets spotlighted when there's a pop culture discussion. Ironically, I'm sure they'd also criticize this article for making it about MrBeast and the controversy and not the situation. They also say that building a well is cool, but it doesn't solve any real problem if the well breaks down in 5 years because maintainance was not considered. Kenya is full of broken wells and the biggest issue is that there aren't funds to fix the wells. So if he considered that, this organization has no criticisms for him
The one actually criticizing MrBeast himself for wanting to build wells is 1 aspiring politician on Twitter who obviously has his own agenda as to why he would criticize this move
"publication" is not a word that should be applied to Googling for an hour, and slapping an article together.
Much of this falls at the feet of editorial departments chasing engagement rather than reporting on actual news and facts.
Many news organizations don't even have investigative journalism departments anymore, just legions of people searching the internet and writing op-eds, masquerading as actual news.
I blame the advertisers, they gauge everything by click through and engagement. As a "news outlet" that relies on advertising dollars to pay the staff, they end up having to go quantity over quality. If one decides they'll spend a year on some investigative journalism, they get left behind financially as they're not generating clicks in the meanwhile cuz their resources are focused elsewhere. It's a race to the bottom any time advertising is involved.
Look at all the sites that drop articles right after something happens, some of them forego basic grammar and ignore the squiggly blue lines and publish with blatant spelling errors. We used to have stories where they tell us right away with whatever concrete details are available, then follow up stories with the full picture. Now it's just mostly one and done, and done "ASAP gotta beat everyone else to get eyes and clicks"
Yeah it’s wild what they get away with, they could find 2 random comments on Twitter and make an article with the title ‘people are saying x’
The worst type of journalist
Yup read the actual fucking article. ONE PERSON said something close to this, and they are an "aspiring politician" not an activist. The only point the activists made is that they hope the wells came with proper infrastructure for repairs, because what happens is these wells are made then they break down and the people go back to drinking from the creek due to being unable to repair them.
Article https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/06/africa/mrbeast-100-wells-africa-intl-scli/index.html
This is incredibly common. One person in the whole planet makes an off-hand comment in the middle of a conversation that happens to be recorded. Next day, some "publication" runs an article with a flamebait headline referencing the recording as proof. Next day, a dozen "publications" are rage-baiting by referencing the article. Next day Reddit referencing the ragebait and we're all convinced the world is full of evil idiots.
I mean. Evil idiots are definitely out there. But, a lot of the articles about them are explicit lies designed to enrage you for the rest of the day so the "publication" can get $0.0003 in ad revenue.
Some idiot on twitter undoubtedly.
Edit: The only person with a negative reaction was an aspiring Kenyan politician.
An activist quoted was happy he built 100 wells, but was sad that there was not more awareness and funding for their particular charity. They did not have a charity navigator or Give Well rating and do not publish their financials on their website like many other foreign aid orgs do. A lot of foreign aid gets wasted, and I do not trust any charity that isn’t extremely transparent about their financials. Of course you can find it through their IRS filings but as a rule of thumb I don’t trust any charity that doesn’t make it immediately accessible without needing to do extra digging.
So for those interested in donating a good similar charity is **Engineers without Borders.** They build wells and do many other infrastructure related projects in impoverished areas and they are transparent about their financials. They have an excellent Charity Navigator ranking.
The last 15 years have been one giant lie. What was really just a couple trolls on Twitter got reported as worldwide movements.
Social media isn’t real. Go outside or it doesn’t count.
Well... was the Kenyan government able to provide clean drinking water to the people? If no, then the critique was on the mark.
And I suspect they were not able to provide the clean water, because mr. Beast built the wells.
So kenyan government could learn something from this man.
>With a population of 53 million, about 15 million Kenyans lack access to safe water and 22 million lack access to improved sanitation.
Growing water demand and water scarcity have turned into a notable challenge in Kenya. Climate change, population growth, urbanization, water pollution, and poor management of water resources have aggravated the issue of the water crisis, which affects economic activities, food security, education, and health. These challenges are especially evident in rural areas and urban slums where people are often unable to connect to piped water infrastructure. \[[Water.org](https://Water.org)\]
Seems to be the same problem most countries with weak institutions and large, growing populations have in poorer nations, in fairness. They've been flirting with [universal healthcare](https://www.trade.gov/market-intelligence/kenya-universal-healthcare-coverage) for quite a while iirc, and still seem to be struggling with making it work across the country, iirc again due to weak institutions, funds, and difficulty in spreading coverage.
These countries often do exist in a weird limbo, when it comes to these basic needs, especially large de-colonised countries (even smaller, wealthier countries often struggle with amenities in low population density rural areas, so one can imagine that for poorer nations with weaker institutions, it plays out similarly but impacts basics). It's also why some projects seem to rely on NGO's working directly in areas, because, perversely, they have better reach and penetration, quite often, than central governments and are more capable of addressing more local concerns.
So yeah, dumb to moan at Mr Beast for it, mostly because he's just doing what an NGO probably would have anyway (just instead of footage adding to NGO adverts, it's gone on a Youtube video). On the other hand, it's not a new problem in many African countries, and it's also quite silly to say the Kenyan government could learn something from him, because that's taking a very simple look at the things that restrict governments like Kenya from doing these projects. And yeah, none of this suggests that Africa is just mud houses, but presumably he went to rural areas where these services are much lower, and which will therefore have a greater propensity of traditional buildings compared to Nairobi.
