So this is a reading response I spent a bunch of time working on today only to realize it wasn’t an actual assignment. Awesome. I think I’m giving my brain the day off tomorrow.
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While sitting in the rain on the turf at Qwest Field in 2005 wondering who in their right mind plans an outdoor college graduation ceremony in Seattle, I heard a very strange graduation speech. Having just graduated from college, I was of course filled with idillic fervor for world change. But as I sat on the field, our speaker proceeded to tell us that we could not do whatever we set our minds to. Rather, the only way we would be happy and “successful” in life is to accept the path God had chosen for us. While I have since come to understand and agree with this point theologically, I believe the delivery could not have been worse! Friedman stated at the end of chapter 13, “… if it’s not happening, it’s because you’re not doing it” (pp. 514).

Reading the stories Friedman tells of people who saw a need or a business opportunity and then seized hold of it brought me back to that graduation speech. The idea of waiting for and then accepting the path God has chosen for you seems far too passive a statement to me, especially in a flat world! I believe that God has called us to actively seek out that path to which He has called us. That in the fighting for justice, whatever it may look like, we discover that special niche God has created us for. More importantly, I think this passionate search that will generate the new ideas and methods for development that will work from the bottom up, empowering people rather than governments, to bring about sustainable change in the world.

I’m increasingly coming to believe that traditional methods of top down development with stress on loans and aid to governments is flawed. We need new methods for development. Millenium Development Goals are great, but as even Jeffrey Sachs pointed out, we can’t keep funding true development with western funds (“The Magnificent seven,” 2006). Local nationals must take ownership and be able to sustain growth for it to be permanent. When people are given a vested reason to fight against corruption and abusive labor practices, rather than simply accept them as the way things are, is when the rule of law can finally take hold. To have “growth” that relies on outside funding kind of defeats the whole purpose. Fortunately I think we are moving in that direction.

Friedman (2007) pointed to the example of Jeremy Hockenstein and the transcription work he started in Cambodia. Hockenstein was searching for business opportunities that would be good investments and also be beneficial to the local employees. He found that niche in the transcription of documents that western businesses needed digitized. With a fraction of the startup cost he would face in the US, Hockenstein was able to open up his business and not only employ several local workers, but also give them the time and money needed to finish their schooling. Best of all, some of Hockenstein’s employees were able to take the skills they learned and spin off their own start up. Not only are these men able to feed their own families, presumably they will hire more workers as their business expands. This is the kind of ground up development that needs to take place to finally start seeing real change.

References:
Friedman, T. (2007). The World is flat. Picador:New York.
The Magnificent seven. (2006, April 27). The Economist, Retrieved from theeconomist.com

Filed under: life by Jonathan