Comic Relief’s ‘Famous, Rich, and in the Slums’

Watching the BBC’s ‘Famous, Rich, and in the Slums’, I’m struck by the way in which the ‘famous, rich’ British celebrities interview the Kenyan slum dwellers with whom they have been sent to live. I’m not even going to touch the whole broader issue of the way in which this genre of programme shapes Western perceptions of African countries as poverty-only zones, devoid of middle classes, education, creativity, individuals… No, that’s another blog post.

What strikes me is the kind of questions that the celebrities ask the prostitute and the HIV positive hairdresser, and the way in which these questions are asked, would be totally inappropriate and patronising were they posed to British people in similar situations. Would it be appropriate to outright ask a British person you’ve just met about her HIV status and where their husband has gone? To ask only yes/no questions – “Are you afraid you’re going to die?”, and ask this in front of her kids, no less. It was these yes/no questions from Angela Rippon I found particularly patronising, as if the slum dwellers were incapable of expressing their own thoughts and feelings without these first being expressed for them. The interviews and interactions with the slum dwellers conducted in this manner left me with the impression that, as the people being interviewed were poor, they didn’t need to be treated with the same dignity and respect that would be accorded to others elsewhere in the world. Not a nice taste to be left in the mouth, really.

In the same vein, I thought the shots of the faeces in the latrine were straight up ‘poverty porn’ – those exploitative images of people in poverty used by NGOs in order to generate funds. It would not be culturally acceptable to show my shit on national TV, so why is it okay to show the Kenyan orphan’s?

Equality of Opportunity and Internships

Whilst studying for my MA, I asked a development professional for advice on starting my career in the industry. I’d met her socially, so she was frank: she laughed and said, “Oh, anyone working in the industry is either wealthy or lucky. You’d better hope you’re a lucky one!”. I blithely ignored this and continued to pursue my vocation, not really believing what she had said was the case.

On graduating and beginning my job search, however, her comments are starting to make more sense to me. Development jobs, even at ‘entry’ level, are in my experience usually advertised requesting several years’ worth of experience in the industry. The way to get this experience? Internships and voluntary work. So I begin my search for an internship that will give me the necessary experience… And find I am facing exactly the same problem I had when I finished my undergraduate degree.

This problem was and is that most internships are unpaid, meaning that those of us without the means to support ourselves for several months, often in expensive cities such as London or Brussels, face going into debt so that we can do the internship. The lack of guaranteed work at the end of the period also means that banks are unwilling to issue graduate loans, so the options for borrowing are limited, and expensive.

This is where the (in)equality of opportunity comes in: although there is a formal equality of opportunity in applying for the jobs in that legislation prevents discrimination on grounds of gender, ethnicity and so on, what is lacking is substantive equality of opportunity, where everyone has equal chance to become qualified to do the job. Those without the wealth to fund themselves through an internship in order to get job X do not have the same opportunity of getting  job X as those with the wealth to work for free and thus gain the necessary experience.

Under the UK National Minimum Wage Act 1998, interns should be paid if they are ‘performing as a worker’ rather than merely observing. In November 2009, Reading Employment Tribunal ruled in favour of Nicola Vetta, an ‘expenses-only’ intern at London Dream Motion Pictures Ltd, stating that she performed as a worker and therefore was entitled to the minimum wage. Such cases are rare, however, and many employers seemingly tread in the grey area between ‘intern’ and ‘voluntary worker’, enjoying the benefits of free labour (which, incidentally, leaves fewer paid jobs up for grabs for those post-internship jobseekers).

There is some hope, however. The Institute for Public Policy Research published a fantastic report ‘Why Interns Need a Fair Wage’ (available at http://www.ippr.org.uk) highlighting the lack of access to internships for those from lower income backgrounds,  and the social enterprise Internocracy works to ‘raise the bar and lower the barriers’ to internships. Whether potential interns have the power to change the system is questionable, since there is a large enough supply of those who are willing and able to work for free, meaning there is little incentive for employers to change their practices. I guess I’ll just have to hope that I am lucky.