I always thought of charity as being a constructive act. I think of charity as helping people become independent and regain their dignity, and hadn’t deeply considered potential negative consequences of charitable and well-meaning acts. In this regard, “Poverty, Inc.” is an eye-opening documentary that provides genuine food for thought. The cruel irony is that good intentions by outsiders can in many cases make the problem worse, along with the not-so-easy message that some aid organizations may be cashing in as part of this process. The idea is not to discourage giving, but to illustrate how many current attempts fail. Consider the situation in Haiti, where high-profile backers like ex-president Bill Clinton supported policies to dump American subsidized tariff-free rice that ultimately wiped out local agriculture and sent more people to the slums. In hindsight, Bill Clinton confesses that this was a mistake leading to the loss of capacity to produce rice in Haiti to feed the people that the aid was originally intended for. Another example involves Toms shoes where for every pair of shoes bought a pair was donated to poor countries in Africa. The result was that people wouldn’t buy shoes from the local industry, making them go out of business. Or consider the orphanages in Haiti that encouraged poor mothers to give up their children instead of helping these mothers become self-sufficient to raise their children. It is all too often that charity and donations provide a temporary fix while deepening the underlying issues that have lead to poverty. While the right approach typically involves training and empowering the local workers and industry to become independent and get connected to the global economy. Giving the poor a leg up in this way is more effective than focusing on short-sighted hand-outs!