A Developing Nation

So I was describing the dynamics of working in New Orleans to a friend. I decribed it as something like this:

A bunch of loud arrogant Northerners descend on New Orleans. They come in with an attitude that they have worked in other places just like New Orleans and they know what needs to happen to sort the mess out. (One went as far as saying New Orleans is the same as every other city in the world.) They stay at nice chain hotels, choosing ones that get them hotel points. They eat at fancy restaurants and get drunk most nights. They only (or mostly) hang out with other Northerners. The Northerns look to themselves as the experts and don't appreciate the knowledge of the locals. While they do similar work to the local hires, they get paid many times more. In the case of New Orleans, the cost of a contractor is about $10,000 a week. The cost of a local hire is about $1000 a week. When their contracts are up, the Northerners leave a product that is not useful to the community they are trying to help, but when they are back home they talk up what a great job they did.

The funny part is that this is EXACTLY the same as what happens when Northerners work in the global South on development projects (say a sewer and water sanitation project in Indonesia). It could be taken out of a Development text book.

It is a real missed opportunity to help. The literature regarding the developing world is fairly advanced about principles to ensure that the local area benefits from the work (even if it does not happen with many big projects). It is important to think about how FEMA can adopt some of these principles.