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Aiding Ireland: The Great Famine and the Rise of Transnational Philanthropy

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Famine prompted global involvement in Irish relief. Anelise Hanson Shrout explores the political significance and complexities of international philanthropy.

Image courtesy of interviewee. December 6, 2023

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This video video discusses a project exploring the history of Irish famine philanthropy, focusing particularly on how various groups, often with no direct connection to Ireland, raised funds during the Irish Great Famine (1845-1852). The author highlights a notable instance where the Cherokee and Choctaw nations sent money to Ireland in 1847, shortly after being forcibly removed from their own lands by the US government.

As the author digs deeper into this historical phenomenon, they aim to understand the motivations behind such humanitarian efforts, considering the context of news dissemination from Ireland to the American West and the broader implications for philanthropy. They share that many donors, including impoverished tenant farmers from upstate New York and enslaved individuals from a Baptist church in Richmond, sent money to Ireland despite their difficult circumstances, which illustrates a unique engagement with humanitarianism.

The author outlines their research methods, which include analyzing records from relief committees and donor lists, newspapers, and firsthand accounts to uncover patterns and motivations in philanthropy beyond just notable charities. They argue that the Irish famine served as a reflection of various societal struggles, allowing people to draw parallels to their own experiences, thus prompting them to contribute to Irish relief efforts.

Specific case studies, such as donations from enslavers in the US South and their attempts to parallel their struggles to those of the Irish, reveal complex dynamics of power and identity. A key point made is that philanthropy is inherently political, affected by issues of power and representation.

Ultimately, the author seeks to deepen the understanding of the Irish famine not just as a demographic crisis but as a complex event intertwined with ideas of humanitarianism, cultural connections, and political implications, encouraging a reevaluation of how we think about historic and contemporary acts of charity.

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Here are some articles that touch on similar themes related to philanthropy during crises, the historical convideo of the Irish famine, and the broader implications of humanitarian aid:

1. **"The Global Response to Famine: A Historical Overview"** - This article explores how various nations and communities have responded to famine throughout history, highlighting examples of philanthropic efforts similar to those during the Irish Great Famine.

2. **"Solidarity Across Borders: Indigenous Contributions to Global Crises"** - An in-depth analysis of how indigenous nations, like the Cherokee and Choctaw, have historically engaged in humanitarian efforts beyond their own communities, reflecting on the unique position of these groups during crises.

3. **"Philanthropy and Power: The Politics of Charity in American History"** - This article examines how philanthropy in the United States has often been intertwined with political motives and issues of identity, exploring case studies including responses to the Irish famine.

4. **"Crisis and Compassion: How Historical Events Shape Humanitarian Responses"** - A discussion about the ways in which personal and communal crises influence acts of charity, with a focus on historical events like the Irish famine and the motivations behind various donor groups.

5. **"The Role of News in Shaping Humanitarian Aid Responses"** - An exploration of how news dissemination has affected public perception and reaction to humanitarian crises, including debates around the Irish famine and how information traveled to inform potential donors.

6. **"Comparative Philanthropy: Lessons from the Irish Famine"** - This article delves into the lessons learned from the philanthropic efforts during the Irish Great Famine and how they can inform contemporary charitable actions and understandings of social justice.

7. **"Cultural Connections in Times of Crisis: The Irish Famine and Beyond"** - An analysis of how different groups draw on their cultural narratives and struggles in response to crises, using the Irish famine as a case study alongside other global humanitarian efforts.

These articles provide a variety of perspectives that deepen the understanding of the complexities of philanthropy, identity, and historical convideos, much like the themes presented in the original video.

X-TIMESTAMP-MAP:LOCAL=00:00:00.000,MPEGTS=900000

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I came to this project,

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in sort of a couple of different ways.

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One was just that I had read about was probably the most

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famous instance of Irish famine philanthropy, which is

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that the Cherokees and Choctaws in 1847, so a decade

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after they had been removed from their lands violently

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by the US federal government, raised hundreds of dollars,

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and sent it to Ireland.