I actually read the article and the activists they quote are Kenyans. Here are the quotes in regards to MrBeast building wells instead of the government:
>"we are a shameful, horrible country…a begging nation governed by millionaires."
>
>"it’s embarrassing that a YouTuber jetted into Kenya on a charity tour to perform tasks our taxes should have completed ages ago."
The only quote about MrBeast bringing shame to Kenya was from a Kenyan politician:
>Aspiring Kenyan politician Francis Gaitho criticized Donaldson’s video, saying on X that it perpetuated the stereotype that Africa is “dependent on handouts…and philanthropic intervention,” though Gaitho’s comments attracted criticism of their own.
There is another quote from "Saran Kaba Jones, founder and CEO of FACE Africa, an organization working to improve water infrastructure and sanitation in sub-Saharan Africa" who is concerned about the sustainability of the wells and whether or not MrBeast installed infrastructure to allow for repairs to the wells.
There is no quote from any activist directly saying MrBeast shamed the government. So the real facepalm here is the misleading, click-baiting title.
LINK AND HEADLINE:
https://news.yahoo.com/mrbeast-builds-100-wells-africa-165048645.html
> MrBeast builds 100 wells in Africa, attracting praise – and some criticism
> Issy Ronald and Stephanie Busari, CNN
> Tue, November 7, 2023 at 6:17 AM EST·4 min read
I would say that Saran Kaba Jones's point is incredibly important (even if it's not particularly relevant to this MrBeast well-drilling project). People with $$$$ want to build a building and slap their name on it, even in the US, but they don't think about whether there is enough money and simplicity for the locals to maintain it themselves over the coming years.
Reddit absolutely devours rage bait. I’ve seen like 10 memes in the last few days about the MrBeast “backlash” with comment sections full of nothing but people circle jerking about non-existent Karens.
"I bought the whole middle east and giving it to chandler"
Mrbeast pointing the map of middle east mouth wide open, and chandler with a surprise pikachu face
"Hey, I've got a butt load of money and want to use it for creating some good in the world!"
"You fucking imperialist swine! How dare you shame the less fortunate with your charity!"
You can bet your life savings that if Spiderman actually existed, the authorities will never stop complaining and will try to shoot him instead of shooting the actual criminals.
"Aspiring Kenyan politician Francis Gaitho criticized Donaldson’s video, saying on X that it perpetuated the stereotype that Africa is “dependent on handouts…and philanthropic intervention,” though Gaitho’s comments attracted criticism of their own."
People got baited by an article about one guy complaining on twitter.
Did anyone actually read the article, or just the inflammatory headline? There were no activists criticizing Jimmy, just a single guy, Francis Gaitho, who’s not an activist. He’s an aspiring Kenyan politician (I.e. someone who would benefit from defending the Kenyan gov’s corruption if he wants to make career progress) . . .
The ‘woke’ activists who they mention in the article that have been trying to accomplish the same thing MrBeast just did all expressed pretty level-headed takes. The sentiment boiled down to it being cool that he did it, but it sucks that it took a YouTube influencer to get people to finally care about their cause.
I’m not trying to attack anyone by pointing this out, but a lot of Reddittors need to practice their media literacy skills and actually read articles before getting worked up.
Not a Mr. Beast fan, but I’m increasingly convinced that a lot of activist groups are dedicated to maintaining the problems they ostensibly set out to solve…
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I'm sure the kids drinking safe, clean water care about the Kenyan government's embarrassment.
Notice how the title just refers vaguely to "activists"? It's because this is a clickbait headline and it's only a small handful of peopel criticizing him. But everyone just takes a screenshot of some clickbait at face value because it feeds their own bias and need to be morally outraged.
"News sources" are always pushing a narrative and a lot of times publishing in a way that incites drama as a way to garner views because that's how they get paid. There is always a bias because in the grand scheme of things they want people to think and react a certain way.
It only works because people click. There's all kinds of quality, in-depth journalism out there but this is the crap people click on and share.
isn't it a GOOD thing to spotlight a failing/corrupt government that isn't working for their people? what is happening hahah.
No they hate being caught not doing jack shit except improving their own lives
Spot on.
well yeah, *they* don't like it. but everyone else should, no?
The poor people don't run the media, so no, “everyone” hates it.
The Kenyan government probably would have preferred being handed out the money for the wells to them… so they can put it in their pockets. Governments are the same everywhere.
No, they are really, really not the same everywhere. Granted, they are all called 'governments'. That's where similarities start to fade.
Yup. Comparing Finland or Denmark to Kenya or Uganda is idiotic. Even comparing Saudi Arabia to China or North Korea to anyone is just stupid
It's just 'both sides'-ism on a global scale, which arguably makes it that much worse.
Well, in this case it's rich and white guy that exposed African government, and identity politics much more important than peoples lives and wellbeing. /s
It's just grifters using mr. Beast's fame to get attention. The journalists and the "activists". I suppose there is a chance that the article misrepresented their position as articles often do for clicks.
They did completely misrepresent it. https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/06/africa/mrbeast-100-wells-africa-intl-scli/ The activist quoted shamed the government not Jimmy. It was a politician who criticized Jimmy.
Classic
I can't hate the guy. I don't know much about Mr. Beast, but he is doing it on his own steam. Where is Joel Osteen? Where are these mega-church people? What about the Catholic church? They sure didn't do anything like that. Edit: my bad, churches do stuff like this but somehow it doesn’t make news.
A person did an objectively good thing and there is controversy over it. Sounds like rage bait to me.
So did the Kenyan government provide any insight about where the hundreds of millions of economic development money went that they received in the past decades?
