There's No Easy Answer

Some more thoughts from my first couple weeks in Uganda:

When discussing development, what exactly are our goals? I mean, what is “development?” What does that actually mean? Should we be trying to pave every road in third world countries? Bring skyscrapers to their cities? Clean water for everybody? Employment opportunities for all? Are we trying to make their lives “just a little bit better” than they were before? What are we really doing? I ask this because, as I’m sitting here, I have no answer, and it frustrates me.

In the northern hemisphere, we are typically white and typically rich. (I know those are broad generalizations, but in comparison to the southern hemisphere, they’re pretty true.) We hear certain things about life in developing countries: there’s no food, no water, poor living standards, huge health issues, low life expectancy, high infant mortality rates, high illiteracy rates, and on and on and on. So we rich white people, who live superior lives, out of compassion decide to help our “lowly brothers and sisters.” (I realize I sound very cynical right now, I’m just taking you through my thoughts. Please judge not.) But we often overlook the dangers of our own culture: an unhealthy desire for wealth and success, devaluing relationships, hoarding our wealth, and gorging ourselves with “pleasure.” Is this what we want to pass on to developing nations already entrenched in their own problems? And can’t we learn from the poor: their interdependency, sense of community, pride in their family/heritage, and a slower pace of life that leads to “fuller” lives in the form of relationships (in comparison to the multitude of rich, busy, empty Americans).

So in thinking about all of this, I’m almost hesitant to want to engage in “economic development.” However, there are two things that stand out and make it seem worthwhile: security and relationships. Most people in Uganda, and the rest of the developing world, don’t have the security we have in America. They often have enough money to get by day-by-day, but no way to cover for emergencies. For example, if a family is subsistence farming, and doing well, but then the rains don’t come in season, then what? Or when health problems arise (strokes, surgery, malaria, HIV/AIDS)? People simply do not have the necessary funds to cover for these types of problems. Because there is not a culture of savings, there is very little security for unforeseen future problems. So regarding microfinance, educating the community about the importance of savings is huge.

Regarding development as a whole, relationships make the work worth the effort. When I look at the world from a broad perspective, I find a very pessimistic outlook. There is always going to be poverty, hunger, famine, war, political corruption, injustice, death, diseases, pollution, and on and on and on. So even engage in development work? If these problems will always be there, why even attempt to make the world a better place? Because we have the ability to affect lives, to change them for the better. We have to look at it case by case, person by person, to see that there is some hope in doing development work. I’m excited to start working in the community here, to start seeing lives changed in real way. When I look at development on a personal level, placing value in relationships rather than purely economic empowerment, then it all seems worth it. And it gives me a hopeful outlook on development in the future: if enough people are all doing their part, just a little bit, then big things can really happen, and the world can truly become a better place.