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  • From: "Lawrence F. London, Jr." <lfl@intrex.net>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [permaculture] Amazon.com: Blue Clay People: Seasons on Africa's Fragile Edge: Books: William Powers
  • Date: Thu, 03 May 2007 15:31:37 -0400


<http://www.amazon.com/Blue-Clay-People-Seasons-Africas/dp/1582345325>

Blue Clay People: Seasons on Africa's Fragile Edge (Hardcover)
by William Powers (Author)

Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. When Powers, fresh out of a Ph.D. program in international relations, arrived in Liberia in 1999, sent by an international aid agency "to fight poverty and save the rainforest," he faced a daunting task. The second-poorest country in the world, Liberia had just begun to emerge from seven years of civil war and was "environmentally looted, violence scarred, and barely governed." Even major cities lacked electricity, running water and postal service; garbage lay uncollected in the streets, schoolteachers were barely literate and the economy worked largely on bribes. The government of Charles Taylor enriched itself through illicit trade in conflict diamonds, protected timber and weapons, while terrorist militias acted at whim. "It's all just so brutal," Powers confided to his girlfriend, almost ready to quit after his first year. Yet he stayed on, and this eloquent memoir shows why he found this troubled country so difficult to leave. He writes of stunning beaches and rivers, of majestic forests—home to the largest concentration of mammals in the world—threatened by rapacious logging companies, and of resilient people who teach him that it is possible to live happily with "enough." He sketches scenes of transcendent beauty and grotesque violence, and writes with disarming honesty about his struggle to maintain his ideals when the right course of action is far from clear: is it ethical to take an African lover, when the relationship will inevitably be based on financial support? Should he buy endangered zebra duiker meat from a poor family that desperately needs the money? Does his work do good, or inadvertent harm? In the end, he decides, it may not be possible to change the world, but we must continue to act as if we can.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All
rights reserved.

From Booklist
Powers left behind a caring girlfriend and the comforts of the U.S. to travel to Liberia in 1999 to take the position of Catholic Relief Services director at an international aid agency. The state of Liberia was founded in 1822 as a refuge for freed slaves from America, but conflicts with local peoples and recent bloody coups greatly destabilized the region and have made it one of the more dangerous countries in Africa. Powers hoped to help the Liberian people not by giving them handouts (such as the food his agency passed out) but by helping them sustain themselves. Powers certainly did more than many of his cynical colleagues have done--he visited many of the neglected villages and started an ambitious guinea pig-breeding project. Even as Powers began to become disillusioned with his fellow aid workers and some of the people he was trying to help, he persisted in his efforts and his optimism. His memoir is a haunting account of one man's determination and the struggles of people living in a deeply troubled country. Kristine Huntley
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Seeking "enough" for all of us, November 14, 2006
Reviewer: Simply Curious (Middletown, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
In this powerful and compelling account, William Powers helps us all strive toward having "enough". The Liberians have too little. They lack food, water, shelter, and security. But too many westerners have too much. The excessive natural resources consumed by each westerner are obtained at immense cost to the environment and the people of third and fourth world countries. The mahogany of old growth trees clear cut from the Liberian rain forest is sold to Westerners to enrich Charles Taylor and finance war on his own people. Engagement rings made with "conflict diamonds" pay to oppress many poor Africans. But intervention is difficult as William Powers found out as he worked in Liberia to "reduce poverty and dependency while preserving the rain forest". Western ways do not solve fourth world problems; instead they usually add to the problems. Simple, elegant, sustainable solutions, integrated into each unique physical and cultural environment can make a difference. This book is a fascinating invitation to listen to nature, rather than dominate it.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
Honest, thoughtful, and inspiring coming-of-age memoir from an aid worker in
Liberia, October 8, 2005
Reviewer: David Evans (Santa Monica, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)
In this memoir, William Powers tells of his two years (1999-2001) working for a major aid organization in Liberia. There, his mandate was to promote both environmental conservation and poverty alleviation. While his memoir gives some fascinating insights into the NGO world and sketches of life in Liberia (including the unscrupulous dealings of multinational timber companies), this is ultimately a story of personal development.

