International Development and The Bachelorette

     I have a guilty pleasure: curling up on the couch every Monday night and watching city TV’s reality trash hit, the Bachelorette.  I also have a not so guilty pleasure: staying current in the realm of international development.  Last week when I was indulging in my Monday night ritual, the Bachelorette took us to a group date where the contesting husbands were revamping a children’s orphanage in Thailand.  It has always been a pet peeve of mine when development initiatives take shape of North Americans undertaking light tasks such as painting murals, building a wall or constructing a desk is considered humility.  My annoyance isn’t in the lack of education of the theory that development means painting walls, my annoyance is that a hit show such as The Bachelorette has the capacity to sway its viewing demographic into supporting a cause.  Should INDEVOURS be on this show, we would have enough support to cover the cost of all of our field placements abroad.

            This episode got me thinking further about the show and international development.  If America is willing to spend millions of dollars to watch twenty eligible bachelors to follow a five-foot tall bachelorette around the world just to follow the drama of heart break and ache, where do our priorities lie?  And why am I, an educated individual of the economic issues of the world supporting this massive expenditure?  Furthermore, how can organizations tap into this market of viewers so that they can collect even just the equivalent of the airfare of all of the bachelorette participants—enticing America to empathize with their charitable cause as they do with Ashley Herbert’s heartache? 

            So, Bachelorette, I ask you this… when the winner of the orphanage painting date stole your heart by demonstrating extra effort by painting an elephant on the wall, how much praise would one of these eligible bachelors receive if they decided to pay their own airfare to the next Asian destination on the show, and donate what the show would have originally spent to the orphanage? How romantic is it when someone is covering their own expenditures as they chase you around the world, on top of donating to a charitable cause! I think you’ve found your husband…