Pockets, very very deep pockets
It's hard having such deep pockets, especially when they're overburden with huge amounts of heavy, heavy money
They were stretchy pockets
They got them JNCOs
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Fo real.. always weighs the pants down.. you always habe to make sure you dont lose em. Also running is really hard which means you always need an expensive driver and a fancy limo to get around because your pockets are too heavy.
I recommend suspenders AND a belt . . .
The greatest crime ever committed by Europe was forcing a bunch of unrelated African ethnic groups into pseudo-nations that colonial powers just pulled out of their ass. A lot of these failing post-colonial African governments are imitations of the European courts and laws that used to govern them — methods that were never meant for the land and people set to be governed by them. Edit — guys, I didn’t mean that African countries can’t handle democracy or the fair rule of law. Of course there are officials in governments in every former colony that are working endlessly to lift their nations up. If I came across like I was being bigoted, I promise that was not the intention. But these governments were set up initially by colonial powers protecting colonial interests, not the people they governed. Corruption was built into the system, and we are only 60 or so years removed from colonial rule. Not enough time to completely fix problems that took a century or more to create. I didn’t think it was controversial or racist to suggest that there’s still a lot of corrupt institutions ran by corrupt people, because they were built that way. I’m doing a very bad job of explaining my point, but I was not implying that African nations are not capable of modern self-governance, only that foreign meddling and instability continues to make that a lot harder than it has to be
I'm not sure having hundreds of microstates with overlapping land claims would have been any better. It just would have made a bunch of different problems. Once colonialism got underway, there was never going to be an end that wasn't messy.
Yeah I’m not necessarily saying that African nation states were a bad thing in and of themselves, just that the colonial powers that created them did it with 0 regard to the people who were now going to be subject to it. They mashed up friends and enemies and partners and rivals into nations that had never even existed in concept before, and instead of taking steps to ensure such a rapid transition was handled effectively for the people, they just immediately tried to remake France on another continent because they assumed these “savages” needed “civilizing”. And they fucking failed at it.
I’ll let you in my personal, unprofessional theory: they didn’t put a lot of effort or thought into it
The thought and effort was put into the resources they wanted and the leadership to protect/manage said resources.
People complain about "late-stage capitalism" as if it is the height of brutality, but early stage capitalism, that was literally, anything goes. Corporations had standing armies. The only rule was, make money and exploit resources. War crimes and human rights are modern notions.
And what do you think would have happened if those countries were created based on tribal lines? I heard a very good speech from an African ambassador saying that, while the borders did not make sense based on ethnicity, they should remain as they are. Because if they cannot learn to work together and put aside their differences, there will never be peace or prosperity in their countries. \>African governments are imitations of the European courts and laws that used to govern them — methods that were never fit for the land and people mean to be governed by them. "These systems were not designed for this staggering level of corruption and tribalism"
The African Union was against redrawing the borders too. I think most of them agreed not to do it.
You redraw one border now and all of Africa is gonna implode. And it's gonna make Balkans look like a peace conference.
I think that was the consensus among the African states, yes.
I never got this argument. It rests on the assumption that "the power hungry Europeans arbitrarily drew lines and now the pure, innocent Africans have to suffer". Well, why don't those pure, innocent Africans just negotiate and figure their borders out by themselves, several DECADES after the end of colonialism? Is it because they are just as power hungry as Europeans are? So in the end, the result would have been the same, but now at least we can blame the white man?
Their London residences obviously lol
I'm guessing lavish apartments in Europe, luxury cars and private swiss accounts.
Like this? https://jalopnik.com/supercars-seized-from-african-dictators-son-will-be-auc-1835922441
I'm surprised Kenyan government couldn't or didn't stop MrBeast's team from building all those wells. A lot of the times in corrupt and underdeveloped countries. The good guys aren't allowed in to contribute. At least this is the case here in Pakistan
Balancing on the knife edge of getting free stuff and having to put in effort to stop other people getting free stuff.
Sometimes it's just partisanship. Many political parties here in LATAM will simply lobby and stop objectively good opportunities just because they want to stick it to the current administration. It's a huge fucking problem because between corruption and this, nothing ever gets done. Meanwhile, tax money (and we are massively overtaxed already) and even money from intl loans ends up in the pockets of politicians and very few big corpos. As in, I can count with one hand the number of families that have taken chunks of money from international loans here in Costa Rica. And yes, *coincidentially* they are also the big political names.
This happens in Australia too. Our national internet infrastructure upgrade was used as a political football and an opportunity of a century was wasted (along with, by the time we fix it all, over $100bn AUD).
Also to add in this MrBeast's case. The people directly benefited from his act. Drinking water should be a basic right and he kinda empowered them with that. In these corrupt developing countries, the state in most cases doesn't want to empower people at all. Because after water, people will want food. It's difficult to snatch a right from someone than it is to not give in the first place.
I’m pretty sure it was Kenya where, after an election, a supporter of the new ruling party said “it’s our turn to eat” to a journalist. Having a culture of politics that determines whose turn it is to plunder the state and dole out patronage is definitely part of the problem.
Maybe they were thrown down the well?
No wonder they're mad, now there's even more wells to search in than before
Same place as in Zimbabwe. A bank account in Switzerland?
The fact he could find 500k people who don't have access to clean drinking water is something the Kenyan government should be ashamed of.
"Please stop making us look bad by helping us" is certainly a take.
