So I have been following this thread for a while, because I was trying to find out if other people felt the same way about Vee as I do. I genuinely loved her content a few years ago, but I can't even stand to look at her any longer (as multiple people have stated in this thread already).
But it is really more personal than that. I am an African woman, living in South Africa. And Vee is either genuinely an idiot or just extremely insensitive. Aside from the self congratulatory stuff she is constantly spouting, her trip(s) to Zimbabwe to talk about girls education was really the worst thing I have ever seen.
The teachers in Zimbabwe are leaving in droves, because the economy is in the toilet and they aren't getting paid anything close to a living wage. The infrastructure is absolute rubbish, and I know this because many Zimbabwean immigrants are currently in South Africa fighting to survive.
It is the same thing in South Africa. In rural areas, some schools are still using pit toilets, and the infrastructure is terrible, and I can attest to that because I witnessed some of it at my high school. (South Africa is supposed to be the most developed country in Africa so do with that information what you will)
She has done nothing for Africa at all. I wouldn't have much of a problem with her behavior and the changes her channel has gone through, but constantly talking about Africa, helping girls and young women, improving and empowering education, and she is spending money like crazy, and only ever talks about her achievements. I think she only talks about Africa when it suits her brand (and other people here have stated this), other than that I can tell she is trying really hard to get a PhD for the views, and rub shoulders with the top 1% so that she can say she made it.
There are wars happening in Africa, the levels of corruption is sickening, there is famine and drought. The girls she is trying to help are experiencing Gender Based Violence, and if she even watched the news she would see the state that Zimbabwe is in. (And it is so weird to me that she is supposed to be so educated but she can't even watch the news or read a blog so that she can see the things she says are completely insensitive to the situation). (I myself am struggling to pay for my undergraduate degree, when the money she makes on one video could probably pay my school fees in one go, and I am middle class for context so consider what that means for poor African women).
Everything that Vee is doing right now is a slap in the face of every African girl she is claiming to help, and it is disgusting. And once again, maybe I wouldn't have an issue about her behavior if she wasn't constantly using Africa as a crutch to boost herself, but does nothing of substance to help African girls. Imagine going to Zimbabwe to talk about herself and views and her policies, when she has no real world experience (other than the say so of Malala, Bill Gates and the Obamas, as if that means more than having actual experience). Imagine going to Zimbabwe and South Africa and charging us money for her book, when the women in the households she is trying to help cannot afford food and rely on their abusers to survive (and I say this because I see it everyday).
But anyway, my rant is over, and I do not think my opinion on this matters much, but I think everyone on this thread needs to know that their opinion on Vee is completely valid, and her actions are not just sickening online, her actions have real world implications. I am sorry that this post is exceedingly long, and I hope I have not offended anyone!
she's going to get a big shock applying to graduate school in the US, it's nothing like the UK - extremely competitive. Would love to know which uni has supposedly offered her a place for 2023, as someone else mentioned deferred PhDs are practically unheard of. Not funded ones anyway.
Have some sense of awareness!
) is reminiscent of the numerous NGO’s that pitch tent over here, claiming to help rural populations, when in actuality, they’re just collecting donor money.
