YouTube's blockbuster creator MrBeast has released a video in which he claims he built 100 wells across Africa. While such a philanthropic endeavor might seem commendable, it unexpectedly ignited a storm of backlash from Kenyan activists and journalists. What are the unintended effects of the YouTuber's actions?
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00:00 Water is life and anyone who provides it for others should be celebrated.
00:06 This is the first of a hundred wells we're going to build in this video.
00:10 Oh, water!
00:12 But a recent video by YouTube's biggest creator, MrBeast, has drawn many mixed reactions.
00:20 Seeing somebody like an American billionaire not carrying out strategic investment in the continent
00:26 but providing potable water is just an insult to the continent.
00:30 Why is it so controversial when a white person comes to Africa to give?
00:35 Welcome to the flip side.
00:37 How's it going? I was not expecting this.
00:41 This story begins in Kenya where 25-year-old YouTube Jimmy Donaldson
00:47 started his video to dig 100 wells and provide clean drinking water for schools and local communities.
00:54 A video from this American can garner up to 250 million views.
00:59 We continue building wells until we reach...
01:01 Well number 69!
01:03 It's a huge deal that MrBeast chose Kenya, Uganda and Cameroon for this video.
01:08 In Cameroon, many people have praised the YouTuber who simultaneously runs the MrBeast philanthropy page on YouTube.
01:15 Cameroonians are still very thirsty despite the abundance of water resources that we have.
01:22 I think it's a good gesture if he's doing it without secondary reasons.
01:26 But it has not been all praises.
01:28 After the release, Jimmy has been slammed on social media about his motives.
01:33 The problem is not about MrBeast. The problem is white severe complex.
01:37 Is he just another white man who thinks he can make Africa no longer poor?
01:42 I think what we expect this billionaire to do is to sit down with Africans and ask for what are the priorities today.
01:49 And create companies that are going to do the boreholes themselves by Africans, communities and African people.
01:54 The 25-year-old appears to be achieving something that governments and international organizations have presented as a difficult task.
02:03 While MrBeast's actions might be seen as a drop of water in a desert, it is creating impact and generating discussion.
02:11 What if every African leader and authority steps up to provide water to 100 villages in their immediate vicinity?
02:18 Could this make the endemic water crisis a thing of the past?
02:22 It is the prerogative of the governments to provide security, provide access to energy, access to potable water and access to basic education.
02:32 And seeing somebody like an American billionaire not carrying out strategic investment in the continent but providing potable water is just an insult to the continent.
02:42 So what is the image that we are going to have?
02:45 The image is that Africans are not capable of providing boreholes for themselves.
02:50 Although white saviour complex is indeed an actual thing, but an individual can make a difference.
02:56 MrBeast might profit from the number of views, new African subscribers and even improve his philanthropy image.
03:03 The fact is he is providing a vital aspect of life where many local African governments have failed.
03:10 And that is the flip side.
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