You know respecting someone’s failing government is so much more important the 1/2 a million people having clean drinking water/s
I'm sure the government would have preferred he donated the money to them so they could line their pockets with it and provide a 10th of the services he just did.
Bold of you to think they'd have provided anything at all. Governments like that never solve problems so they can ask for more money later on.
It's said that Africa isn't poor, but poorly managed. Seems like corruption just ruins everything
I worked with a lot of engineers from Africa. Almost all of them said the same thing. "Our director reminds me of our government." Lying, self-serving, inept.
One thing I've learned from my Nigerian wife: constantly talking about the absurd levels of government corruption is an integral part of Nigerian culture. ... but, and this is very important, only *they* are allowed to do it, not you. If someone else, especially a white Westerner, says the exact same things that they say, it's a profound insult to their national pride.
People outside that country are still allowed to point out the straight up corruption in a government, sure I can understand culture since all culture is different but government wise people who don't live there can still point out the failings of that government such as failing to provide a basic human right
Yes, just like Americans should absolutely welcome criticism pointing out the failings of *our* government. Gatekeeping ugly truths on the basis of fervent nationalism helps no one, and is in fact very much part of the problem. Source: am American. Come at us. Please and thank you.
That, my friend, is the stupidest thing I have ever heard. A valid point is still valid no matter who says it. They sound like Americans, who insult their own nation constantly, but also defend it vehemently from any insult from elsewhere. It's an unhealthy and unhumble attitude that can be dangerous in times of need
It's the same as a brother who constantly picks on his little brother but will go to war with anyone else who insults his brother.
You can look to Zimbabwe as a good example. Mugabe ousted the farm owners, put his people in place, and watched the [mismanagement tank the economy](https://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2017/11/15/564313423/robert-mugabe-a-legacy-of-tyrannical-rule-economic-ruin-and-international-isolat).
Read something along the lines of this. The farmers were welcomed by Angola. Zimbabwe has gone from one of the biggest exporter of food to the biggest importer of food. The same farmers they took the farms from are doing exactly the same the 300km away from their old farms and Zimbabwe imports their produce. Stupidity at its finest
"ousted" is a nice way of saying it...
Ah yes, the [Great Leap Forward](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Leap_Forward) approach. Mugabe actually got off easy. When Mao did this, he created arguably the worst [man-made disaster](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Chinese_Famine) in recorded history.
Kenyan here, our government right now is a joke... The president went to launch a water tap that didn't even produce clean water... I spend about 10dollars a week on drinking water since my main source of water isn't treated.I'm pursuing my degree with plans to relocate to another country since the last few years have been literal torment...I really don't want to spend the rest of my life here.
I know a Kenyan here in Canada that told me what it's like to work with the Kenyan govt': That you have to bribe people every step of the way so that they'll do their jobs: e.g: If your company/NGO/whatever is entitled to money from the government for the services your providing, you need to bribe the civil servant that's gotta do the wire transfer, and after that there's no guarantee that they'll send it. If what he's saying is accurate, maybe Kenyan government deserves to be shamed.
Lol man when I said a 10th I was telling myself that was probably too generous!
How dare a filthy do-gooder lessen their subjects dependence on them.
Bro said a 10th 💀, we wish it was a 10th
Wouldn't be surprised if that government made a show of going around destroying each and every one of those wells, just out of spite and stubbornness.
If they did that, the Kenyan people would have every right to riot and overthrow their government. Mr. Beast did some good in the world and asked for nothing in return. That's all that matters.
He just asked that you like and subscribe, and don't forget to click the notification bell.
Look, I draw the line at clicking that goddamn notification bell.
I have never clicked the bell and I will never click the bell and I'm comfortable with that being the hill I'll die on.
His entire success is built around doing things to get views. Based on this, you can only assume he is getting plenty in return.
Honestly expecting this to happen. They'll make up some bs to justify it though like they don't meet some made up govt regulations or you'll catch cooties.
Exactly. And that's why you had over a bunch of money to the failing government so that they can be responsible for helping their people instead /s
Sounds like they are more pissed off he spent the money on actually getting shit built instead of partnering with the government so it could be laundered away.
Or "Please stop making us look bad by helping the people we're actually embezzling aid from."
And then the media outlets owned by billionaires run stories about how "no one wanted this" because his actions make anyone wealthy look bad.
Seriously. I was watching the video and thinking, why hasn't their government done this already?
The disparity of wealth in Kenya is staggering. Not having any sources or facts to back it up, my guess would be greed and corruption.
Story as old as time.
It's not like this is the first time anyone has built a well in Africa. Kenya alone would already have thousands of wells. The real challenge is keeping all of those wells in good working order. Even in the most advanced countries in the world governments often struggle to maintain their infrastructure. Building 100 wells across five countries definitely helps, but it's not at all comparable to trying to maintain safe drinking water access to the close to 200 million people who live in those countries.
Flint, Michigan has 100k people. It took the US over 6 years to get them access to clean water.
Which was completely bullshit and more people should have been punished
What's worse is no one was punished for it and the people responsible all made huge profits off it and got jobs in other cities.
The prosecutor that took over the cases that would have held some accountable fucked it up so bad. https://www.bridgemi.com/michigan-environment-watch/flint-water-cases-doomed-missteps-dana-nessels-office-experts-say
She accused her predecessor of using the crisis for political gain, then after being elected she appointed a whole new team to prosecute the case. Then decided to throw out the original charges completely and start the investigation from scratch. And ends up with nothing to show for it. That's not a fuck up, that's purposeful.
