[dotancohen]

  > Look at the effects of mitumba in Africa or free rice in Haiti for example of misplaced charity.

What are the problems with mitumba in Africa or free rice in Haiti? I'm not American so maybe these are cultural references that I'm not familiar with.

[jtc331]

I’m not familiar with the details of these specific examples, but I imagine it’s parallel to the problems created by Toms giving away shoes in Africa that they’ve shipped in. They actually do a lot of harm because they’ve displaced local economy —- from shoe makers to the sources of material for the shoes etc. In an effort to be charitable they’ve actually destroyed livelihoods and taken food off of people’s tables. If they really wanted to do charitable good they could employ the shoe makers and use local raw materials for those shoes.