Title: "Volun-tourism in Poor Taste?"
In response to some vicious roasts about your foreign-aid budget at a recent regional conference, your sister set up a well-publicised service event, taking a group of schoolchildren to the poor nation of Kawandaland to sightsee and give out "presents" to impoverished youth. The effort proved disastrous, with gifts of stickers, "free hugs", and bottled water met with indignance and the morality of so-called “volun-tourism” brought into question.
Validity: Invalid for nations with high foreign-aid spending and nations with policy “No emigration”
Option 1:
"Volunteer tourism is condescending and completely non-productive!" exclaims Kawandalandian ambassador @@RANDOMNAME@@, plastering your desk with frowny-face stickers, "Your "service" event did nothing except victimise my people and reinforce a message of @@DEMONYMADJECTIVE@@ superiority. Instead of wasting funds on these cheap publicity stunts, why don’t you co-ordinate real relief efforts, like building schools and hospitals? I guarantee you that genuine help won't go unnoticed."
Effect: projects costing less than a billion @@CURRENCYPLURAL@@ are considered a waste of time
Option 2:
"What about how these programmes help OUR kids?" points out exhausted parent-of-three @@RANDOMNAME@@, who gets free hugs all the time, "Knowing about other cultures, learning compassion, being grateful for what you have — these service opportunities teach our children important life lessons in a way that big initiatives simply can’t. I mean, how’s my little @@RANDOMFIRSTNAME@@ meant to help build a hospital? And how many little kids like @@HIM@@ are going to miss out because the big-@@CURRENCY@@ projects ate up the budget too fast? You should fund smaller service programmes, compulsory for every @@DEMONYMADJECTIVE@@ child at least once, to foster a compassionate next generation and give us parents a rest— uh… a reason to be proud."
Effect: it's a rite of passage to hand out paperclips to the poor
Option 3:
"All this 'international aid' stuff is a waste of time," grunts your uncle, flipping a water bottle into the trash. "Those Kabundalanders are never gonna get their stuff together if we keep it up with the handouts — you'd be doing 'em a favour to cut them off. They'll figure it out on their own eventually… I think. Eh, I vote you cut foreign aid entirely — the Kalooga-people will learn some self-sufficiency and I'll get a nice tax cut."
Effect: sending rare coins overseas is a felony