On Development, Part 1

First thing, Im writing this in a cyber cafe and I cant figure out how to type an apostrophe on these ridiculous French keyboards, but rather than write everything like a complete fop, youre just going to have to be clever in your reading.

So, Ive decided to write a little about development work. The first and most obvious thing is that it is slow. Very slow. My group and I are still learning how to do it (though not very quickly as our obvious most pressing need is to speak the language), but the volunteer already serving in this town, who has been here for over a year already, is still struggling to get the people together to work.

The reason for this slowness boils down to a few key points. First, you have the cadre of government officials who arent so much concerned with the development of the country as they are of having a job. That is to say, they care more about having a job than they do about personal advancement and so forth. There is also a good deal of inter-ministry non-interaction as teapot sultans want to conserve any available credit for themselves. The second and most challenging problem - for PCVs - is that real development must be sustainable; otherwise it isnt really development at all. What this means is that it has to be able to reproduce itself without the presence of the volunteer.

So what, you say. Why is that such a problem? Well, the answer is that many have a perception of the volunteer as a charitable institution; someone who comes to teach English and donate books, technology, etc. Unfortunately, this sort of "development" really only takes work away from qualified citizens and builds a "beggar culture" with the country. We need new schools, ask the Americans; we need new soccer equipment, ask the Americans; we need new books, ask the Americans (insert any other Westerners for Americans if you want). This is not to say that this is what all Moroccans think or even the majority, but it is a dangerous enough situation that the Peace Corps refuses to allow us to work without domestic counterparts (and rightly so, in my opinion). Every time that we have an idea for some kind of project, from a girls soccer team to an AIDS prevention clinic, we have to find a local Moroccan or Moroccans to do it. We can work with them, give them ideas, be their organizing force - but they have to be the ones to do it, otherwise the country isnt really growing.

Sometimes you find yourself somewhere that is just waiting for a catalyst to push them forwards, and sometimes you find yourself somewhere that expects you to do everything for them, but regardless of where you are, if youre working by yourself, you arent doing development.

More about that later.