by Michael Douglas Carlin
THE ROAD TO HELL IS PAVED WITH GOOD INTENTIONS
Our need to give should never steal the self-esteem that comes with standing on equal footing by any person earning his or her own keep through hard work and innovation.
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THE ROAD TO HELL IS PAVED WITH GOOD INTENTIONS
Many unintended consequences follow those that seek to do good.
We hear the stories of aid that gets subverted from hitting the intended mark. We read the headlines about millions of dollars paid in salaries. Money that does hit the mark often has the unintended consequences of creating aid dependency.
Dambisa Moyo wrote a great book called Dead Aid, in which she outlines the amount of aid that has poured into Africa. The conclusion is that all of this aid has left Africa worse off, because it has created an aid-dependent society. I am quite sure that most of those who contributed aid to Africa had no intention of creating an aid-dependent society. There are those who had every intention of creating aid dependency. Many charities exist to serve this need. Take away this need, and their purpose for existing disappears.
We should really ask ourselves if we are addicted to giving or are our recipients addicted to the gifts?
This is the perfect example of codependency. Not all codependency is unhealthy. Breastfeeding babies go through a weaning process as they transition to solid food. Once complete, they never return to breastfeeding. Nature provides support during the fragile infant state. In this case, the process leads to self-sufficiency.
I have been a student of relief work done by many NGO's, but one in particular has taken relief to many war torn countries as well as countries in the aftermath of a natural disaster. From my vantage point, it could be easily misconstrued that these men and women perform hit-and-runs on the societies that they touch.
They bring relief in during critical fragile windows and then leave to provide relief in other parts of the world in a seemingly unending chain of critical fragile windows around the world.
The hit-and-run style of the Knights that perform this service might be a more potent approach than it would seem. Their goal in not wanting to get entangled in a single unending mission is their commitment to not rob those embroiled in a fragile situation from exercising their own personal responsibility to return to self-sufficiency.
When they arrive with temporary relief, they make it clear that relief given today might only last a few months and that future shipments will not be coming. This prepares the refugees or IDPs (Internally Displaced Persons) for the reality that they have a responsibility to work hard to regain control over their own situations.
Those of you who follow my writings may know of the work of Sir Edward and the hierarchy of needs that he and his fellow Knights provide: food, shelter, health care, education, livelihood —all leading to hope.
The purpose of relief is not to create aid dependency but rather to create people who can stand on their own two feet without relief. Permanent relief creates aid dependency and the unintended consequence of robbing people of their dignity and their destiny.
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