Final Lessons

I entered the Peace Corps without the idealism that is typical of new volunteers. I came here to learn, and learn I did. Before I arrived in Suriname I read The White Man’s Burden, which made me skeptical of development. I wanted to experience what makes development difficult for organizations that genuinely care about helping others. I also wanted to become familiar with a government bureaucracy, as the State Department was my first choice for a future career.

While my projects were very fulfilling, I still believe that the free market is the most effective way to develop a country. If you want to help people in poorer countries to improve their quality of life, do not start an NGO, begin a fair business that meets the needs of people. The greatest development project in Diitabiki, in the two years I lived there, was the cell phone tower. This was not placed by a development agency but by a private company called Digicel. People in my village think of cell phones as vital to their existence. When a lightning strike disabled the tower for less then two days, a lot of people went crazy. Pit toilets, which development organizations have been trying to build for decades, do not catch on, because there is no demand and villagers would just as soon use the river. Cell phones, however, among a culture where talking is life, satisfies a dire need.