Harambee

A few things to think about. I just heard an interview with Binyavanga Wainaina on NPR about both the value and unintended damage that charities do in Africa. He (let's call him Bin, for short) specifically talks about Kenya, as he is a Kenyan. He offers an interesting perspective. Among his points, as I oversimplifiedly understand them:

- Sometimes charities, in trying to get people to donate out of guilt by showing tragic images, misrepresent the nation as a whole. For every dollar that gets donated out of pity, how many dollars are not invested because investors are scared away by the cruel images? Good charity aids development, poorly executed charity stifles it. That is probably true in a lot of places. Obviously it is a tough and fine line to walk there.

- For all the good that Bill Gates has done and intends to do, he does have his critics. Bin seems to feel that they (those affected by the good deeds) are not permitted to put any of these highly-touted projects under scrutiny, though they should be thoroughly examined. If they are all for the better, fine. If not (and we won't know unless we examine them), we move on and adjust them, cooperatively.

- Bin also brings up the fact that Kenya is only about 45 years old = a young country. What is happening there may look ugly from the outside, but nations are built on adversity, he argues. If there had been a 24 hour news cycle during our civil war, what would it have looked like as we ended up with 600,000ish dead plus another 400,000 wounded. That is not so long ago in history. It's hard to have a fair historical perspective, and it is hard to sit by and watch terrible events occur (but somehow we're able to do so). To a degree, he thinks we should stay out of the fray.

- He argues for Kenyan solutions to Kenyan problems. Bin welcomes cooperative support from the West, but said that the things that have worked and pushed Kenya forward have been rooted in national initiatives. He mentioned a focus in the 60's and 70's where the government dedicated 30% of the GDP to education. Quality of life improved dramatically as people could see a path from rural poverty to growth through personal initiative. An educated class was formed. Pretty cool. And let us not forget that many of the problems in Africa are a lingering result of vacuums of power and political structure left by... yes, the West. To paraphrase Homer Simpson "The West: the cause of, and solution to all of life's problems."

- Harambee = "Let's all pull together." (swahili) (Kenyan national motto)