Shifting from generosity to suspicion can be subtle. Shifting from you are in need and therefore eligible to prove you are eligible. And prove it with more and more personal data. Our response is not an assumption of need that needs to be proven otherwise. We have shifted to an assumption of fraud which needs to be proven otherwise.

And if you can’t prove who you are in ways we find acceptable, you are not eligible. We blame KYC, AML, and other regulations and policies. And we blame you for not being able to prove yourself. We forget to ask what can we do, how can we ensure you don’t go hungry.

We forget too that 99% of people are honest, good, and want to feed their family like we do. Yes, there are fraudsters, but they are minuscule in number. What if our policies and regulations celebrated the good? The honest? What if we made it easy for them? What would our assistance look like?

The choice is up to us.

Photo by Hello I’m Nik