Message-ID: <Pine.SV4.3.91.960613084310.1591E-100000@purple> Date: Thu, 13 Jun 1996 08:55:42 -0400 From: Tom Abeles <mailto:tabeles@TMN.COM> Subject: Re: WHAT HAVE WE DONE! To: Multiple recipients of list DEVEL-L <mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU>
Riaz Khan's experience in monetizing an NGO is a critical issue.The qeustion asked in the end as to what has been done is irrelevant and immaterial.When a woman gets pregnant, it is too late to say, hmmm what have we done? In acutality a responsibility has been created for maybe as long as 20+ years. feed, clothes, educate and create a responsible citizen.
Consultants in development are playing this same dangerous game. Only, because they are funded externally and can leave, don't have to take responsibility for their actions. They can write a report and go on to the next project.
Riaz Khan's confession of havilng created the equivalent of a pregnancy is the same as a man confessing to getting a woman pregnant. Great honesty, but what are you now going to do about this. It's your child. It's your repsonsibility. No one made you do it. Maybe the funding agency that is supporting you will also take responsibility and help you in this situation
The real question is what are you going to do now that you have admitted to this?
---The borader question to this listserv maybe "is abstinance a better choice?"Kahn has clearly shown what development consultants have known for a long time, whether it is a mega project or a simple AT project in the hinterlands. Consultants are being paid to play with people's lives- needing to put food on the table, can the consultant say "no". Now maybe it becomes clearer why some people sell drugs, their bodies and whatever.
It is high time that the international consulting community adopted some form of ethics and if Daddy Warbucks comes in with a bright idea, maybe he should also pay to correct a project gone awry. Definitely the consultant should also bear some of the burden.
Maybe the issues of development will take on a differenct tone
tom abeles mailto:tabeles@tmn.com