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Um, so that's one that a lot of people know about.

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It comes up pretty frequently.

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Um, and actually in, late, like late Covid, a group

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of Irish people raised money to send the Hopi

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and Navajo nations in sort of a mirror of, of that donation.

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So that sort of has cultural resonance.

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Um, and I read about it

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and thought, you know, this is really interesting

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and kind of peculiar, mostly

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because I didn't have a good sense of

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how news was traveling from Ireland in the 1840s

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to the trans Mississippi West,

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into the Cherokee and Choctaw nations.

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And as I began to think about how I would tell that story,

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I realized I wanted to sort of tell a, a broader one, so

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to think about other groups that were compelled

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by the Irish story to send money,

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and then I eventually broadened that

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to think about engagement

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with humanitarianism and philanthropy more broadly.

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You know, I think as a, I'm the, the child of somebody

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who founded a nonprofit,

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and so I know how hard it is to raise money.

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And so it just seemed extraordinary to me that all

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of these people who had no personal connection to Ireland

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sent often when they had very little money themselves,

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money across an ocean.

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Um, and also many of these people were not engaged

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philanthropically in other projects.

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So they were maybe engaged with their church

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or with like a local community,

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but they weren't sending money

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overseas to other groups either.

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And so I, I wanted to work to unpack sort of

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what was happening there, what it meant

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for our understanding of the Irish famine,

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but then also what it meant for our broader understanding

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of the history of philanthropy.

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Um, I was once sitting next to a gentleman, at a talk

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and I told him about my project,

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and he said, well, of

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course, Americans sent money to Ireland.

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That's what Americans do.

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And like that idea is a pretty entrenched cultural idea.

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Um, but actually it's not ever obvious why people send money

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or engage in humanitarian relief.

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So I really wanted to unpack those motivations.

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So I had sort of two primary, source base.

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Um, most of the donations

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that I'm interested in were funneled

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through ad hoc relief committees.

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So these, sort of sprung up,

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and then existed for a short period of time,

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and then were closed down.

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Um, and then there were some larger

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organizations that persisted for longer.

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So the Society of Friends, the Quakers were responsible

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for both gathering lots of funds,

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but then also actually physically feeding people

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on the ground in Ireland.

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There were also some proselytizing, sort of Protestant

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or Anglican groups that, would, feed people

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and then also try to convert them.

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But so there were, there were a number of different groups.

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And so I, as much as I could, looked for their records,

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and often their records included the names

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of people who sent them money.

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So the Society of Friends has pages and pages

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and pages of lists of individual donors.

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And once I began to look at those, so I have a database

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of thousands of people who sent varying amounts

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of money, to Ireland.

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During the famine, I began to see some patterns, in sort

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of clusters of people.

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So there was a cluster of folks from upstate New York,

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who are mostly, English

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and Dutch descended people,

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no personal connection to Ireland.

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And yet a lot

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of these tenant farmers were sending money overseas.

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Um, and so I began to think about, okay,

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how do I identify these communities

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or these collectives

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that are maybe becoming invested in famine relief?

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Um, and how do I then begin to study how,

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how they are thinking about the famine?

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I should also say that there were a couple of case studies

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where there was just one donation,

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but that I really wanted to do a deep dive into.

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Um, and so the Cherokee

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and Choctaw donations are, are, are one of those,

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the chapter that closes the book talks about

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how indigenous people were using,

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engagement in famine relief to sort of challenge some

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of the settler colonialism

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that they were experiencing in the trans Mississippi West.

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Um, but one that I had found

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that I don't think anyone had written about in depth

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previously was that the first African Baptist church in

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Richmond, which was,

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all a congregation composed entirely of black people, many

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of whom were enslaved, but some of whom were freed,

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raised funds for Ireland

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and sent money nowhere else outside of their congregation.

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And so in that case, I, I really wanted to tell that story.

