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IP: RE: Two items -- please read and reply if you care to
From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Thu, 08 Nov 2001 08:28:54 -0500
From: requested anonymity To: dave () farber net Dave, It's not a reply to your questions. It regards the difficulties to learn from others. I very appreciate your objectivity, and balance, regarding other's opinions and value it highly. It's a rare value. It's an approach I am always trying to take in my job and personnal life. It's a necessity when like me you work in an international environment. However I feel you missed one major point: > It is important > that we understand how others view us -- our friends and > enemies, so we may understand how to correct their views > if they are negative. I think you should add: "or adjust ours when it can be improved". Their is a lot to gain from others. In foreign/international affairs there is a much too long tradition to try to "correct other's views" without improving our own views. In particular this is why some may find frustrating that their "help" is not always appreciated. The 1973 editorial from a Canadian you sent in September ("America the good neighbour"), is a good illustration. I think it should be read in this perspective too. I investigated a lot with older friends to obtain this "other point of view" and factual elements on what happened in Europe w.r.t. to US aid initiatives. Since these times I thing that foreign aid has evolved significantly, nowadays most developped countries are no longer helping others by doing major tasks on their behalf but by providing necessary help (funds, technology, food, etc...) and letting the receiver take a greater part in organising itself to manage it. It has proven very succesful. This is where it is difficult to accept that "others" may have different ways of doing it, and this is where you can learn too. There is always something to learn from others, and it's not always a good idea to "correct" them. Foreign aid programmes are starting to take that way, but slowly. In particular towards less developped countries. Past history often comes back and we all have to fight back not to repeat the same things of the past, just to keep the best bones and learn from mistakes by building improved aid programmes. It is better not to impose our essential values and views, but to just expose them, explain them, and let other interpret them, adapt them, and sometimes adopt them, but in their own ways, taking into account local history, culture, organisation, economy, etc... But it requires to set our own pride aside from time to time, when our essential values or not immediately understood. It's nevertheless worthwhile because it comes back grown by new success as time goes.
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- IP: RE: Two items -- please read and reply if you care to David Farber (Nov 08)