>I just watched the "Sahara" episode of Bob Geldof's BBC series on
>Africa. At the end he speaks of tapping in to a universal "world
>wide web", not of information, not of knowledge, not even of wisdom,
>but of understanding. It seems to me that perhaps "understanding" is
>the most important word.

Deirdre Williams comments about Bob Geldof touch on something very
important but often overlooked. It is easy to be right (with a small
"r") but still wrong with a (big W").

There are two differences and one similarity between the Geldof's of
the world and the millions of poor peasants and children who life a
terrible and oft times all to short life on this planet. The
similarity is that given time to think they all want the same
things....including understanding as way station on the road to
social justice, peace, personal dignity, and - of course decent food,
clothing and shelter. The two differences are (1) the Geldof's of the
world have decent food, clothing and shelter (beyond the wildest
dreams of the millions of poor), and (2) the Geldof's of the world
get to monopolize the media talking about the plight of the rest of
the world. This is where the big "W" wrong comes in.

During World War II the American humorist Will Rogers advised the
President of the United States on how to deal with the deadly attacks
of the Germany submarines in the Atlantic. His advice was "Fill them
with water.". When the President ask "How do we do that?" Will Rogers
replied. "I gave you the solution, you work out the details.". Thus
it is with the pronouncements of the Geldof's of the world.

There is not a living soul who works in the area of development who
would not agree that "understanding" is a crucial element to forward
motion. Translating that into "fast-track" practical action is
another challenge altogether. Part of that practical action would
involve stepping on the toes and harming the interests of those who
support the Geldof's of the world (the current rules of the game for
multinational corporation behavior, mass media and international trade.).

The sad question for me is why in the name of all that is important
do we waste our time listening to privileged people telling us what
we know (the little "r" truths) when there is so much to be done now.
What is to be done now does require, as Mao noted, breaking a
few eggs in the process. Never have the privileged really supported
such action.

Sam Lanfranco
Lamenting away in Canada's farm county
Nearby Mon Jul 25 11:16:46 2005