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Um, even though there weren't a lot

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of other representative cases

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of enslaved people sending money,

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because of all of the reasons that we know about, right,

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the violent conditions of slavery made it actually

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incredibly unlikely that people would, be able

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to have access to capital

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and then would send that capital out of their communities.

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So, once I identified those centers,

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so they also included New York City,

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I set upstate New York Enslavers in the US South became

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really involved in famine relief,

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and then some other sort of unlikely groups.

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So labor English laborers in British industrial cities

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who are almost uniformly written about as being

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virulently anti-air became really invested in Irish relief.

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And I just, I thought that was interesting and odd.

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So, once I identified those centers, I started

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to look mostly at newspapers to think about

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what is the narrative, what are the narratives

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around Ireland that are being produced to sort of in the,

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the popular imagination?

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Um, and then sometimes looking to pamphlets

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or the records of meetings.

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Um, but what I was, what I'm really interested in is how

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everyday people, non elites, not the people we tend

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to talk about when we talk about this kind of project,

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why they became invested.

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Um, in Ireland in 1845, Irish potato crops failed.

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And when I say failed, what I mean is they became infected

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with a disease called the Late Blight.

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Um, and it rotted potatoes in the ground overnight.

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So farmers would look out over their fields

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one day and the fields

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Would be green and lush

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and would come out the next morning

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and the fields would be entirely black.

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Um, it took a long time to figure out actually

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what was causing this, but the

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phenomenon was really apparent.

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Um, this was a problem.

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This was the late, late,

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actually was present across the world in the 1840s,

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and actually we still sometimes see instances of it,

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and particularly tomato plants.

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Um, but it was a particular problem in Ireland

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because a pretty significant portion

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of the Irish population were rural tenant farmers

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who lived on marginal land, very small plots

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where it was not sustainable to grow anything

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but potatoes to feed families.

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So the, the nice thing about potatoes is

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that you can generate enough calories

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to feed a family on a relatively small plot of land,

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and you can't do that with other crops.

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Um, and so Irish tenant farmers relied on potatoes

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for the vast majority of their calories and nutrition.

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And so when these crops failed, it was a disaster

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for the Irish population.

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Um, out of a little bit more than 8 million people in 1845,

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millions died and millions left the country.

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Um, and actually Ireland's population has not yet rebounded,

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to pre famine levels.

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It was a demographic disaster.

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So, news of this blight spread pretty far

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and pretty quickly there were some early debates about

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whether or not it was, really a crisis

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or was just being manufactured by Irish nationalists in ways

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that I think, parallel some of the ways

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that people recently have been talking about other

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contemporary crises, you know, is, is this real

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or is it simply a political ploy?

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Um, but pretty quickly, the national press,

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and the international press, came to understand

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that this was a real crisis.

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Um, and so Ireland was on the front page

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or other pages of newspapers pretty consistently between

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1845 and 1852.

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Um, which is when we tend

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to talk about the famine being over.

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Um, though, as I said, it's consequences reverberated

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for generations upon generations.

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Um, so the thing that I think is

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interesting about famine relief is that previously we have,

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it has been written about as sort

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of people read about this crisis

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and then gave as though, any crisis would likely

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to prompt people to open up their

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pocketbooks and send money.

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And we know that isn't true.

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I mean, we know it's not true today,

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but also we know it's not, or I know it's not true

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because if I look at these lists of donors, I can sort

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of track other projects they might have been involved in

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and find that they're actually not really involved in other

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contemporary projects.

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So, I think that the famine was sort

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of the right crisis at the right time.

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Um, Ireland at this time was sort of a quasi colonial space.

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Um, it's incredibly proximate to England.

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Um, and so many of the political structures in Ireland,

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were really similar to those in England,

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but also it had been colonized serially by the English

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and then the, the British, you know,

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for hundreds and hundreds of years.

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So if you wanted to tell a story about the failures

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of Empire Ireland was a great example of that.