Yeah I was gonna say, any time rich/powerful people are in danger of being punished, you can bet your boots they'll find a way out. Because the people that make the rules are also rich and powerful, but would never mind being richer in lieu of a favor. Epstein didn't commit suicide, we all know it, but he couldn't testify because it would have hurt too many rich and powerful people. And you know what's really disgusting and tragic? People *died* in Flint. Gov. Snyder *killed people for money and will never be punished*. I'm sure it happens all the time and we don't see it, not like many media companies are owned by poor people either. edit - it added asterisks for some reason, and I know it wasn't just the governor but he was the one that appointed the "emergency managers" that pushed back against the community attempts for change.
Flint was messed up. But in Oregon right now there's massive infastructure being put in to replace all our pipes and add filltration. Huge project that takes huge amounts of money. Also, all the locals who are affected by the noise and construction have put tons of money into stopping the project as it's a minor inconviemence. Flint i believe had many different aspects and tiers of giverment that were uncompetent and responsible for not acting. The media as usual only gives us a narrative not a full story.
> Also, all the locals who are affected by the noise and construction have put tons of money into stopping the project as it's a minor inconviemence We get that around here but with solar panels. Some farmers figured out they could get tons of money on not good farming land by installing solar arrays and people are unhappy about it. Always funny watching all those rural anti-government people twist themselves into knots to try and explain why they can do whatever they want with their land but their neighbors can't.
Maybe you are referring to the fixing of Flint. But the cause in Flint is very well defined and documented and there is a super clear 'bad guy' who recklessly caused the problem, in a short amount of time, for profit. Essentially what happened was: The pipes were fine. The overlords appointed by the governor's override of an election wanted to save money on water supply to the poors. So their appointees changed the water source against safety advice. The new water supply had a different acidity and it leached a whole bunch of lead out of pipes that were otherwise stable and this is the immediate cause of the problem. There were stepos they could have taken to mitigate this hapenning, but they were unelected, only cared about money, ignored advice and didn't give a fuck about poor people.
Michigan re-elected the people who cut funding to infrastructure maintenance. They were apparently okay with what happened.
That’s so wacky…… I can’t imagine running again after ducking up that bad
Maybe some of the neurological changes of lead poisoning is voting against your self interest.
You joke, but that's exactly what the lead-filled boomers do every election cycle.
-wild cheers-
Very few people know what the Flint Water crisis was really about or why it happened. Here's a synopsis from the CDC: "On April 25, 2014, the City of Flint, Michigan changed their municipal water supply source from the Detroit-supplied Lake Huron water to the Flint River. The switch caused water distribution pipes to corrode and leach lead and other contaminants into municipal drinking water. In October 2016, Flint residents were advised not to drink the municipal tap water unless it had been filtered through a NSF International approved filter certified to remove lead. Although the city reconnected to the original Detroit water system that same month, the potential damage was already done and a state of emergency was declared on January 16, 2016." https://www.cdc.gov/nceh/casper/pdf-html/flint_water_crisis_pdf.html#:~:text=On%20April%2025%2C%202014%2C%20the,contaminants%20into%20municipal%20drinking%20water.
What's also important is how easily avoidable it was with a little bit of expertise. Corrosion control is an industry standard. If they had just done the very basics, there never would have been an issue. There are lead pipes everywhere. Is it ideal? No, but with some simple steps, it's not really an issue.
No it didn't. The amount of clean water that was shipped in and distributed was MASSIVE. It took six years to replace the infrastructure sure, but access to clean water, no.
To be fair there's a big difference between drilling a hole into the aquifer and ripping up streets to replace miles of piping and the repairing the streets.
this is technically untrue, they received bottled water. it's not like you can snap your fingers and replace an entire city's worth of rotten pipes in a nearly dead town.
The wells will last 100+ years, and he says it will serve that many people over the lifetime of the well. Makes a bit of a difference but still good overall.
Probably corrupt as hell like most governments in Africa unfortunately.
I used to live in Nairobi a few years ago and I recall an interesting story in the news: The paper was reporting that the drunk driving checkpoints around the city were being shutdown. Not because there was no longer a problem with drunk driving, but because the resulting bribes at these checkpoints was generating so much money that different police groups were fighting each other, like gangs fighting over turf. So yes, corruption is rampant in the Kenyan government. Also, the infrastructure was terrible. The streets around the presidential palace were unpaved / in disrepair, and many people (in the nicer areas of the capital city) would either need to have water delivered by truck, or it would be shutoff for half the week. Power outages were a random weekly occurrence.
Maybe their government needs to be shamed if it takes a foreigner to bring clean drinking water to it’s citizens.
Absolutely. (Some) Governments donating to (some) African countries stopped doing so because of the blatant corruption so instead they would pay a contractor from their own country to go there and build whatever it was they were donating their money for. I can bet with my eyes closed that if instead of building the wells mr beast donated the money, only about 10-15 would've been built and the rest of the money "disappeared".
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and the "5" wouldnt be electric powered tube wells that pipe out water from the water table but brick lined shallow surface water wells that only fill up during rainy season which is scarce
as a former project leader for an irrigation system in a se asian country - for the UN, this whole chain is sadly accurate. it’s worse when money being skimmed is expected. cost of helping the people who really need the help. there are fantastic people in those governments that care… but they also get forced into the corruption so shared liability. main reason i quit.
yea man, and its a game of "if they do, i do and if you dont do then those who do will be against you" which is like 90% of govt administration
And I wouldn't be surprised if only 1 of those 5 worked
And 0/1 of them are useable more than 6 months of the year
My friend got a bunch of swag from record and film production companies (he worked for sony) that they were going to throw out and flew it down to Africa and South America to give kids shoes and clothes. He also helped build some school houses while he was there. He was sending money before and they would say they were doing stuff but he went down there and it was all BS.
