| By Gavin Chait,
on 27 February 2007
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 Today they love you ... tomorrow?
Recently I was asked, “when does altruism end and masochism begin?”
Sadly, they may both be available at the same time. “He who has worked for a revolution is like one who has ploughed the sea,” said Simon Bolivar.
The truth of successful social development is not in helping other people directly but in creating an environment in which they are encouraged to help themselves.
It is no good destroying agriculture through poorly thought out land redistribution policies, and then expecting people to expend effort developing land that may be taken away before they experience the rewards of that labour; as Zimbabwe does. It is no good refusing to purchase agricultural produce from a nation and then, once the incentive to produce food is removed, supplying free food from the surpluses produced by your own protected farmers; as Europe does. These are moral conundrums; creating the seeds for frustration.
If you seek an emotional response from people you must be prepared for those emotions to change. Hollywood is littered with yesterday’s heroes, now today’s villains. Emotions are a tricky thing. The development sector has been promoted by pop stars and film icons; development organisations clamour to be seen and associated with that glamour. They should know better.
Development, like a properly managed economy, is run by people who do not seek the adoration of the general public. Much of what central bank Governors get up to is opaque the lay person. Alan Greenspan is understood and recognised by economists. No-one else really knows what he got up to. Scientists are recognised by their peers, not the public.
Whenever science or economics have become populist we have seen cheating. Scientists who release findings that, when subjected to peer review, are pure lies; economists who promise you can get rich from other people’s labour run their countries into the ground.
As Sun Tzu said, “The general who advances without coveting fame and retreats without fearing disgrace, whose only thought is to protect his country and do good service for his sovereign, is the jewel of the kingdom.”
The development organisation which intervenes without coveting fame and seeks long-term solutions over short-term populist grandstanding, whose only thought is to create choice and opportunities for the beneficiaries of their interventions, is the jewel of the world.
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