Tag Archives: workers

December 10, 2010

Stuff expat aid and development workers like….

So the Wait… What blog is asking Where are the local aid and development worker blogs? and having a hard time coming up with an answer. Maybe “blogging” comes under that special category of “stuff expat aid and development workers like“.

Everyone’s heard of the “Stuff White People Like” list by now. But I couldn’t find a specific list of “stuff expat aid (and development) workers like.”

Batgung writes about “Stuff white expats like in Hong Kong” and reminds us that “being a White person is not entirely limited to skin color; it’s a state of mind.” There are plenty of great comments underneath too. The writers of Batgung however, are not specifically “aid workers” so they didn’t completely fit the bill for “stuff ex-pat aid and development workers like”.

Then there is Stuff White People Do blog with a post titled “Falsely Distinguish between (White) Expats and (Non-White) Immigrants”…. Interesting and it goes on the list of “stuff aid and development workers like”. But not quite exactly what I was hoping for.

Franceypants puts it simply: Expats are the Whitest People around. “Here I am going on and on about being an expat when all along all I am is a white person who lives in a foreign country. And so are you.” She backs this theory with a solid argument.

I’d still love to see a nuanced list of stuff that expat aid and development workers like. If you know of one, please share!

In the meantime, let me start it off (in no particular order):

1) Blogging

2) Drinking alcohol

3) Drinking coffee

4) Having maids or criticizing other expats who have maids if they don’t have maids

5) Making fun of young volunteers

6) Complaining about marketers, fundraisers, journalists, donors, and corporations

7) Dating and/or marrying “local” people

8 ) Talking to drivers (their own personal drivers or taxi drivers or hired drivers… but yes, drivers)

9) Showing off how well they speak a local language

10) Making recommendations about eating or not eating local food/street food

11) Bragging about how sick they’ve been (giardia, malaria, dengue, amoebas, crazy insect bites, etc.)

12) Riding around in SUVs, land cruisers and 4×4′s or complaining about aid workers who do and bragging about how they take public transportation

*****

and…. (update) it seems expat aid workers like

13) bonding on Twitter over being expat aid and development workers… a little taste below from the Twitter hashtag #stuffexpataidworkerslike (check it!)

So @talesfromthhood and I decided to make it a regular occurrence. Check out www.stuffexpataidworkerslike.com