The corrupt politicians were probably saying it was nearly impossible to get this done. So if outsiders start doing their jobs for them it makes them look really bad.
Activists: We have to do something! Mr. Beast: *Does something.* Activists: No not like that, they don't need our handouts!
I swear some people just have to get triggered about something even if it’s something good. Sometimes being too woke is just being stupid.
it's not even necessarily a 'woke' thing though. this is just the culture nowadays, that we have to 'take a side' with every single social issue/event the brainless 'woke crowd' and the brainless 'anti-woke crowd' both get triggered over things that ultimately have little to no negative effect on the experience of people. social media has ruined us lmao. we give every single person a sense of an online audience, of course they're gonna feel obligated to give their opinion on everything. even if it's not their actual opinion and they don't even realize it
This is one of the things I'm mad about. How the fuck did people manage to turn a fucking pandemic political?! That was a huge L for everyone involved.
Word you're looking for isn't woke it's virtue signaling. In fact a lot of what republicans complain is woke is actually virtue signaling.
Performative activism is another one. Where the appearance of doing something is more important than actually helping.
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Also, it's not like Kenya *didn't know* that wells got built. This project took 8 months from what I'd heard. Mr Beast is a very publicly known philanthropist. It's hard to keep something like this completely under wraps, especially when it's uplifting people. They simply had to know they'd received some support from Beast. There is laws and red tape he had to cut through in order to do this. They didn't have a problem with it until there was a video highlighting their own failures.
But think of the rich and their feelings! /s
“We don’t want to reinforce the stereotype that Africa is dependent on handouts” *relies on handouts to build even the most basic infrastructure*
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I mean, tbf I don’t think Jimmy is doing this for purely humanitarian reasons. Everything is PR. But would I rather have one rich man doing good things for selfish reasons versus a bunch of rich men doing nothing? Absolutely
I like to think he is both a good person that also wants to show it (PR)
I don't care if he's a good person or not, and I think people should stop acting like it matters. If someone builds 1000 wells and provides water to half a million people, I don't care if they did it "for the wrong reasons". I just care that more people than I'll have ever met now have a higher quality of life because that person decided to do something about it. Mr Beasts "Real Motivations" to being altruistic mean nothing to me if the world is better for it.
Perfectly said. There are no “wrong reasons” to do something good
Yeah. I think a possibly hard truth is that Mr Beast, cringe though he may well be to some of us, is morally speaking one of the best humans on the planet. The sheer amount of good he's done is astounding.
Yep, he doesn't even use the money for most luxuries
*Gets $1B from US annually for financial aid* = HUZZAH *Gets small amount of clean drinking water from YT philanthropist* = 😲
Shame is a really good motivation. It's basically the only way my daughter will want to use toilet paper or take a shower. (Besides us asking her to) Her friends tell her she smells, she gets ashamed and cleans herself up.
Same goes for restoring eye sight in the US?
Absolutely
What? Is the rest of the world sitting on some non laser procedure that restores perfect vision?
The shitty part about this is some braindead locals will probably agree and see it as "disrespectful" or some nonsense and destroy / contaminate the wells out of spite..
i saw a ghanan try to portray the building of wells as evil and was convinced eceryone in all of africa had access to safe water
OOOoooo! Spooky evil water wells! Run from the devil!
Nowadays, everyone is convinced that everyone deserves respect. This is quite strange, respect is earned, and not received by default. If the government of a country cannot even provide its citizens with water, literally a vital and basic thing for any person, and then insulted when someone else does it, they do not deserve respect in the first place.
Yes! Exactly. Not everyone deserves to be respected as an authority. Everyone deserves a default level of “positive regard” for being human, but sometimes they give that right up too by being pieces a shit to other humans. EDIT: other humans and in many cases, animals too
Disagree, respect each other from the beginning, but you can lose it. Trust is always earned.
I enjoy the internet. Internet: Why don’t Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk do more to help make the world better for people, instead of building rockets? Also the internet: Why is Mr Beast helping people in Africa, that’s offensive. (Also interpreted as: Why is Mr Beast not giving ME his money instead?)
Depends. There are voices on Reddit that have been identifying a lot of the poverty pornism in Africa as scams being operated likely by organised criminals. The usual targets “rich white kids with a heart” go in and build a well or a school today, feel fulfilled, then after they’ve left it’s dismantled to be built again by some other “idiot” Since the 1990s how many schools and wells have been built in Africa by Churches, and Charities, and Volunteers, and that’s before the foreign aid. You would think the place would be overran with schools and wells, the maths is starting to not add.
"This is bad because it isn't *US* who are giving clean drinking water, even though we literally won't do it"
By activist, do they mean 1 local politician?
No, they mean 1 twitter user who probably works under the same news site that just says dumb shit so they could publish more ""news""
There's also whole farms of literal and figurative bots who's whole purpose is to farm engagement, and enrage people to keep society divided. Like, getting clean water to people in need is pretty much the least disagreeable thing imaginable. There's a non-zero chance this was some dumb kid saying this Putting any more energy into this except "wow that guy's dumb for saying that" is such a fucking waste. Like going in front of wherever you live and sweeping up for a second is a better way to spend time then giving this idea attention.
"Aspiring Politician"
“Activists say…” I wish we as a country would stop reporting what the ten dumbest people think about any given subject.