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If you wanted to tell a story about rapacious landlords

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who didn't care about their tenants,

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Ireland was a great story for that.

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Um, if you wanted to talk about, politicians who were,

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using everyday people to forward their own interest,

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Ireland was a great story for that,

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because this was a moment where Irish national

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politics were really heating up.

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So I've been kind of thinking about it as a, as a black box

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for a lot of different really pressing problems of interest

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to people in the 19th century.

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Um, and for almost all of them, you could look to Ireland

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and go, Ireland is a case study

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for this kind of failure.

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Um, and I think for that reason, it was really easy

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for people around the world to sort of see themselves

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or their problems in the Irish crisis.

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And that's why I argue they found famine relief so useful.

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Um, 'cause it wasn't just,

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these people over there are suffering,

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but these people over there are suffering in a way

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that feels structurally similar to a way

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that I see myself suffering.

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And I can use that connection to sort of reflect

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or shine a light on my own,

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challenges or issues at home.

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So my, my least favorite story in the book,

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but I think one of the most interesting is

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that Enslavers in the US South,

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become really involved in Irish famine relief.

10:20.585 --> 10:22.805
And they do it so that they can make an argument.

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And they say this really explicitly that,

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they are like the Irish, they are oppressed

10:28.065 --> 10:29.125
by a federal government.

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Only the Irish are lucky because they can leave Ireland

10:32.145 --> 10:33.645
and Enslavers aren't allowed

10:33.865 --> 10:36.485
to take the people they enslaved out of the US South,

10:36.485 --> 10:38.245
there's a commentator who says,

10:38.905 --> 10:41.205
we are likely the Ireland of the North American continent.

10:41.465 --> 10:42.685
Um, and I think

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that's just a really interesting move from people who are

10:45.785 --> 10:46.885
on the face of it, very,

10:46.885 --> 10:49.565
very different from Irish tenant farmers, right?

10:49.625 --> 10:50.925
Um, people who own estates

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and other people are not the same as, people

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who are being starved to death.

10:55.505 --> 10:59.315
Um, so, but I think it speaks to the ways in which,

10:59.315 --> 11:01.795
the famine became this like very malleable crisis

11:02.055 --> 11:05.155
and famine relief sort of helped to cement connections

11:05.155 --> 11:06.475
between people who might not

11:06.475 --> 11:07.995
otherwise, have been able to make

11:07.995 --> 11:09.435
that argument that they were like the Irish.

11:10.315 --> 11:13.835
I think to go back to the example of Enslavers, they,

11:14.705 --> 11:19.035
they were in the 1840s up against a pretty advanced,

11:19.585 --> 11:21.955
international abolitionist machine.

11:22.375 --> 11:24.715
Uh, there was really persuasive

11:24.735 --> 11:25.995
and pervasive rhetoric

11:26.185 --> 11:28.355
that enslaving other people was inhumane.

11:28.975 --> 11:32.715
Um, obviously it took a long time in the United States for

11:32.865 --> 11:36.655
that, I don't know, set like idea

11:36.955 --> 11:40.255
to gain traction sufficient for the abolition of slavery.

11:40.475 --> 11:43.615
But in the 1840s, especially in the, the sort

11:43.615 --> 11:47.215
of British orbit that there was consensus that,

11:47.475 --> 11:48.975
the way slavery was practiced in the

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United States was inhumane.

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So for these men, and it, it was mostly men, being able

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to say a, look, we are actually not inhumane.

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We are the ones who are being oppressed here.

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Look at us, how similar we are to the Irish was helpful,

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and then being seen to send money was helpful.

12:06.545 --> 12:10.835
Um, and actually one of the like aha moments

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for me came in the Haverford Quaker collection archives

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because I found this letter from a Quaker named

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Richard Allen who said, who was on the sort

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of committee tasked with accepting donations

12:20.775 --> 12:23.475
and a, a big donation had come in from South Carolina.

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And he said, we absolutely cannot accept this money.

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He called it Bloodstained.

