The sociologist Thomas Sowell writes, "We need to confront the most blatant fact that has persisted across centuries of social history-vast ddifferences in productivity among peoples, and the economic and other consequences of such differences." Poverty demeans dignity, shrinks the soul, wastes potential, and inflicts suffering on three billion people on our planet. We must also acknowledge that, during the past fifty yyears, the record in international assistance to the least developed countries has been disappointing; the economics-based abstractions developed in the think tanks of Europe and North America are insufficient.
In the River They Swim is the antithesis of that search for solutions to the next big theory of global poverty. From the fresh perspective of advisors on the frontlines of development to the insight of leaders like President Paul Kagame of Rwanda and Pastor Rick Warren, it tells the story of change in the microcosms of emerging businesses, industries, and governments. These essays display a personal nature to their work that rigorous analysis alone cannot explain.
We learn that a Sufi master can teach us about the different levels of knowledge, the "different ways to know a river." These practitioners could have written about its length, its source, its depth, its width, the power of its current, and the life it contains. They could have invested time and money to travel to that river so that they could sit on its shores and look at it, feel the sand that borders it, and watch the birds at play over it. Instead, they dove in to swim in the river, felt its current along their bodies, and tasted something of it. They wondered, briefly, if they had the strength to swim its length, and now they share the answer.
If human development is a river, the authors in this volume, and perhaps some readers, will no longer be satisfied to stand along its banks.
Table of Contents:
Foreword: Fighting Poverty with Purpose / xi
Dr. Rick Warren
Acknowledgments / xvii
Introduction / 3
Part I: The Journey
1. The Backbone of a New Rwanda / 11
H. E. President Paul Kagame
2. Flight VS 56: Riding the Cultural Divide / 15
Malik Fal
3. A Space Alien in Chaps / 23
Anne Morriss
4. A Mind for the Poor / 28
Andreas Widmer
5. Waiting for Mr. Anderson / 35
Kenneth Hynes
6. My Faith in Capitalism / 40
Andreas Widmer
7. Nature Is Destiny, and the More Nature, the Worse the Destiny / 48
Sally Christie
8. Locomotives, Needles, and Aid / 55
Malik Fal
9. On Globalization / 66
Michael Fairbanks
10. The Merits of Change / 75
Luis Alberto Moreno
Part II: Strategies for Prosperity
11. Claver’s Wall / 83
Malik Fal
12. Leadership, in Context / 97
Ashraf Ghani
13. Selling Culture without Selling Out / 103
Marcela Escobari- Rose
14. The Afghan Method / 113
Diego Garcia Etcheto
15. Global Strategy in Old Kabul / 125
Robert Henning
16. After God, It’s Customer Relations / 134
Aref Adamali
17. The Longest Roundabout in the World / 140
David I. Rabkin
18. Alexander the Great, Mother Teresa, and Arse / 146
Michael Brennan
19. Archimedes’ Formidable Dare / 155
Eric Kacou
Part III: Globalization
20. On Presidents / 167
Michael Fairbanks
21. The Risk of Dreams / 177
David I. Rabkin
22. Praying to the Virgin of Guadalupe / 188
Marcela Escobari- Rose
23. Our Greatest Fear / 196
Michael Fairbanks and David I. Rabkin
24. Changing Mindsets / 205
Donald Kaberuka
25. Entire, unto Himself / 209
Elizabeth Hooper
26. “When Are You Coming Back?” / 218
Diego Garcia Etcheto
27. “That’s My Duck!” (The Case for Integration) / 227
by Michael Fairbanks
28. “Mr. President, Tear Down the Walls!” / 236
Kwang W. Kim
29. Deciding What Not to Do / 246
Eric Kacou
Epilogue / 255
List of Contributors / 257
Index / 261
