Message-ID: <19980710022038.24727.rocketmail@send1b.yahoomail.com> Date: Thu, 9 Jul 1998 19:20:38 -0700 From: sam mwoko <mailto:samie_1001@YAHOO.COM> Subject: Re: BAD EXPERIENCES etc.. To: mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU
mailto:---vdimitroff@MAIL.PTL.COM.MT wrote: >
> Mr. Abdus Samad doesn't contribute much to the argument for only one
> reason: he forgets to be s_p_e_c_i_f_c in his statements.
Yes, it is very specific to call the locals incompetent and lacking knowledge etc.
i am only saying one thing that there is a law of one price which we apply everywhere. Capital must earn the same expected rate accross borders. I think human capital should too. Why are donor consultants and those too carrying a specific passport better than the locals or those of color. To me that is no-market and racist. It is simple talent must be valued equally regardless of origins.
Regarding examples that you asked for, I pointed to one in the story that I posted on this network. The story relates to teh US where it was all done by locals with no expatriate consultants.
Why does this simple point arouse you so?
>
> While I have reasons to believe all these things DO happen, I never
> witnessed a case, therefore I would not make such public statements.
And > I am NOT an overpaid employee of any of these organisations.
>
> This issue has popped up on multiple occasions in this list and
> elsewhere; it always rotates around a)consultants are overpaid b)their
> 'advice' is either incompetent or corrupt. This could easily be true
in > more than one case, however it can also be a matter of perceptions:
>
> - the judgment on remuneration is passed by badly UNDERpaid local
> professionals and intellectuals, who see a genuine injustice, only
in a > 'reversed' light...
> - advice sharply contrasting with prevailing local wisdom is sometimes
> seen as incompetent, while this was precisely the reason for bringing
> external consultants: local experts, no matter how talented, cannot
> detach themselves from biased and single-sided views of the picture.
> External experts (are supposed to) have seen more than one country
in a > similar situation, have exposure to historical experience and would
know > what works, even if it sounds suicidal to local people.
>
> In any case, it is not serious to refer generically to
'travelogues'; if > you wasted everyone's on-line time and disk space with your posting,
> please give a concrete example of such a 'travelogue', or of a donor
> agency 'conspiring with poor leaders'. Then, given some evidence,
> members of this list could expose the culprits, fight for competent,
> honest and cost-efficient consultancy and thus make some real
> contribution to DEVELOPMENT.
>
> Pardon, what was the subject of this list?
>
> ... ... ... ... ...
>
> Abdus Samad wrote:
>
> > I have no specific experiences of world learning but
> > plenty of experience with bad donor assistance.
> >
> > 1. For example, when poor quality consultants arrive
> > to live in super first class comfort at inflated
> > salaries and pick local brains to write a poor
> > travelogue.
> >
> > 2. For example, when missions from international
> > agencies tell policymakers to default on domestic
> > debt while treating external creditors with deference.
> >
> > 2. When the donors through their financing prop up
> > corrupt leaders, dictators and those who violate
> > human rights.
> >
> > 3. When donors conspire with poor leadership to
> > develop poorly concieved policies with no
> > responsibility for those policies and the domestic
> > talent is left with only one opportunity: to migrate.
> >
> > if you do not see all this happening, you must be one
> > of the high paid cosultant or employee of one of these.
> > I can find hundereds of these examples.
>
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