The World Has Become a Village

Today, I was discussing access to credit with members of my organization. Having read “Banker to the Poor” by the father of Micro-Finance, Mohamed Yunis, I had glowing admiration for the industry. Unfortunately, over the years, microfinance has become like any other profitable industry. It is, and has to be, focused on the bottom line. Although, most institutions do not require tangible collateral, they make up for this risk by having prohibitively high interest rates. I was told that the cost of a loan makes the poor, poorer. So, this led to a conversation on credit in the United States. Is it easy to get a loan? Can you get good rates? Does having a college degree help you get a better rate? Ect. Of course this led to a discussion on how credit was too freely available and how that has led to the current economic crisis. My colleagues knew a surprising amount of information about the situation in the US. When I asked if they have been following it in the news, one said, “Of course, the world has become a village”. He explained that there was a Chinese mining company that was heavily invested in the US. When our economy down turned at the same time as the global demand for their minerals, they decided to pull out of Guinea because investment dollars were short. So because of the US economic crisis, this man’s Guinean friend lost his job. I don’t think a single business class I have ever taken has explained globalization so succinctly. In the U.S., we say “The world is flat” mostly because of the popular book by that title, but also because it fits into our collective cultural knowledge. We all know that one of the reasons Christopher Columbus set out on his fateful voyage was to prove the world was round by going to India the other way. This cultural tidbit means almost nothing to the people in Guinea so they have based their saying on something culturally appropriate for them. The world is a village. Everyone knows each other’s business, if there is a bad harvest then everyone suffers, and Ousman can sell his product to any person in the village. I know that this shouldn’t surprise me, but it did. It is the basis of the Peace Corps method of development. I have been frustrated because I am supposed to be doing a community study until May when I am anxious to get down to work, but without this period of time to absorb, you miss the crucial ability to culturally (not only linguistically) translate what you want to share.

I know my last few posts have been serious “I do work in economic development, blah, blah, blah” kind of posts. I promise that it will not remain overly serious and get back to “Fote at the Well” kind of stories. The third goal of the Peace Corps is to encourage cultural understanding on behalf of the host country on the part of Americans so I am trying to get in a spoonful of actual sharing / learning every couple of posts.