Picture this. You’re in a foreign place working in disaster relief or emergency assistance, and you crave some reconnection to your hipster existence back in (insert First World City). You turn to Tinder, the location-based app that lets you scan and choose a love interest like you used to order pizza. The winning lottery ticket in the world of online dating is a primo first impression. But how best to rev up your sex appeal when you’re dealing with 3 seconds of facetime on a tiny smartphone screen?
A guy named Cody Clarke noticed a trend on Tinder. White people working in the humanitarian service sector were pulling in local people of color as profile pic props. Tourists were doing it too. He told Fast Company, “Obviously the original intent, is, 'Hey, friends, look where I was', but it becomes a disgusting thing." So when did Third World people become a dating essential like condoms or cologne?
Last year he started a blog named Humanitarians of Tinder where he posts the offending pictures sent in by his followers. Most postings are from Africa, but the ballooning refugee crisis is bringing increased Tinder traffic from NGO workers across the Middle East. To that we say haram!
Nerve's Liam Mathews smartly summed it up,"It's noble and admirable to try to help struggling people, but is the goal to help, or is it to get a cute photo opportunity that will one day get you laid?" So perhaps a reminder of humanitarian basics is in order - tips on best behavior for would-be aid workers, paired with some of the most egregious images - including some from the Middle East.
