POOR-WORLD DEVELOPMENT:
Wringing Success from Failure in Late-Developing Countries - Lessons from the Field
Acknowledgments
I bring you a story set on a stage peopled with the poor of this world. Yet for all the tales of woe and disappointment reported here, none of these weigh in the balance against AID's noble purpose and the opportunity it gave me for initiative and creativity. Townsend Swayze hired me at AID in 1971. What can I possibly say to him but, "Thank you." For my parents who took me to China, no words express gratitude for a chance encounter.
My AID career is now a memory. What irony to have been a member of a modest federal bureaucracy, to have worked on social struggles debated for centuries, by deadening bureaucratic rules described by Max Weber long ago, and yet to find a rewarding career in public service. As I said on my AID retirement as Caroline and I departed Lusaka in October 1996, "Imagine a government like mine hiring a person like me." I am, nonetheless, grateful. I will have been successful in these pages if I move a few hearts and minds, and if I attract a few young professionals to serve development overseas.
Throughout the entire enterprise I am grateful to my wife Caroline. Her commitment to our larger purpose enriched our work overseas and has kept me focused through dark mornings on cold Metro buses headed to downtown Washington, D.C.
For my schooling at odd times and places, there are too many to thank. For my final years of education I thank Ruben Zubrow and George Zinke at the University of Colorado, Vernon Ruttan at the University of Minnesota, and John Mellor, an early director of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) who placed the institute on the map.
Per Pinstrup-Andersen, IFPRI's Director General, and Raisuddin Ahmed, director of the markets division, welcomed my book-writing enterprise by offering me the good offices of IFPRI in Washington, DC I am deeply grateful for their committed development purpose yet warm environment and for IFPRI's library and computer support. I thank you all, especially Elizabeth Daines, Chris Delgado, Lisa Grover, Mary Mastroianni, Carolyn Roper, and John Williams.
Chuck Mohan and I wrote Crisis To Crisis together in Lusaka, from which several ideas sprang. His initial and continuing support are appreciated. Chuck's friend Bob Myers became mine. I am grateful to Bob for forcing me to see what I had been looking at for years: "Joe," he said, "You are a credit to your race." Ben Hawley also contributed early and in earnest, with a scathing Jesuitical critique of a first draft.
In addition, many people commented along the way. More than their specific contributions, or whether we agreed, I thank them for their enthusiasm for my efforts.
For our Dhaka days, and for food and agricultural issues, I thank Joe Toner, Jim and Molly Gingerich, David and Dorothy Catling, David Atwood, Don McClelland, Fred King, A.S.M. Jahangir, Chuck Johnson, Ousmane Badiane, Nick Minot, Bruno Barbier, Nurul Islam, and our daughters Julie, Ahlia, and Vanessa.
For our days in Dar es Salaam, and for those good works, I thank Lucas and Flora Chogo, Kari Karanko, Terry Kramer, Liz Loughran, Fred Guymont, Zach Hahn, Mulugetta Yohannes, Hedwiga Mbuya, Daniel Ngowi, Wyn Owen, Joel Strauss, Arne and Gabi Strom, Peter and Stella Wood, and Abe Weisblat.
For days in a troubled Lusaka, I thank Theo Bull, M. K. and Hal Cope, Tom Carothers, Mary Kazunga, Freda Luhila, Jim Polhemus, Lise Rakner, and all the members of the Non-Group. I also thank the editors and staff of Lusakaís The Post for defending freedom of public expression and discussion. I thank Cynthia Bryant, Mambepa Kalwani, Pamo Kangwa, and Curt Wolters of the AID mission for assistance.
I thank Praeger Publishing for rescuing my draft from the oblivion of a desk drawer (where my critics believe it should have been left), Jim Sabin for deleting but one of my stories, and Bobbie Goettler for pressing the text into shape. Lastly, I thank my editor Terry Anderson for helping me do what I set my heart on doing and for converting drafts into a respected language. I alone am responsible for its content.