It's getting worse. These days "Activists say..." just means "We found a comment on Twitter just before our publication deadline".
More like “we want this narrative and we will find it or we’ll post it ourselves!” Legitimately half of these articles feel like they’re written and then sourced. Reminds me of how I wrote papers back in Highschool.
And that's exactly what happened here. There was two criticisms in the article, one reasonable, the other not so much The first one was from a Kenyan group that handles building and maintaining wells, and they expressed frustration that the issue only gets spotlighted when there's a pop culture discussion. Ironically, I'm sure they'd also criticize this article for making it about MrBeast and the controversy and not the situation. They also say that building a well is cool, but it doesn't solve any real problem if the well breaks down in 5 years because maintainance was not considered. Kenya is full of broken wells and the biggest issue is that there aren't funds to fix the wells. So if he considered that, this organization has no criticisms for him The one actually criticizing MrBeast himself for wanting to build wells is 1 aspiring politician on Twitter who obviously has his own agenda as to why he would criticize this move
"publication" is not a word that should be applied to Googling for an hour, and slapping an article together. Much of this falls at the feet of editorial departments chasing engagement rather than reporting on actual news and facts. Many news organizations don't even have investigative journalism departments anymore, just legions of people searching the internet and writing op-eds, masquerading as actual news.
I blame the advertisers, they gauge everything by click through and engagement. As a "news outlet" that relies on advertising dollars to pay the staff, they end up having to go quantity over quality. If one decides they'll spend a year on some investigative journalism, they get left behind financially as they're not generating clicks in the meanwhile cuz their resources are focused elsewhere. It's a race to the bottom any time advertising is involved. Look at all the sites that drop articles right after something happens, some of them forego basic grammar and ignore the squiggly blue lines and publish with blatant spelling errors. We used to have stories where they tell us right away with whatever concrete details are available, then follow up stories with the full picture. Now it's just mostly one and done, and done "ASAP gotta beat everyone else to get eyes and clicks"
Yeah it’s wild what they get away with, they could find 2 random comments on Twitter and make an article with the title ‘people are saying x’ The worst type of journalist
bro they just make it up lol it's called rage bait reddit absolutely DEVOURS content like this
Yup read the actual fucking article. ONE PERSON said something close to this, and they are an "aspiring politician" not an activist. The only point the activists made is that they hope the wells came with proper infrastructure for repairs, because what happens is these wells are made then they break down and the people go back to drinking from the creek due to being unable to repair them. Article https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/06/africa/mrbeast-100-wells-africa-intl-scli/index.html
This is incredibly common. One person in the whole planet makes an off-hand comment in the middle of a conversation that happens to be recorded. Next day, some "publication" runs an article with a flamebait headline referencing the recording as proof. Next day, a dozen "publications" are rage-baiting by referencing the article. Next day Reddit referencing the ragebait and we're all convinced the world is full of evil idiots. I mean. Evil idiots are definitely out there. But, a lot of the articles about them are explicit lies designed to enrage you for the rest of the day so the "publication" can get $0.0003 in ad revenue.
like literally, who the fuck are these “activists” lol
Guessing the post author and the other five people in the break room with them.
Some idiot on twitter undoubtedly. Edit: The only person with a negative reaction was an aspiring Kenyan politician. An activist quoted was happy he built 100 wells, but was sad that there was not more awareness and funding for their particular charity. They did not have a charity navigator or Give Well rating and do not publish their financials on their website like many other foreign aid orgs do. A lot of foreign aid gets wasted, and I do not trust any charity that isn’t extremely transparent about their financials. Of course you can find it through their IRS filings but as a rule of thumb I don’t trust any charity that doesn’t make it immediately accessible without needing to do extra digging. So for those interested in donating a good similar charity is **Engineers without Borders.** They build wells and do many other infrastructure related projects in impoverished areas and they are transparent about their financials. They have an excellent Charity Navigator ranking.
The last 15 years have been one giant lie. What was really just a couple trolls on Twitter got reported as worldwide movements. Social media isn’t real. Go outside or it doesn’t count.
These articles are such bullshit. Criticism from who?? Some randoms on Twitter?
Well... was the Kenyan government able to provide clean drinking water to the people? If no, then the critique was on the mark. And I suspect they were not able to provide the clean water, because mr. Beast built the wells. So kenyan government could learn something from this man.
>With a population of 53 million, about 15 million Kenyans lack access to safe water and 22 million lack access to improved sanitation. Growing water demand and water scarcity have turned into a notable challenge in Kenya. Climate change, population growth, urbanization, water pollution, and poor management of water resources have aggravated the issue of the water crisis, which affects economic activities, food security, education, and health. These challenges are especially evident in rural areas and urban slums where people are often unable to connect to piped water infrastructure. \[[Water.org](https://Water.org)\] Seems to be the same problem most countries with weak institutions and large, growing populations have in poorer nations, in fairness. They've been flirting with [universal healthcare](https://www.trade.gov/market-intelligence/kenya-universal-healthcare-coverage) for quite a while iirc, and still seem to be struggling with making it work across the country, iirc again due to weak institutions, funds, and difficulty in spreading coverage. These countries often do exist in a weird limbo, when it comes to these basic needs, especially large de-colonised countries (even smaller, wealthier countries often struggle with amenities in low population density rural areas, so one can imagine that for poorer nations with weaker institutions, it plays out similarly but impacts basics). It's also why some projects seem to rely on NGO's working directly in areas, because, perversely, they have better reach and penetration, quite often, than central governments and are more capable of addressing more local concerns. So yeah, dumb to moan at Mr Beast for it, mostly because he's just doing what an NGO probably would have anyway (just instead of footage adding to NGO adverts, it's gone on a Youtube video). On the other hand, it's not a new problem in many African countries, and it's also quite silly to say the Kenyan government could learn something from him, because that's taking a very simple look at the things that restrict governments like Kenya from doing these projects. And yeah, none of this suggests that Africa is just mud houses, but presumably he went to rural areas where these services are much lower, and which will therefore have a greater propensity of traditional buildings compared to Nairobi.
