全球视野 | MrBeast在非洲修建100口井，为何会引发国际发展领域专业人士的担忧？

On Nov. 4, YouTuber Jimmy Donaldson, better known as MrBeast, and his team entered as a major player in the international development space with their release of a 10-minute video about their newest philanthropic escapade: Building 100 water wells in villages across Africa. 

在11月4日，以“MrBeast”为人们熟知的YouTuber（指在YouTube视频网站上制作和发布视频的博主）吉米·唐纳德森和他的团队，随着一段时长10分钟的视频的发布，成为了国际发展领域的主要参与者。视频内容是关于他们最新的慈善冒险：在非洲各个村庄修建100口水井。 

With over 80.5 million views and 6.7 million “likes” applauding his “philanthropic” efforts, for international development professionals, this was an alarming thing to read. A 25-year-old with a lot of money, no international development experience, and an incentive to monetize the development process in Africa is a scary idea. 

这段视频吸引了超过8050万次观看和670万个“点赞”，称赞MrBeast的“慈善”努力。然而，对于国际发展领域的专业人士来说，这是一个令人担忧的事情。一个25岁的富有年轻人，缺乏国际发展经验，并有动机在非洲的发展过程中谋取利益，这是一个可怕的想法。 

The particularly alarming fact is that his audience will see this behavior and may exalt it as something to aspire to, rather than think about the critical implications of playing god, impeding the role of government, and attempting to strengthen the well-being of communities for his reputational benefit. 

特别令人担忧的是，他的观众会看到这种行为，并可能将其视为一种值得追求的东西。而不是去考虑扮演上帝、阻碍政府职能、以及试图加强社区福祉只为提升自己声望的批判性影响。

The video follows MrBeast and his team as they travel from village to village, making appearances in schools, and picking up tools here and there to help with the construction of the wells. Images of white male figures using cameras and drones with Kenyan school children abound, strongly evoking images of the white saviorism complex — and bringing the notion of consent and agency of the communities whose images are being used front of mind. 

发布的视频记录了MrBeast和他的团队从一个村庄到另一个村庄、出现在学校、到处捡工具帮助建造水井的过程。白人男性使用相机和无人机与肯尼亚学童互动的画面比比皆是，强烈唤起了“白人救世主主义”复杂的形象，并同时也让人联想到关于被拍摄社区的同意权和代理权的概念。 

This video feels like nothing more than philanthrocapitalism, or the notion of using business principles and strategies to address social and environmental problems, enshrined in typical MrBeast videos. 

这段视频感觉就像慈善资本主义，或者使用商业原则和策略来解决社会和环境问题的理念，这些概念在典型的MrBeast视频中都有所体现。 

At one point, he criticizes government systems, and larger intergovernmental efforts, by emphasizing that “they” aren’t doing anything, with the implication that “I” will. This YouTube video runs the risk of contributing to the commodification of philanthropy and the erosion of public services. 

在视频中的某一刻，MrBeast批评了政府体制和更大范围的政府间努力，强调“他们”什么都没做，暗示“我”会去做。这段 YouTube视频有可能会助长慈善事业的商品化和对公共服务的侵蚀。

MrBeast’s effort to enter the international development stage via a large-scale water and sanitation project is incredibly concerning as a practitioner. Water-well development in Africa has been on the agenda for decades for professional international development institutions such as UNICEF and WaterAid, and multilateral development banks such as the African Development Bank and German development bank KfW. 

MrBeast试图通过一项大规模的水和卫生项目进入国际发展舞台，这对从业者而言令人极为担忧。几十年来，非洲水井发展项目一直是联合国儿童基金会和WaterAid组织等专业国际发展机构，以及非洲发展银行和德国复兴信贷银行等多边开发银行的议程。 

To be done well, water and sanitation, or WASH, projects require professionals with years of experience to deliver successful and sustainable projects. These institutions have amassed thousands of employees each, with specialties to ensure the effective delivery of development projects around the world — from public health professionals specializing in malaria virality to development financiers looking after concessional loans, or project managers ensuring regular communication between implementers and donors. 

