Good People

One of the biggest rewards that I get for actively following this pathway here is the people that I not only meet, but will hopefully get to work with.  Gone are the days of working with aristocratic British millionaires, former military types, expropriating raw material extractors, and bottom line obsessed sales managers all bent on the best price they could get for their mothers...  Today I met with the people from Safe Harbors.  What can I say... good people... good ideas... good initiative...  Just all in all a good experience. 

We didn't get too far into the details about things as there is just so much information both from my side and theirs, but we laid the ground work for meeting again.  perhaps tomorrow.  I sent an email with some questions and a few things thy might be able to advise me on.  And this is the beauty of the non-profit world.  The people aren't solely about what benefit their is specifically in it for themselves, they just want to help.  They see a guy like me coming along and they think of ways they can help me.  It's not about extracting the maximum from me for their benefit, but seeing if there is anyway that we can work together and help each other without anyone having to lose anything.  Cooperation... perhaps a lost art in today's society... perhaps not!!

Narrowing Down...

So I've finally gotten through my list of Non-Profit organizations working in Sierra Leone.  336 organizations.  I had a list from just a couple years ago of something like 100.  Shows how far the country has come of late.  Lots of good resources there, but a lot of the organizations don't do a great job of contact info or media resources, so there would still be further opportunities.  My goal with this list is to identify organizations that I would either feel comfortable working with or like to.  I will need contacts on the ground not only when I get into the country but also as I travel through the country in some of the other areas and cities.  It would be nice to have a few friendly little rest stops, places for a meal or bath, as well as to chat with local people/workers and hear about the specifics of getting projects done in that locale.

So all told I have narrowed it down to 57 non-profits that we will look further into, and likely contact with an introduction to the project.  I have been trying to find smaller local organizations that would feel closer to the ground.  I also have been looking to focus on organizations that, though they may focus on specific issues, do not get into specific ideologies - whether religious, economic, or whatever.  Helping children or refugees is fine, but sometimes if you have a designated 'how' - god, privatization, reconciliation/justice, etc. - organizations can fall into awkward stigmas.  As the post below says, we are trying to stay as clear of this as possible.              

Ideology

Obviously, non-profits come with the presumption of being ideologically driven.  Unfortunately, this scenario we are setting out upon is driven by an ideology.  But I suppose this can be said about anything.  Everyone and everything has an underlying meaning or purpose, a reason for doing.

The basic principle that I (not we) are moving into this with is completely altruistic.  I have some very divergent views from the mainstream.  Yet this does not absolve me from living and working in the real world as it exists today.  There is ideology and reality - life is about balancing the two, as is this project.

The ideology that I, and hopefully a soon to be incorporated non-profit, will be approaching development and redevelopment work is to try to minimize ideology, especially our own.  I view this as one of the biggest detractors and obstacles towards sustainable global development.  When most organizations, companies, governments, individuals, whatever, go into an area with an aim to make something 'better' they are starting from a point of judgment.  For most people in the West it is about making the lives of people 'better'.  This is obviously a very subjective terminology.  I would prefer to think of lives on a linear level, they are equally different, not hierarchically ranked.  All these 'things' we have in the 'developed' West, yet happiness still seems to elude most of us.

The goal of this specific endeavor is to try not to go into any event or project driven by a specific ideology or template.  Every place in the world is different, every person different, every culture wanting different things and motivated by different things.  Agendas.  The world is full of them, yet the only one that should matter is those of the people that will most directly be affected by whatever scenario is to happen.

What this means is that this prospective organization will not be pushing any specific ideologies as the 'solution' to someone's or some place's 'issues'.  Capitalism, Socialism, Democracy, Civil Liberties, whatever, the specific pathway is, they do not always solve issues on their own.  Unregulated free markets can truly hinder an overarching community's development, just as a planned economic system can allow for much less initiative and reward than may truly stimulate advances.  Dictatorships throughout humanity have been mostly rigid and oppressive, and while democracy gives everyone their say it is slow, inefficient, and inherently compromising.  On there own and as we understand them they bring about presumptions and judgments, but these judgments are of peoples interpretaitons of the past, not the future or even the present.

We need new thinking that is not afraid to work outside existing ideology and presumption.  Would the world really be such a terrible place if it was run by Gandhi in a dictatorial position?  A communist Soviet Union was the fastest country ever to industrialize, what can we learn from this?  Free Markets and industrial incetive have made the US the worlds superpower, and a strong social safety net has lead Europe's people to high levels of statistical 'happiness' and security.

What can we learn from all of this?  That there is no one way, no one best, but that different things work in different places.  The ultimate aim of any scenario is to try to make local people happy.  Try to empower both local communities and local individuals without empowerment of one coming at the expense of the other.  Thus, our project will be about each individual situation and trying to use knowledge and human experience to empower localities and individuals within them alike.

All projects will be looked at in terms of a balance of both individual and community good.  If you bring in a factory and there are rich owners but poor workers, have you helped the community?  If you set up a fully equal communal work scenario, how is the individual rewarded for greater effort?  Balances must be found.  Balances with humanity, with the environment, with ourselves, with our communities, etc.  Localized solutions for localized cultures.

This is the main ideological premise that I'd like our organization to be based upon - ideology without ideology.  We want to make a difference for the people where we do work, not for ourselves or our own goals and principles in life.