First lesson on EdGE

I had to read the an article and post my observations.

Ivan Illich, "To hell with good intentions"

It was an explanation of how most volunteers are "salesmen" of the American democracy. They carry this to the countries they are servicing and do not realize how condescending it looks to the native population. Illich says that there is no common ground when a volunteer tries to help. Most are from a middle class and do not know about the cultural values and aspects of the lower class. 

Here is the observation I wrote:

I can understand how it would feel demeaning to be "helped." I am currently doing a thesis on gender equality and women empowerment. When someone tells me something that contradicts what I research on a daily basis and thinks they are right, I feel like fighting back, starting an argument. The instigator is a classmate who I see and talk to everyday. It is worse for native people who have to deal with foreign volunteers who know little about their culture, language, or values. If I was part of the Spanish lower class and a foreigner who I have never met tells me to boil my water to make it cleaner, recycle plastic bags to save the environment, or to receive an education because it is my right, I would be mad. I probably already know all this but have lived many years without doing such things and am still alive. It is not us that waited for a clean well for years. It is them. We cannot say we "saved" them since they were living without such opportunities before we arrived. We are definitely advocates of the American democracy since we have seen better, but do not know better. We do not get the cultural shock; they do. They look at us and can tell by the softness of our skin and fingers that we have not worked as hard. Yet, they see us happier, richer, healthier, and freer and feel hurt that they cannot have the same. So, we become the enemy because we have more by doing less. They start comparing us to the middle class of their own communities, who do not care much for the lower class. I think the difference is that we want to live a good life, and they just want to live a life. If acting subservient to her male counterparts keeps a Middle Eastern woman alive and healthy, she will do it. If a grown Indian woman getting an education will ruin traditions and increase glances while walking down a road, she will give an education to her son, who can walk to school with no one staring. Thus, I think the best way to reach a common ground is to talk and to understand the people we will be spending our time with. Learn something about them and let them learn things about you. Become personal. If you can talk human-to-human, accept their underdeveloped technologies instead of criticizing them, and wait until they ask for help, that is where a common ground starts forming. "Since there is no common ground whatsoever for you to meet on..." is if we go to just help. I think at one point, we have to accept that we are going for a learning experience and not just to volunteer. Illich says, "come to study," and I believe that is what we will be doing for most of this course and during our experiences abroad. Let me know what you guys think! Sorry if I went a little overboard!