要想做好水和卫生（WASH）项目，需要具有多年经验的专业人员以成功交付可持续的项目。这些机构各自都拥有数千名员工，涵盖各个专业领域，以确保在全球范围内有效交付发展项目。从专门从事疟疾传播的公共卫生专业人士，到负责优惠贷款的发展融资专家，再到确保实施者与捐赠人之间定期沟通的项目经理。

That isn’t to say that these organizations work perfectly, but they are held to a standard by board members, civil society watchdogs, and the populations of the places in which they are implemented. It seems that MrBeast and his team, however, are held to no standard other than those sitting on the other end of the screen. 

这并不是说这些组织的工作尽善尽美，而是说董事会成员、公民社会的监督者以及实施地的民众都会对这些组织提出要求和标准。然而，除了坐在屏幕另一端的那些人，MrBeast和他的团队似乎没有任何标准。 

Beast Philanthropy appears to consist of a team of 14 people, according to its LinkedIn page, or 15 if we include Donaldson himself. Many of them are from the financial, entertainment, and general media sectors, with several fresh out of university. Two people affiliated with Beast Philanthropy have titles related to project management; however, only one of them seems to be focused on overseeing the development and implementation of projects. This organization, with bare-bones infrastructure and an audience-commodity mindset, is playing its hand in international development projects at the scale of institutions reaching nearly 100 times their size. 

根据其LinkedIn页面显示，Beast Philanthropy似乎由14人组成，如果算上吉米·唐纳德森本人，则有15人。其中许多人来自金融、娱乐和大众媒体行业，有几个人刚从大学毕业。Beast Philanthropy有两个人的头衔与项目管理有关，但其中只有一个人似乎专注于监督项目的开发和实施。这个组织拥有简陋的基础设施和以观众为商品的思维方式，却正在以其机构规模近100倍的规模参与国际发展项目。 

Water wells specifically are a unique, highly controversial, and debated topic among academics and development professionals internationally. These wells, once seen as short-term, low-risk investments by the larger international development community, have come under larger scrutiny for not addressing the longevity that communities require for safe drinking water and proper sanitation. 

在国际学术界和发展专业人士中，水井是一个独特、极具争议和争论的话题。这些水井一度被广大国际发展界视为短期、低风险的投资，但由于没有解决社区对安全饮用水和适当卫生设施的长期需求，受到了更严格的审查。

Decades ago, the answer to the question of long-term maintenance was not well thought through, leading to extreme short-termism that has left countless wells unusable and in disrepair. 

几十年前，由于对长期维护问题的答案没有经过深思熟虑，这导致了极端的短期行为，使无数水井无法使用和失修。 

Borehole wells only provide clean water until the first breakdown, at which point, without proper sustainable, structural and systematic solutions, entire communities are no better off than before installation. Recently, the head of WASH organization FACE Africa reported that they work in areas where 60% of wells were left broken due to the negligence of long-term infrastructure in place “for follow-up maintenance … [and] repair.” 

钻孔水井只能提供清洁水，直到第一次故障发生。在此时，如果没有妥善的可持续、结构性和系统性解决方案，整个社区的状况将不会比安装前好多少。最近，WASH类组织FACE Africa的负责人报告说，他们工作的地区有60%的水井坏了，原因是长期的基础设施没有到位，“无法进行后续维护......（和）维修”。 

Beyond the hardware required for water supply development in rural communities, software is a major contributing factor to sustainability. These software can include the World Bank/U.N. Development Project’s Village Level Operation and Maintenance concept or, at the country level for example, Ghana’s district water and sanitation management teams. These groups not only implement regular maintenance and upkeep of water wells but also allow for the transfer of ownership from development institutions to local and rural communities. This introduces a systematic approach to consent and collaboration seemingly absent from MrBeast’s approach. 

