Editorial

Intercultural co-operation. What kind of an overarching objective for development is that? No one but Westerners could have thought that out. They are bored up there and desperately in need of a "good" reason to overflow the African continent with adventure hungry volunteers and development workers who need something "meaningful" to do with their lives.

By Anna Leer

These expatriates’ fancy houses, big four-wheelers, and spoiled brats’ school fees then come to figure on their national "taking social responsibility" budget as: Development aid to Africa. Some nations even brag about it, "We give almost 1 percent of our BNP to developing countries!" Yeah you do – wonder how many of those monies end up in your own lot’s pockets? Meanwhile people are starving down South and millions of highly qualified folks go unemployed. If they are sincere about doing something meaningful, those development workers, lets talk business. Scrap that intercultural co-operation crap, go home, employ locals, and send more money. For the poor this time!

But hey "he who pays the piper calls the tune!" And those development workers may turn somewhat useful when they later plead the case of solidarity and sharing of global resources up North. Who knows? At least and on a more constructive note one may give MS and its Northern equivalents the benefit of the doubt and ask, what’s in this intercultural cooperation? For me? For you? For us?

As it is intercultural co-operation is a fact of our daily lives. MS has set it all up. Facilitated that Black (wo)man meets White (wo)man if not every day then ever so often. Suppose this face-to-face encounter is thought to challenge racial stereotypes. Bring in the nuances, free the face from the crowd, bridge the gap between self and other, and let people in on the well-kept secret that there are actually similarities between cultures and differences within cultures. Stereotypes live on ignorance, feed on lack of knowledge, and blossom in absence from realities to dispute them. Luckily. That means there is a cure. Good old reality shake-ups. Is that what happens in MS’ intercultural cooperation?

Intercultural cooperation is implicitly imagined to start a chain reaction. First it leads to intercultural understanding then to solidarity – and with that comes "the will to share". No doubt empathy is key in creating the will to challenge and change the global inequalities between North and South. And empathy relies on identification. The White mother needs to see herself in the Black mother’s excruciating pain as her baby dies from starvation. She needs a reason to engage, a reason to share.

But oops intercultural co-operation does not always lead to understanding. Stuck in persistent inferiority and superiority complexes, in the assumption that difference between Black & White is all there is to it, stereotypes blossom in MS as in the World. To satisfy our urge to categorize, Mother Nature has even lent us a helping hand. Made it so damn simple, so glaringly visible. Who’s to defy the obvious difference? The convenient type of conclusion: An African person is?… A White person is?… It is so easy the other way. When conflicts arise they are opportunely explained in Black & White, by the difference, by the bridge that cannot be built.

How to appreciate the instructive conflicts, throw away the boxes and look to discover the person beneath the skin? How to promote a global culture of identification and understanding, one that appreciates cultural differences and recognizes the similarities?

Welcome to this edition of Partner NEWS talking comfortably from the eye of the hurricane, the arranged marriage between North and South, between Black and White.

Lets talk perceptions, stereotypes, cultural meetings, conflicts, aid, conditionalities, inequity, trade, and dependence, in short lets look at the abyss and begin built the bridges between Black & White.