A regular reader of my blogs may get the impression that I have done 50 or more major projects without any problem. That is true. However I have had one failure.
I have one major project that I have completely failed to organize.
During the many years in which I travelled in Third World countries and talked to important organizers and leaders in these countries I found one conclusive, dominant theme that seems to have never reached the ears of anyone else in First World countries.
I was told time and time again that most people in traditional tribal environments want little or nothing to do with the massive overlay of First World projects. Not only was I told this many times but I saw countless cases where First World aid projects were encouraged to fail or deliberately sabotaged.
The message I got was simple: ‘We are happy to have products that we can buy in the market but we do not want industrial world jobs and the associated lifestyle. We do not want to go to work at eight o'clock five days a week for eight hours. We do not want any of the First World imposed on our traditional way of life. There are some diseases we can do without but the eradication must minimize the disruption of our lives.
I tried to create an organization that would communicate this message to all of the do-gooders and aid providers in the world. An organization to respect the wishes of tribal peoples.
In 20 years of trying, I only found three people who understood the issue and concurred with me on the need for an organization. That is not enough for me to create an organization.
The Internet should be a place to organize such a movement but I don't know how to do Internet organizing. It is not simply putting up a high quality web page. I have tried that.
I have one major project that I have completely failed to organize.
I was told time and time again that most people in traditional tribal environments want little or nothing to do with the massive overlay of First World projects. Not only was I told this many times but I saw countless cases where First World aid projects were encouraged to fail or deliberately sabotaged.
The message I got was simple: ‘We are happy to have products that we can buy in the market but we do not want industrial world jobs and the associated lifestyle. We do not want to go to work at eight o'clock five days a week for eight hours. We do not want any of the First World imposed on our traditional way of life. There are some diseases we can do without but the eradication must minimize the disruption of our lives.
I tried to create an organization that would communicate this message to all of the do-gooders and aid providers in the world. An organization to respect the wishes of tribal peoples.
In 20 years of trying, I only found three people who understood the issue and concurred with me on the need for an organization. That is not enough for me to create an organization.
The Internet should be a place to organize such a movement but I don't know how to do Internet organizing. It is not simply putting up a high quality web page. I have tried that.