Neo-Colonialism and Development Practitioners

7/28/2019 Neo-Colonialism and Development Practitioners

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Neo-colonialism andDevelopment Practitioners

St. Johns University

Kurt Rietema


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First Image: Feeding Yellowstone Bears


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Second Image:Jane Goodall with Chimps


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What are the similarities / differences?


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Categories for Consideration:

Power Motives

Time Frame Authenticity Trust Proximity Barriers

Health Attitudes

Goals Dependence Roles Behavioral Change


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A Collision of Two Worlds

- Using these two images as a metaphor for

development can be inherently offensive. Yet

perhaps some of our approaches to

development are even more demeaning to thecommunities we work with. But what is

undeniable is that in development work there is

often a collision of values, of worldview, and

mergers of cultures. The question that remains

is how can we do development that doesnt seekto assimilate or unnecessarily impose the values

of the development agency/practitioner onto the

communities we work with.


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Role of Development Practitioner

- Sometimes development practitioners have

patronizing and neo-colonial attitudes and

postures towards the communities we work with

that appear like tourists feeding the Yellowstonebears. Our failure to recognize power dynamics,

our short-sighted goals, our motivations, the

psychological, emotional, social and

geographical distances we place between us asprofessionals and the clients we serve ends

up fostering distrust and codependent

relationships that ultimately fail.


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Role of Development Practitioner

- How might we as development practitioners

cultivate attitudes and approaches towards the

communities that we work with that look more

like Jane Goodall? How can we develop that

trust that is built over years, that is cultivated by

proximity, lack of barriers, that doesnt create

dependency, but allows the community to thrive

in its natural habitat, where we dont seek to

assimilate, but to advocate to outsiders on theirbehalf by creating awareness of the detrimental

effects of policies and practices outside of the

communitys control?


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If youve come here to help me, youre

wasting your time. But if you have comebecause your liberation is bound up with

mine then let us work together.

quote attributed to Lilla Watson, an aboriginal activist.

- Watson makes the radical assertion that while

many communities certainly need development,

outside assistance, and liberation, they may notbe the only ones who need help. Those who come

to serve and help also need liberation of an

altogether different sort.


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It seems that the wealthy are poor in a way that is

a mirror image of the poverty of the poor. Having

too much is as bad for us as having too little. Toolittle food makes us weak and at risk of disease; too

much food makes us overweight and prone to heart

disease and diabetes. Water in the Third World is

dirty and bad for our health; water in wealthynations is sometimes bad because it gets polluted

with chemicals from our progress. The poor have

unfit housing; the wealthy are often slaves to their

house payments. A poet, Octavio Paz, said that

the rich have too few fiestas and are poor, while the

poor have too many fiestas and are also poor.

Bryant Myers, Walking with the Poor


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Poverty (and Privilege) Alleviation?

How do we interpret

this data?-At first glance, some

might suggest that

Hispanics and Blackshave a lot to learn from

Whites in terms of

acquiring wealth.

- Yet when given historical

context to this were given

a fuller picture that this

wealth was acquired not

simply through merit

alone, but that some were

systematically excluded.


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Poverty (and Privilege) Alleviation?

From Handouts to Hand ups to a Hand down

-An important distinction has been made between aid

and development, between charity and justice. It isnt

simply about giving the poor a handout, but also a

hand up. Perhaps its time to add a new category.Maybe the privileged also need a hand down, a way

to bridge the socioeconomic chasms that exist.

- Many challenges exist to doing this. How can we

avoid class warfare? Can this be done without

creating new categories of disenfranchised persons?Are measures like this necessarily coercive and if so

does personal autonomy demand that the privileged

make this by choice?


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References

Freire, P. (2003). Pedagogy of Hope: Reliving Pedagogy of the Oppressed. NewYork: Continuum.

Myers, B. (1999). Walking with the Poor. New York: Orbis Books.

Pew Research Center (2011). Median Net Worth of Households, 2005 and 2009.

Retrieved July 6, 2013 from

http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2011/07/26/wealth-gaps-rise-to-record-

highs-between-whites-blacks-hispanics/

[Untitled Feeding Yellowstone Bears] Retrieved July 6, 2013 from http://the-cause-

and-effect.blogspot.com/

[Untitled Jane Goodall with Chimps] Retrieved July 6, 2013 fromhttp://rheaharmsen.com/2012/03/24/womens-history-month-pioneer-

primatologist-jane-goodall-one-of-the-paradigm-shifters-of-science/

Watson, L. [If you have come] Retrieved July 6, 2013 from

http://www.solidarityawareness.org/

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Neo-Colonialism and Development Practitioners