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Um, and he said, if we accept it, we are countenance

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the views of these enslavers.

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We are giving them, political cover.

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Um, basically we're laundering their reputation for them.

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So he saw their donation as doing political work

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that was completely separate from the issue

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of feeding the starving Irish,

12:44.935 --> 12:46.635
but rather as a way for them to claim

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humanity at a time when many people were

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saying that they were inhumane.

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I think similarly, when enslaved people sent money,

12:55.015 --> 12:58.425
they, they were, doing kind of similar work, right?

12:58.525 --> 13:03.185
So in, in Virginia, in the US South in the 1840s and

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before and after, there was a vast information machine

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that cast black people as inhumane incapable of compassion,

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and also cast philanthropy, as a marker

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of genteel humanity.

13:16.325 --> 13:20.065
So, mostly in, in the US slave societies,

13:20.065 --> 13:21.705
philanthropy flowed from people

13:21.705 --> 13:23.305
who had lots of money to people who didn't.

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And it was a mark of power of the people who had lots

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of money over the people who didn't.

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Um, and so when this congregation chose to send money

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to Ireland in particular, they were picking a cause

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that they knew that a lot of enslavers were also invested in

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and saying, look, you have claimed that this is a way

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to illustrate your humanity.

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Well, we are doing the same thing.

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There is less, direct voice of enslaved people

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that remains in the archive,

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because power, operates in the way it does

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because racism operates in the way it does.

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Um, so that was a little bit more difficult to tease out.

13:58.515 --> 14:00.655
For the enslavers example, they say really clearly,

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this is why we're doing this.

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Um, I think in the case of tenant farmers in New York state,

14:06.675 --> 14:10.455
they were feeling sympathy and solidarity with the Irish

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because they were drawing connections

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between the Landholding system in New York state.

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So large landlords, lots of tenants,

14:17.535 --> 14:21.295
pretty poor tenants, who were not really able

14:21.295 --> 14:24.975
to ever make enough to get out of being perpetual tenants,

14:25.035 --> 14:27.095
subject to the whims of their landlords.

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And there was a very similar system at work in Ireland.

14:29.715 --> 14:32.895
And so they not only used donations, to sort

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of draw those connections, but

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after, ultimately failed rebellion in 1848 in Ireland,

14:39.805 --> 14:41.975
tenants in New York would point to Ireland

14:42.155 --> 14:43.695
and say basically, like, you wouldn't want that

14:43.695 --> 14:44.695
to happen here, would you?

14:44.725 --> 14:46.455
This is what happens when you have a,

14:46.935 --> 14:49.455
a large landed population that is not cared for

14:49.515 --> 14:50.855
by its landed elites.

14:51.425 --> 14:52.965
We would hate to have that happen here.

14:53.385 --> 14:54.965
Um, but we just wanna remind you

14:54.965 --> 14:56.565
that actually we're pretty similar to them.

14:56.585 --> 14:59.085
And some evidence of that similarity is that,

14:59.585 --> 15:02.845
we have sent money to them, but also we've been saying time

15:02.845 --> 15:04.045
after time that the way

15:04.105 --> 15:06.445
to address the problems in Ireland is actually

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to address the landed system.

15:08.345 --> 15:10.325
Um, so I think those are some, some

15:10.325 --> 15:12.965
of the most stark examples.

15:13.105 --> 15:14.765
Um, politicians in London

15:15.795 --> 15:18.085
were really invested in framing Ireland as a problem

15:18.105 --> 15:22.125
of empire, and then ultimately, in debates around

15:22.125 --> 15:24.765
what Irish relief should look like at a policy level,

15:24.955 --> 15:27.485
used Ireland as sort of a case study to tease out, well,

15:27.485 --> 15:29.405
is it, is this an imperial problem?

15:29.505 --> 15:30.525
Is this a local problem?

