One thing that’s been making me really sad here recently is to see Gil Vicente, the director of the program I’m writing the curriculum for within Care For Life, playing a whole bunch of power games against Solomon, who’s the national director of the organization (i.e. Gil’s boss). Gil interviewed for the big boss job at the same time as Solomon, has more experience in NGOs than Solomon, and is older than Solomon, and I think is very jealous that he didn’t get the national director job, because he keeps talking bad about Solomon and pointing out his faults and errors behind his back, and doing all kinds of really stupid power play things that really make me frustrated and mad, especially since these types of things are exactly what messed up and effectively paralyzed Care For Life back when Augusto was here doing the exact same thing with João. It’s really sad to see this type of fight-for-the-big-dog-spot ego crap happen, especially in a non-profit organization like this that targets helping disadvantaged people empower themselves—I mean it really blows my mind, how could you go into this kind of work to advance your own ego? If that’s what you want to do, why couldn’t you go into business or something, where at least that dog-eat-dog crap seems more fitting? It’s really sad to me—like when you see people coming into the Church here for the same reasons, not because they really feel like they have found the
Monday, May 7, 2007
Why can't we just forget ourselves and go to work?
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2 comments:
I'm sad to hear it, and it reminds me of a certain experience I had with the psychology business in Hawaii a while ago. I remember how you said realizations like that aren't fun, but a necessary part of our development, to have reality confront our ideals. And actually, that reminds me of Elder Hafen's three levels, and how we can deal with ambiguity without clinging to those ideals on one hand, or steeping yourself into skepticism. Moments like these make me want to echo the immortal words of the muppet Animal, when confronted with what we've seen about the darker sides of our professions (*Ahem*...) "Po-li-tics, Po-li-tics!"
I know you will continue to carry on in your life's work, to do what you can to empower God's children all over the world, and that an experience like this won't stop you. I think that's the beauty of Elder Hafen's talk: that we can wrestle with these tough dilemmas and still trust that there's always hope, and we can continue to committ ourselves to the good work that needs to be done, however difficult and run by corrupt (or well-meaning but misguided, or egoistic) people. And, the great thing is, with that realization, we can move beyond skepticism and hopelessness to actually change things, to be catalysts to do what we can in the system to make it better--I can see you doing that, no doubt. :) But I hear you: when helping people becomes more for someone's ego trip than the good of those who need the help, my stomach turns inside out.
Ah, Animal--he and the Swedish Chef are always pretty neck-and-neck tied for my favorite Muppet.
Thanks for the vote of sincere confidence, missy. In the I-mean-that, not-just-being-flippant sense.
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