Chronicle of the Month – June 2008

Can money alone really help undeveloped countries?
by Elda Remy

We often hear that we live in a “two-speed” world. There are countries that we call rich and developing countries that we can consider having a satisfying living standard, then we find poor countries among which, the majority, if not all African countries.

They benefit from lots of different international assistance and while their might be some other incentives in the back of their minds, big amounts of money are given to them every year for development help. We can also find many private organizations working locally trying to raise some funds, whether used for children scholarships, trainings or the implementation of small businesses to help people take care of their families
Western countries are by those actions buying themselves a good conscience, but can we really help poor countries by accelerating their development?

It has taken the western world centuries of war, famines and epidemics to build itself and become what it is today. I am not saying that the western world is the example to follow, this is a totally different subject, but what I mean to say is that we should maybe let the poor countries develop at their own rhythm and in the way they decide to. This may mean that they will keep living according to their traditions, that may look anachronistic to us, for another hundreds of years and evolve towards a model of society totally different from ours.

By implementing our way of life in a society which does not necessarily have the means to live up to it, we end up creating a society, which still observes traditions that have no more meaning, and a modern western way of living, which exists only seemingly with its bad sides without its advantages.

It is certainly true that education is important, but education alone is not enough to change mentalities. We can find a large number of young people in poor countries with university degrees; still it does not fundamentally change their mentalities. They continue to work with tribal rules that do not allow a change which would help their society evolve.

The change will not happen from one day to another, but if instead of treating these countries like small children and giving them millions of dollars to be able to take advantage of them with a good conscience, we should invest in “Men development” by giving a value and a responsibility to each. It could become the lead for change. And when the majority understands that corruption, profit for themselves or for their families and friends, always ends up turning against them, only then can we hope that one day everyone will feel responsible of its own future and the future of the society as a whole. Who knows? It might then be the beginning of a new era for poor countries.