15:31.385 --> 15:35.485
Um, and then, Irish politician politicians in Ireland

15:35.945 --> 15:37.765
who were at the time trying to sort of figure out

15:37.765 --> 15:39.445
what the Irish nation looked like.

15:39.725 --> 15:42.165
I mean, it was still subject to British rule,

15:42.165 --> 15:45.645
but what an Irish national identity would look like pointed

15:45.905 --> 15:48.405
to a famine relief in particular as sort of a litmus test

15:48.425 --> 15:49.685
for who counted and who didn't.

15:49.945 --> 15:51.085
Um, in the Irish nation,

15:51.105 --> 15:53.125
so should really focus on Irish landlords.

15:53.505 --> 15:56.605
Um, that was what, people who supported the union

15:56.605 --> 15:58.725
between Ireland and Britain said,

15:59.065 --> 16:00.365
we should really focus on landlords.

16:00.365 --> 16:03.325
They're the heart of Irish national politics.

16:03.355 --> 16:07.925
Whereas Daniel O'Connell, who was a supporter of, sort

16:07.925 --> 16:10.565
of Catholic rights in Ireland, this was a time when,

16:10.715 --> 16:12.325
many Catholics were disenfranchised.

16:12.325 --> 16:13.605
They were barred from serving an office.

16:14.305 --> 16:16.765
Um, Daniel O'Connell said, look, we really need

16:16.765 --> 16:18.525
to focus on Catholic tenant farmers.

16:18.875 --> 16:20.445
They are the people who receive relief

16:20.445 --> 16:22.085
because they are the heart of the Irish nation.

16:22.665 --> 16:25.365
Um, so one of the things that was kind of wild for me

16:25.365 --> 16:27.285
as I was researching this was just seeing

16:27.825 --> 16:30.605
how the same crisis was interpreted in such

16:31.465 --> 16:33.565
wildly different ways in,

16:33.565 --> 16:35.005
different places around the world.

16:35.505 --> 16:38.005
So as I said at the beginning, I'm the child of somebody

16:38.005 --> 16:40.525
who worked in nonprofits for over a decade.

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Um, and I think even now in this moment,

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we often talk about philanthropy

16:47.085 --> 16:49.405
and humanitarian relief as sort of apolitical.

16:49.665 --> 16:52.365
Um, I'm, I'm struck every year,

16:52.365 --> 16:55.405
around giving Tuesday in the United States, sort of

16:55.405 --> 16:56.925
after Thanksgiving when people have spent all

16:56.925 --> 16:58.925
of their money on Black Friday, there's this campaign

16:58.925 --> 17:00.485
to say like, well, maybe you should donate

17:00.485 --> 17:01.525
your money to some causes.

17:02.065 --> 17:04.685
Um, people always say, well, you know, this is,

17:04.725 --> 17:06.445
I don't wanna be political in my donations.

17:06.665 --> 17:09.805
Um, and so I, I think philanthropy is always political.

17:10.125 --> 17:13.685
I think it's always implicated in issues of power.

17:13.825 --> 17:15.685
You know, who you're helping, who is able to help.

17:16.105 --> 17:19.525
Um, and so I hope that people will begin to think about

17:20.165 --> 17:22.725
philanthropy sort of in, in this political space.

17:23.065 --> 17:26.565
Um, I also just, we talk about the famine a lot

17:26.565 --> 17:28.845
as a demographic event, and it absolutely was.

17:29.225 --> 17:31.845
Um, but it also had all of these implications for

17:32.025 --> 17:34.845
how people thought about helping others,

17:34.945 --> 17:36.525
how they saw the world,

17:36.625 --> 17:39.085
how we think about information transmission.

17:39.105 --> 17:40.605
And so I'm hoping to really add depth

17:40.625 --> 17:44.565
and texture to how we talk about the Irish Chairman, which,

17:44.625 --> 17:47.565
is a pivotal event in the world.

17:47.665 --> 17:49.045
Um, and I'm excited for people

17:49.045 --> 17:50.645
to learn more about this aspect of it.

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