Message-ID: <9605078341.AA834162335@hudsmtphq.hud.gov> Date: Fri, 7 Jun 1996 08:45:35 EST From: Michael Patterson <mailto:Michael_O._Patterson@HUD.GOV> Subject: Re: ARE STAKEHOLDERS/COMMUNITIES ALWAYS RIGHT To: Multiple recipients of list DEVEL-L <mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU>
A second issue is that what to do when the community is not interested in a beneficial activity eg. running of community schools, health units, womens group etc. Initially they may not like the idea and may need mobolization and convincing. Should development workers contrary to the wishes of the community do the mobolization efforts. The mobolization efforts may take years sometimes. ---------------------------- There is an Arabic proverb that's relevant here: "Itaqi sharan an man ahsanata ilayh", "expect an evil thing from those you do good unto". Mark Twain expressed it more prolifically by saying that if you took a starving dog off the street, treated it well, fed it, gave it a warm place to sleep, it probably wouldn't bite you, and that that was the primary difference between a dog and a man.Why? Well, doing good for others is a wonderful thing. Or is it? What exactly is a white elephant good for? People don't necessarily want what you want to give them, they want what they want. Everyone wants their own dreams, they want to have power over their own lives. Charity demeans the receiver, at least in my culture. Case in point: battered women's shelter, Denver. Residents were really angry about being given 2 sets of clothes, 1 pair shoes, &c. They DEMANDED that they be issued monopoly money, and that they choose what they wanted from the donated goods. Well, it seems like a slight thing, and to management it is, but for the residents, it was a major difference- they had control.
There is an old Sufi image of humans- the carriage. The horses are the emotions, the driver the rational mind, the carriage the body, and the passenger the soul. If you want to go somewhere, you can talk to the driver. If you want to get there fast, though, interest the horses. Sales of ideas are like that. The Dudley St. Initiative, in Boston's Roxbury neighborhood, is a great success story for this kind of development, in our area. If you can get a film of a success story, that really touches the heart, you won't have any more motivation problems, your problems will be trying to slow down the excited people who want to do the work.
I have a manual that deals with this area, written because I couldn't find anything else I liked, which I will e-mail to you separately; it's about 150Kb or a little less as ASCII text, so I don't want to put this out generally, but if anyone else is interested, I'll ship it to them also.
In answer to your question, they are always right, they just may not be focused. The customer is always right.