The problem with little white girls (and boys)

[Spider Jerusalem]

19. This is a problem not with race but with culture

and with postcolonialist/neocolonialist assumptions and paternalism in Western countries. Being white isn't necessarily a hindrance; knowing nothing at all about the culture and language of the place you find yourself in, however, is. Good intentions aren't enough to overcome a lack of basic skills and the ability to communicate. And well-meaning relatively affluent Western misery-tourists are actually somewhat resented by people in much of the developing world; in a lot of cases? They don't really want you there. The Peace Corps for instance is regarded in many developing countries as a sinister agent of soft US imperialism, and considering US and Western involvement in creating many of the problems of poverty and such in the developing world by destabilising governments and exploiting local labour and resources? It really looks worse than hypocritical in a lot of cases ("sorry we toppled democratic government in your country and supported warlords and that our oil and mining companies have destroyed your countryside and in some cases killed a lot of people while doing it; here, have a school!&quot .