Reply #46: Response to scuba diving [View All]

[nxt1]

I got really frustrated at that. I'm a second year student at Brown and my girlfriend is a student at a midwest liberal arts college and takes part in her school's habitat for humanity club. I support the club, it has some fairly good goals (I'll ignore the the fact that a good number of its houses are falling apart entirely in Florida and Louisiana). I was shocked and appalled when she told me that her school's club used their funds to fly 25 students to Florida for a week over spring break to build a house and then detailed how it sounded like a lot of fun - they went jet-skiing and para-sailing (both of which I know are extremely pricey rich, white, activities).

In terms of rides- the college transportation (for most schools) tends not to be much better unfortunately, charging students about 25$ each way on a shuttle bus (this is all calculated for an hour of driving time).

- Habitat groups in some schools may hire locals, which would be much more effective in creating jobs (in poorer US communities), and stimulating the economy in other nations, but a large amount are still very much in favor of sending the kids to do it themselves.