1. Organizations, by their very nature, cannot help but become bureaucratic and impersonal eventually. The ones connected with the developing world often began as idealistic and pure ... and ... if not terribly efficient ... at least honest and caring. It seems that when they become bigger, slicker and more efficient, they lose their integrity.
2. People who spend a long time in the developing world do not become Malawian or Kenyan or Namibian ... but they change. Too many develop a love-hate relationship with the place and people. They love the fact that they can live extremely well on a Canadian salary, stipend or pension. They are the people who hire servants. They could not live in this style at home, of course, but they tend to forget that they are just ordinary folk, and begin to look down on the people around them. There are definite perks for whites in the developing world, not the least of which is respect whether merited or not, and this can lead to some ugly things.
3. I guess what bothers me most is that the ex-patriot communities I have seen in my travels become almost incestuous in nature. They become hotbeds of gossip and rumour, and much of what passses for conversation is based on ingrained ideas of we and they. I think their lives are so limited that they thrive on gossip ... anything to liven things up. And they are willing to believe the worst of everyone, not only those with black skins.
I wrote about this as a result of receiving more emails from Kenyan friends, and this led to my thinking about my last stay in Kenya when I found it necessary to distance myself as much as possible from the ex-pat community and from the Canadian-based organizations.
The original was much longer and more detailed ... but also rambling ... not ready for publication.
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