What's an Oxygen Thief?

Community workers with the oxygen thief style are nice, bleeding-hearted

people who are generally liked by all. They try to be popular and good cops. However

because they want to be politically correct and self-preserving, they don’t stick out

their necks to fight for change. They perceive the empowerment process as being

friendly, huggable, listening, participative and enquiring. In keeping peace and

loving his neighbour (who might also be disempowering himself and many others)

he feels safer than when engaging in the perceived volatile world of a change agent.

The oxygen thief is very keen on doing things FOR their clients, because it is

the quickest way and the way of least resistance. It’s easier for them to just feed

the poor. Oxygen thieves take up space and resources in community development

projects, because they achieve nothing more than a self-esteem boost for being the

good guy and the giver, instead of producing real change in those who need it. The

oxygen thief is characterised by a general indifference and un-opinionated stance

on empowerment, since taking a stance and applying tough-love will lead to conflict

with which they cannot deal. Just as much as an overprotective nice mother raises

spoilt-brat “monsters”, so does an oxygen thief.

All About the Victim Mentality

Victims are always substantiating or justifying why things are wrong and why

they cannot achieve outcomes. They blame their limited resources, too much work,

too little time or overly demanding clients. They play the blame game rather than

taking responsibility for their role in keeping their clients dependent. Victims blame

external circumstances for the failure of their intervention, for example: “It’s because

I work for the government and they have no money that I can’t do my work properly.”

Community workers with this mentality fail to see the range of available alternatives

and resources. Sometimes victims simply play the blame game and are not interested

in solutions. Remember, however that certain victims simply don’t have solutions or

“know-how” and after a long period of frustration they just give up all hope of finding

tools that would work. At this point negativity sets in and the victim starts shifting

blame instead of taking responsibility.

The victim is an excellent role for community workers to play to hide their own

shame, inadequacies, frustration or hurt. Complaining is used to justify failure and

becomes a placebo that soothes them into feeling better. However, it comes with the

cost of being further bitten, dominated and stripped of the power to take charge of

the situation.

Book Review: Dependency to Dignity - The A2B for Community Development

Read the review on Dependency to Dignity - The A2B for Community Development. (See its link under "Pages") The book has thrown down the gauntlet and is challenging all professionals, social workers, therapists, community workers, socio-economical developers, NGOs, NPOs CBOs, small business owners, business managers, corporate conglomerates and the government to break the chains that are dragging South Africa and her people down a vast black hole of disempowerment. 

The book is currently in production and ought to be available within a few weeks. Send us an e-mail if you are interested in ordering it and we will inform you when it has arrived.

Welcome

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