The pen is indeed mightier than the sword, but a voice is mightier still

By Matt Whiteman, cross-posted at the Global Lounge blog

We’re right in the thick of International Development Week and I wanted to begin my reflections with a quick recap of the main events (please forgive some cynicism):

Monday: The Development of International Development – Dr. Jennifer Chun and Dr. Michael Seear take us on a dizzying gallop through a centuries-long history of, well, development.

Tuesday: A Day in the Life of the International Humanitarian – A panel of speakers from different backgrounds gave us an idea about what (some) development is (unfortunately…) really like.

Thursday (upcoming): The Impact of International Journalism on International Development – STAND, the Fiji Awareness Network and EIESL will duke it out around issues of representation.

I won’t name names, but I honestly wish a few of the panelists on Tuesday could have been in the room during the tag team history lesson on Monday. I was put off although not particularly surprised at the paternalism and lack of critical thought from one or two of the presenters (please tell me what rural Ethiopia needs with a yoga teacher and a mountain guide…). I was intrigued (and also not particularly surprised) by the lucidity and humility of others. It was reassuring to see fresh as well as familiar faces walking the talk, with real, useful skills and commitment.

Focusing back on Monday’s event, “The Development of International Development”, we got two very different approaches to a complex subject. It was a history not only of important figures and events, but also of important ideas, something which I have often found lacking sufficient representation in the way we write and talk about our past (well, outside academia anyway). It was easy to see that what we call development has been characterized, rather soberingly, mostly by abject failure and lack of foresight.

Nevertheless, tangled in the feelings of great anger, cynicism and fatigue, there was a message coated in cautious optimism: Despite all the waste, arrogance and petty politics of the lords of poverty, a better world is indeed possible. That world comes not from self-interest, but from genuine relationship. If you must go, if you’ve made the choice to “do development”, don’t go as a tourist, and whatever you do, don’t pretend as though you can help. Go to really learn what it means to be in poverty. Go to witness. Go to learn someone’s name, their language, their story, and about their particular struggle for social justice.

One of the presenters on Tuesday described coming home to Vancouver from a slum as coming “back to reality”. Having witnessed this place with my own eyes, I wondered what on Earth that could possibly mean. Life in slums is far more representative of “reality” than most of Vancouver ever could be; it is what over half the population of this planet calls reality. We would do well to remember that.