As experienced satirists, maybe we can do our part helping Aid CEOs avoid ridicule. For example, if you are the CEO of the (RED) campaign fighting AIDS afflicting the desperately poor in Africa, you might not want to appear in today’s FT Power Dressing column (not available online) with quotes like these:
Suit by Gucci
There are certain things that I am really particular about with my wardrobe..I like my suits to fit incredibly well; for example, I always have a little cut made of the inside of my trousers at the ankle so they sit better on my shoes….…My shirts are tailor-made by Turnbull & Asser. Ready-made shirts tend to be too baggy around the waist and then you lose the sharpness of the suit.
Tie by Hermes
…I don’t like fussy ties.Socks by Gap
…if you are going to make the effort to have you suit cut impeccably, why ruin it by having socks that don’t match?
16 Comments
Its so reassuring to know that the people in positions such as this have their priorities right! After all, you can’t save the world if your socks don’t match your suit!!!
A true sapeur (Société Ambianceurs et Persons Élégants).
Clean shoes, good style = higher ranking. You know, the “If it works in Africa, it will work anywhere…” thing
Sigh.
Hahaha!
Susan Smith Ellis wears Hermes ties?
There is a new CEO at RED
Bill, the cars they ride don’t cost less than $100,000. It’s worst for those working for UN organs like UNICEF, UNDP, WHO, etc. I am writing from Africa and see this everyday. Officials in local administration copy from them and swiddle government funds to meet up with standards set by those working in “international organisations”. It’s a pity.
That’s because the roads are so bad you need a 4×4.
I’m not sure why I’d care if the CEO of an aid agency has a taste for designer clothes, so long as he’s not misappropriating agency funds to buy it. Perhaps he’s independently wealthy; perhaps he’s very good at his job and the agency pays him a high salary to keep him from leaving for the private sector. Unless it can be shown he’s misusing (RED) funds, any satire of him can be assumed to be motivated by resentment.
As RED is all style over substance, he seems the perfect choice.
It’s completely unfair to judge him on his fashion sense. He’s a CEO, not an aid worker in the field. Nobody would criticize a president for such comments, so why is this CEO any different? These people are referred to as “suits”. It’s the uniform.
I don’t think it’s out of line pointing these things out. (RED) is all about image, and their image is still stinging from concerns over the amount spent on marketing verses that spent on fighting AIDS. So anyone working, especially the CEO, should be more conscience about that image.
This does not mean you need to live like a pauper, or not dress nicely (I dress nicely, with matching socks, and tailored suits, and I’m not a CEO). But you may want to think a little about how you make your organization look when making choices. People start to question the worthiness of an organization when they see it spending more on marketing than their core mission, and even more so when it appears they’re also overpaying the CEO or that their CEO is out of touch with the mission.
Of course, CEOs in general make quite a bit of money, and we shouldn’t hound them about what they feel like blowing it on or how much they’re making, after all good skills and networks don’t come cheep. Just don’t get too surprised when it draws negative attention to your organization. (Yeah I’m looking at you Stephen Moseley)
Seems to me that it just goes to prove there is more money in talking about aid and development than in actually doing it. (RED) is and always has been a waste of space. If you want fast cars and expensive suits, go and become a rockstar – don’t pretend your job has anything to do with poverty reduction.
Nobody expect s that someone who works for an NGO is all day focus only on his mission and speaks only about x or Y campaign of alleviating poverty or fighting AIDS but matching socks??? I would make fun of any guy who can’t wake up in the morning because the socks are not matching and the shirts might be baggy. It’s a little bit ridiculous. I wander if the Africans feel now better because his shirts and suit fit perfectly. I also wander how big is his salary as a CEO and how many hours he spends actually doing projects if he is every month to the tailor to make new shirts.
I notice a slight change of tactic on this blog.
Not long ago, comments that exposed/ridiculed the salary and lifestyle of, for instance, a world bank director (compared to the lifestyle of the poor he claimed to be helping), were deleted asap.
Now Easterly & Co are posting such messages themselves.
geckonomist,
For the record, we don’t delete comments unless they contain racial slurs or inappropriate language, or make libelous, unsupported statements, which one of your comments (from July 7, 2009) did. Even then, we deleted only one paragraph of your comment, and informed you of our decision using the email address you provided, offering you the option of having the comment removed completely.
Also for the record, the comment in question is one of only two that we’ve ever had to censor in the entire history of the Aid Watch blog.
Thanks.
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