除了农村社区供水发展所需的硬件外，软件也是促进可持续发展的一个重要因素。这些软件包括世界银行/联合国发展项目的 “村级运行和维护”概念。或者在国家一级，例如加纳的地区供水和卫生管理团队。这些团队不仅对水井进行定期维护和保养，还允许将所有权从发展机构转移到地方和农村社区。这就引入了一种系统化的同意与合作方式，而这在MrBeast的方法中似乎是缺失的。 

Beast Philanthropy is partnering with CDVTA, a legally registered development charity based in Cameroon, to deliver some of these water well projects. Aside from this, however, there is little information about their collaborative efforts for long-term investment. 

Beast Philanthropy正在与CDVTA（一家在喀麦隆合法注册的发展慈善组织）合作来实施一些水井项目。然而，除此之外，关于他们在长期投资方面的合作工作的信息相对较少。

In many cases, the reality of this type of international development from philanthrocapitalists has little to do with the sustainable development of local and rural communities in Africa, and everything to do with the social currency of audience commodity and white saviorism. 

在许多情况下，慈善资本家这种国际发展的现实与非洲当地和农村社区的可持续发展关系不大，而是与观众商品化和白人救世主主义的社交货币密切相关。 

This exercise of MrBeast’s private wealth can shift the role of proper democratic institutions and government to those who simply have the capital to develop their own charitable organization. Philanthrocapitalists independently exercising their private wealth in the international development space can reduce state capacity to develop structures for meaningful long-term development. 

MrBeast这种利用个人财富进行的慈善行为，可能会转移真正的民主机构和政府的职能，使得那些仅靠拥有资本就能来发展自己慈善组织的人占据主导地位。在国际发展领域，独立运用私人财富的慈善资本家会削弱国家开发有意义的长期发展结构的能力。 

We see this in other billionaires as well, such as the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative or Elon Musk. The New Yorker recently published an article emphasizing how states eventually become reliant on these billionaires, as the United States has with Musk. If MrBeast truly wanted to ensure the safe, secure development of sanitation and drinking water for "half a million people," there should be stronger collaboration between himself and local community governments, or civil society organizations, rather than developing an “us vs. them” mindset. 

我们在其他亿万富翁身上也能看到这一点，比如陈&扎克伯格倡议（Chan Zuckerberg Initiative）或是埃隆·马斯克。《纽约客》最近发表了一篇文章，强调各州最终会对这些亿万富翁产生依赖，就像美国对马斯克的情况一样。如果MrBeast真的想确保给“50万人”提供安全、可靠的卫生和饮用水发展。那么他应该加强与当地社区政府或民间社会组织的合作，而不是培养一种“我们 Vs. 他们”的思维模式。 

MrBeast has said time and time again that he will donate all of his money, “every last penny,” by the time he dies. But will his efforts not be in vain due to negligent organizational development and lack of proper professionals on his team? 

MrBeast曾一再表示，到他去世时，他将捐出他所有的钱，“每一分钱”。但是，由于组织发展的疏忽和团队中缺乏合适的专业人员，他的努力会不会白费呢？ 

Water-well development is a complex and deeply interconnected process and requires more than a simple one-off investment and a 10-minute YouTube clip to properly address the needs of suffering communities. Without any evidence of long-term investment into these 100 water wells, MrBeast’s actions run the risk of being symptomatic of a society that favors social currency and clicks and is still stuck in a white savior mindset, rather than shifting its interest over to the importance of co-created, inclusive, and meaningful sustainable development. 

水井开发是一个复杂而又相互关联的过程，要妥善解决受苦受难社区的需求，需要的不仅仅是简单的一次性投资和10分钟的YouTube视频短片。如果没有任何证据表明他对这100口水井进行了长期的投资，MrBeast的行为有可能成为一种偏爱社交货币和点击量的社会症状，并且仍然停留在白人救世主的思维模式中，而不是将兴趣转移到共同创造、包容和有意义的可持续发展的重要性上。