In Deep Development

Being Peace Corps volunteers some part of each day is spent alone in "deep" thought. There have been many days for me when the work is going slow and my frustration level is high and my "deep" thoughts focus on one question; What is development? I want to believe that everything I am doing here is working and more importantly will continue to work when I am gone. I have just finished the book "Banker to the Poor" by the man who started the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh. His belief is that everyone possesses at least one skill he calls a survival skill and that by having this the poorest of poor don't lack training but rather they lack the opportunity to capitalize on this skill. I want to adopt his way of thinking and want to find ways in which my fellow Karagans can create capital with the skills they already posses. There are so many arguments in this book that I feel point out the flaws in the way that development is perceived and distributed by those of us in the western world. I would like to share a quote that highlights this perception: "Most people distance themselves from the issue by saying that if the poor worked harder they wouldn't be poor. When we want to help the poor, we usually offer them charity. Most often we use charity to avoid recognizing the problem and finding a solution for it. Charity becomes a way to shrug off our responsibility. But charity is no solution to poverty. Charity only perpetuates poverty by taking the initiative away from the poor. Charity allows us to go ahead with our lives without worrying about the lives of the poor." My dilemma is now whether my presence is just charity from the American Government or if I am helping bring Ghanaians to a level playing field with the rest of the "developed" western world.