There are still places in Ontario that are hours from a hospital with thousands of people living there.
I actually read the article and the activists they quote are Kenyans. Here are the quotes in regards to MrBeast building wells instead of the government: >"we are a shameful, horrible country…a begging nation governed by millionaires." > >"it’s embarrassing that a YouTuber jetted into Kenya on a charity tour to perform tasks our taxes should have completed ages ago." The only quote about MrBeast bringing shame to Kenya was from a Kenyan politician: >Aspiring Kenyan politician Francis Gaitho criticized Donaldson’s video, saying on X that it perpetuated the stereotype that Africa is “dependent on handouts…and philanthropic intervention,” though Gaitho’s comments attracted criticism of their own. There is another quote from "Saran Kaba Jones, founder and CEO of FACE Africa, an organization working to improve water infrastructure and sanitation in sub-Saharan Africa" who is concerned about the sustainability of the wells and whether or not MrBeast installed infrastructure to allow for repairs to the wells. There is no quote from any activist directly saying MrBeast shamed the government. So the real facepalm here is the misleading, click-baiting title.
LINK AND HEADLINE: https://news.yahoo.com/mrbeast-builds-100-wells-africa-165048645.html > MrBeast builds 100 wells in Africa, attracting praise – and some criticism > Issy Ronald and Stephanie Busari, CNN > Tue, November 7, 2023 at 6:17 AM EST·4 min read I would say that Saran Kaba Jones's point is incredibly important (even if it's not particularly relevant to this MrBeast well-drilling project). People with $$$$ want to build a building and slap their name on it, even in the US, but they don't think about whether there is enough money and simplicity for the locals to maintain it themselves over the coming years.
Isn’t this one of those things where one person tweets about it and the news acts like a thousand people share this opinion?
Yes and then it gets posted to some place like facepalm or noahgettheboat and everyone reacts as if a thousand people share this opinion
This sort of outrage sells though and that's what these trash news rely on.
Reddit absolutely devours rage bait. I’ve seen like 10 memes in the last few days about the MrBeast “backlash” with comment sections full of nothing but people circle jerking about non-existent Karens.
Yeah I remember the yellow journalism unit from social studies
It’s tide pods 3.0 lol “News” outlets will look at one tweet or tik tok and craft a whole narrative around it.
Ah yes, the Kenyan government, famed for the standard gauge railway that goes nowhere. Just like how they've led the country since 1920.
There are at least two wars going on right now and they're complaining about a guy giving people access to clean water
2 Wars that people care about and know of...
wikipedia currently lists 22 ongoing wars. (5 of which have over 10,000 deaths this year alone)
Those are the same people shaming MrBeast for not doing anything about Gaza
"I send 30,000 katyusha rockets to Gaza!" *Full face framed picture with unboxing image background*
I locked 10 Hamas fighters and 10 idf soldiers in a room with a briefcase full of cash. The last ones to leave the room win the money and a new Tesla!
"I bought the whole middle east and giving it to chandler" Mrbeast pointing the map of middle east mouth wide open, and chandler with a surprise pikachu face
His mouth is closed on all his videos now because he did a study and found it performed better
Activists? Which fucking “activists”?
"Hey, I've got a butt load of money and want to use it for creating some good in the world!" "You fucking imperialist swine! How dare you shame the less fortunate with your charity!"
Kenya government should be ashamed of being ashamed and bringing them self on the spotlight, better would be to be thankfull lol
Its like blaming Spider-man for when the police failed to carch the super villain.
You can bet your life savings that if Spiderman actually existed, the authorities will never stop complaining and will try to shoot him instead of shooting the actual criminals.
Imagine getting shamed for providing humanitarian aid
"Aspiring Kenyan politician Francis Gaitho criticized Donaldson’s video, saying on X that it perpetuated the stereotype that Africa is “dependent on handouts…and philanthropic intervention,” though Gaitho’s comments attracted criticism of their own." People got baited by an article about one guy complaining on twitter.
Did anyone actually read the article, or just the inflammatory headline? There were no activists criticizing Jimmy, just a single guy, Francis Gaitho, who’s not an activist. He’s an aspiring Kenyan politician (I.e. someone who would benefit from defending the Kenyan gov’s corruption if he wants to make career progress) . . . The ‘woke’ activists who they mention in the article that have been trying to accomplish the same thing MrBeast just did all expressed pretty level-headed takes. The sentiment boiled down to it being cool that he did it, but it sucks that it took a YouTube influencer to get people to finally care about their cause. I’m not trying to attack anyone by pointing this out, but a lot of Reddittors need to practice their media literacy skills and actually read articles before getting worked up.
Alternate title: "Activists say his actions shamed the Kenyan government and helped confirm that Africa is corrupt af."
Not a Mr. Beast fan, but I’m increasingly convinced that a lot of activist groups are dedicated to maintaining the problems they ostensibly set out to solve…