On Developmental NGOs, Africa, and the hoarding instinct ... *Are these development N.G.O.s for us, or against us? *Who are their Primary customers (stakeholders)? Who are their secondary? *What else would they be doing if our problem was suddenly solved? *How many of them are prepared to Self-Extinguish? *How many of them will SIGN A MANIFESTO to self-extinguish within NO LATER THAN 20 years from today? *How much local resource content - technical transfer/ Domestic capacity building / education - have they committed to since their time in Africa? *If they were any different from the often rapacious multinational corporate conglomerates, wouldnt more of them commit to Open Knowledge movements than were seeing? *They come to help solve Africas problems. That is good. Who will help them to acknowledge, and try to solve, the problems of their solutions, or those created by their solutions? (*Hint the problems of solutions are often more dangerous, far-reaching, and long-lasting than the problems of problems). A Quote (And a Text) To Facilitate Further Exploration (if you wish) ================================================== When a system is set up to accomplish some goal, a new entity has come into being—the system itself. No matter what the goal of the system, it immediately begins to exhibit system behavior; that is, to act according to the general laws that govern the operation of all systems. Now the system itself has to be dealt with. Whereas before, there was only the problem—such as warfare between nations, or garbage collection—THERE IS NOW AN ADDITIONAL UNIVERSE OF PROBLEMS ASSOCIATED WITH THE FUNCTIONING OR MERELY THE PRESENCE OF THE NEW SYSTEM. - John Gall in Systemantics (1975) ***Ponder ... Question, ... And Discuss***
Posted on: Sat, 13 Sep 2014 16:05:39 +0000
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