On Development.

So, this is the subject of an email I just received from Oxfam:

I need totell you what I saw in West Africa.

It’s from Emily. She works for Oxfam and it’s not her job to write emails but she really wanted to write this one because she just came back from Chad and she’s finding it hard to forget what she saw out there.

-____________-

I’ve already stopped reading.

Sigh.

I mean, I’m sure the work Oxfam is doing is excellent, and that they’ve helped millions of people the world over. I just can’t help but be mad at this e-mail.

It’s difficult though. People are suffering. But I feel like the way aid and development is going at the moment is not hot. One of the articles I came across while reading about post-colonial theory wrote about how the mainstream development process was simply a replica of colonialism - the colonial subject has become the aid recipient and the colonial master has become the development practitioner… I think I agree.

On that quote about teaching a man to fish instead of giving him a fish

from one of my textbooks - I love it when I enjoy what I’m reading while I study for uni. this boosted mine, I was definitely clicking as I read it lol

‘Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed for him a lifetime’

“Do the experts teach everyone to fish, or just the poor? Without targeting, there may be little left for the most deserving. If you teach the poor to fish, do they have the nets and the boats they need; will they be able to buy or rent them? Do they have access to the fishing grounds, or are these monopolized by the local elite? If they catch fish, are they able to market them and get a fair price – or are they exploited by middlemen? Are they equipped to withstand the risks of fishing in dangerous waters? Are the waters polluted either killing the fish or rendering them inedible? How environmentally sustainable is the trade? If you teach only the man to fish, will the benefits be shared within his family? These questions are unanswered. And by the way has anyone bothered to ask the poor whether they like fish? Is it a culturally appropriate skill to teach them?”