HOW DO YOU HELP?

I do a LOT of guest podcasts and one this week was so fascinating I had to share some thoughts from it.  The Break it Down Show is hosted by Pete Turner who introduces himself as a former U.S. military spy, serving in Bosnia, Iraq, and Afghanistan.  Pete's career in these foreign conflicts immersed him with farmers to both gather intelligence and then to try to reward them with U.S. expertise.

                  The upshot of his career was this:  American help was bad, not good.  Well intended, to be sure, but completely misguided.  Two poignant lines stand out:

                  1.  You can't improve the condition of someone when you refuse to understand their situation.

                  2.  We'd prescribe the problem and solution before we even arrived on scene.  We predetermined the problem and already had the answer. 

                  Pete said the overall mentality of the U.S. advisors from the military, USAID, and USDA was that these farmers were stupid.  In a couple of illustrative stories, the U.S. folks decided the farmers needed greenhouses but assumed they were unfamiliar with plastic.  Pete took a short helicopter ride to survey the countryside and saw miles of plastic strategically placed on the ground to channel water to gardens and orchard trees.  They definitely new about plastic. 

                  In another, American advisors devised all sorts of equipment and schemes to harvest pomegranates.  The farmers said there was no such thing as a crop so big their families and extended relatives couldn't harvest it.  "We didn't even know how to communicate with them," Pete said.  One recurring problem was failure to understand a theocracy.  When clerics determine practice, Americans don't have a place mentally or politically to go appreciate religion-based requirements.

                  I won't go into all the conversation, but you get the drift.  I pointed out to Pete that this kind of arrogance and condescension did not start in Bosnia, Afghanistan, or Iraq, or even with the U.S. military.  I'm reminded of my hour-long visit decades ago with George Wythe during a wonderful visit to Williamsburg.  Wythe was Thomas Jefferson's professor at William and Mary.  A costumed period-player, this modern day incarnation was about as close as anyone can get to the thinking of the day.

                  I asked him about the Natives and he replied quickly:  "they're just savages, uncivilized barbarians."  When I countered that the Natives had language, treaties, councils, hierarchy, religion and amazing canoes, he replied "but they don't wear powdered wigs, drive stage coaches, or know parliamentary procedure."  I argued that they had talking sticks, peace pipes, and tribal councils toward consensus.  After much thought, and with a twinkle in his eye, he resigned himself to this:  "history may prove me wrong, but that's what I think."

                  Methinks history has proven him wrong, but this kind of disrespect and dishonor toward the Natives permeated American thought and is still expressed in how "we help people."  The notion of help is a euphemism for "I have it figured out and you're stupid."  

                  My prayer is that I be humble enough and charitable enough to respect and honor people who think differently.  Can we help each other?  Of course. And we should.  But don't cancel, censor, demean and name call in the process.  I'm embarrassed and apologetic over this continuing arrogance.   

                  Why do we tend to tell rather than listen?