Right, no post yesterday, so here's stuff from yesterday's paper -- and earlier:
The Kielburgers document three development projects in Kenya that never got off the ground, fallout from:
the Field of Dreams syndrome: the naive belief that if you build a hospital, school or well, somehow, magically, doctors and teachers and maintenance workers will just appear to make the project a success.
That reminded me of something I'd thought of after reading Three Cups of Deceit, about the man who got famous for building schools in Afghanistan -- except building them was just the first step, and many of them never got past it. The trouble was, again, getting professionals to work in remote areas. If he wanted the kids to learn, why didn't he also raise money to pay (as much as was necessary) teachers? Or, I don't know, stay and teach the kids himself? Obscure teachers don't get famous, of course, and neither do donors who quietly cover their expenses, but if all that mattered was that the kids got taught . . .
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