Parlor Wit

Old Boy Scout Joke [with relevance to the post which follows]:

First Boy Scout: I had a hard time helping an old lady cross the street today.
Second Boy Scout: Why?
First Boy Scout: She didn’t want to cross the street.

A Pragmatic Approach to Foreign Aid: Easterly

It is clearly in our own interest to aid poorer countries. We are all interconnected, and more so now than ever before. Disease, terrorism, and wars in those places can end up affecting all of us. How should we respond? In his book titled “The White Man’s Burden”, William Easterly discusses two opposing answers to that question: the response of “Planners”; and the response of “Searchers”.

Easterly says that “A Planner thinks he already knows the answers; he thinks of poverty as a technical engineering problem that his answers will solve…A Planner believes outsiders know enough to impose solutions.” Easterly suggests that Planners represent the traditional [“White Man’s Burden”] approach to foreign aid, and he faults them for

• announcing good intentions, but failing to motivate people to follow through;
• imposing global blueprints and fixed objectives that lack knowledge of local conditions;
• raising expectations without accepting responsibility for meeting them; and
• deciding what will be supplied to recipients, but never determining whether the recipients got what they needed.

Doesn’t this sound regrettably like the neo-con approach to Iraq?

By contrast, Easterly says that “A Searcher admits he doesn’t know the answers in advance; he believes that poverty is a complicated tangle of political, social, historical, institutional, and technological factors. A Searcher hopes to find answers to individual problems only by trial and error experimentation…A Searcher believes only insiders have enough knowledge to find solutions, and that most solutions must be homegrown.” Easterly argues that Searchers represent a superior approach to foreign aid, because Searchers

• determine first what is in demand by recipients, looking for any opportunity to relieve suffering;
• get to know local realities, “find things that work and get some reward” involved as an incentive to meeting those demands;
• “find out if the customer is satisfied”; and
• accept responsibility for their actions.

I would point out that the Searcher approach is also more in keeping with the philosophies of pragmatism and democracy as discussed in this blog, whereas the Planner approach smacks of authoritarianism.

Easterly comments that only an elite few can be “Planners”, but anyone can be a Searcher, looking for ways to make “piecemeal, gradual improvements in the lives of the poor”. He comments that Searchers could work either at the local level, directly with poor individuals and communities, or at a higher level, evaluating the effectiveness of various agencies and programs.

As an example of a Searcher organization at the local level, I give you “Ecobamboo”. An organization mentioned by Easterly, GlobalGiving.com, may facilitate the higher order Searcher approach in line with his thinking.

The White Man’s Burden, by William Easterly, Penguin Press, 2006

Parlor Wit

In this scene from Monty Python and The Holy Grail, we are shown the danger of applying scientific analysis to matters of religion. Here wise Sir Bedevere demonstrates to villagers how they may identify a witch. ;)

BEDEVERE: Quiet! Quiet! There are ways of telling whether she is a witch.
ALL: There are? Tell us. What are they, wise Sir Bedevere?
BEDEVERE: Tell me ... what do you do with witches?
ALL: Burn them.
BEDEVERE: And what do you burn, apart from witches?
FOURTH VILLAGER: ... Wood?
BEDEVERE: So why do witches burn?
SECOND VILLAGER: ... Because they're made of wood...?
BEDEVERE: Good.
ALL: I see. Yes, of course.
BEDEVERE: So how can we tell if she is made of wood?
FIRST VILLAGER: Make a bridge out of her.
BEDEVERE: Ah ... but can you not also make bridges out of stone?
ALL: Ah. Yes, of course ... um ... err ...
BEDEVERE: Does wood sink in water?
ALL: No, no. It floats. Throw her in the pond. Tie weights on her. To the pond.
BEDEVERE: Wait. Wait ... tell me, what also floats on water?
ALL: Bread? No, no, no. Apples .... gravy ... very small rocks ...
ARTHUR: A duck.
They all turn and look at ARTHUR. BEDEVERE looks up very impressed.
BEDEVERE: Exactly. So... logically ...
FIRST VILLAGER: (beginning to pick up the thread) If she ... weighs the same as a duck .... she's made of wood.
BEDEVERE: And therefore?
ALL: A witch! ... A duck! A duck! Fetch a duck!
http://www.montypythonpages.com/index1.htm

Democratic Spirituality

My previous posts omitted mention of God and spirituality in order to suggest a foundation for democratic political philosophy which would serve that purpose without taking a position with respect theological or spiritual beliefs. But nothing presented in the previous essays should be read as precluding theological or spiritual beliefs. There are many instances in which religions from around the world assert values associated with the ideal of democracy, especially the ideals of equality and compassion. Here are some quotations attributed to various faiths which I believe illustrate my point:

1. Love thy neighbour as thyself. [Christian: Matthew 19:19.] http://www.bartelby.net/100/774.43.html
2. And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. [Christian: Matthew 25:40.] http://www.bartelby.net/108/40/25.html#29
3. The Bhikshu who acts with kindness, who is calm in the doctrine of Buddha, will reach the quiet place (Nirvana), cessation of natural desires, and happiness. [Buddhism The Dhammapada] http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/BUDDHISM/DHAMMA.HTM
4. Unwise is the monk who desires undue adoration from others, lordship over other monks, authority among the monastic dwellings and homage even from outside groups. Moreover, he thinks, "May both laymen and monks highly esteem my action! May they be subject to me in all actions, great or small." Such is the grasping desire of a worldly monk whose haughtiness and conceit ever increase. [Buddhism The Dhammapada] http://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/dhamma/dham5.htm#Canto5
5. In the name of the merciful and compassionate God.

Hast thou considered him who calls the judgment a lie? He it is who pushes the orphan away; and urges not (others) to feed the poor. But woe to those who pray and who are careless in their prayers, Who pretend and withhold necessaries. [Islam The Koran, sura 107] http://lexicorient.com/e.o/texts/koran/koran107.htm

6. The Talmud tells us further: "Anyone who judges others favorably will be judged favorably in Heaven" (Sabbath 127b). This follows the general principle that G-d rewards and punishes us "measure for measure" (Mishna Sotah 1:7). If we are patient and understanding with others, G-d will act in the same manner towards us. If not, G-d will get his cues, so to speak, from our own behavior. Sadly, G-d's method of judgment is only too just. [Judaism, Mishnah 6(b)] http://www.torah.org/learning/pirkei-avos/chapter1-6b.html