A strength of Powers's story is that he is straightforward. Many memoirs seem intent on justifying the author's intent or actions. (An annoying example of that is the still-worthwhile The Economist's Tale, by Peter Griffiths, about economic advising in Sierra Leone.) Here, Powers willingly presents aspects of his story that some might consider inappropriate or at least in need of justification (such as taking a Liberian girlfriend with no long-term intentions or getting involved with environmental activists) and lets the reader judge.

He is also honest about difficult questions he faces. He arrives in Liberia and then leaves Liberia still struggling to find the balance between eliminating dependency and showing compassion. And although he struggles, we see genuine growth over the course of the two years. Upon arrival, he wrings his hands over Liberian dependency on aid to the point of being annoying. (Quite annoying.) But by the end of his stay, he has made serious headway in encouraging self-sufficiency (at least in certain communities) by supplementing local knowledge with Western technical insights.

One drawback is that we learn relatively little about the actual work he does. He gives us glimpses here and there, but since most of the book is his personal journey, we know only fragments of his experience learning to work with and learn from local leaders. He does introduce us to some fascinating colleagues: a wise conservationist and refugee camp worker named Gabriel, a jaded long-term aid worker named The Jacket, and a working Liberian single mother who cares about both providing for her family and improving her country.

Ultimately, this isn't a book about development, but about Westerners trying to do development. That said, many Westerners (myself included) try to do or at least understand development, and for us, Powers's journey is instructive.

For a book on a related theme, read Robert Klitgaard's excellent Tropical Gangsters, in which he recounts his work as an economic consultant in Equatorial Guinea. Klitgaard is weathered in his work and thus presents less of a personal journey and more of a clear picture of government functioning and both efforts and challenges to improving people's lives through official channels. Another enjoyable aid memoir (and this is one is very short), much less in depth than Powers' or Klitgaard's (but a wonderful read), is Dear Exile, by Liftin and Montgomery, which recounts Montgomery's experience in the Peace Corps in Kenya.

An interesting look into the complicated problems of poverty, corruption, and sustainability in the Third (and Fourth) World., April 24, 2007
Reviewer: T. Henderson "Crunchy Con" (Bear Creek, NC) - See all my
reviews
(REAL NAME)
William Powers writes a compelling story of idealism and reality in the war-torn country of Liberia, where he lived for two years while working for Catholic Relief Services.

What intrigued me the most? How he avoided placing all blame in one corner, but rather shared it amongst all the participants. Relief agencies create too much dependence through simple distributions. Governments fuel violence and bathe themselves in corruption. Americans and others in First World nations demand goods at rates and levels that siphon necessary resources from countries that need them for development. The poor lie, cheat, and steal in order to keep their families fed (thus focusing on the short-term and ignoring the long-term.) All in all, a thought-provking, well written story with an important moral!


Depressingly predictable, or predictably depressing, if you work in the
international development field, November 4, 2006
Reviewer: michael24339 "michael24339" (Washington DC) - See all my
reviews
Blue Clay People: Seasons on Africa's Fragile Edge by William Powers is one of those international environment and development books that makes you wince even if you're not surprised by what you see. Powers (who's doing some work with my wife in the Andes now, which is why I read his book) headed off to Liberia just out of his master's degree to work for Catholic Relief Services, with the grand goals of improving Liberia's health, education, and economic development prospects while stopping deforestation of the country's rainforest. Nice ideas. He arrived at what he thought was the end of a civil war. Instead, he arrived at a temporary halt in the fighting that would shortly end. In the meantime he found an expatriate NGO community living a high life of SUVs, parties with embassy staff, and jazz and beer in the capital city, while in the hinterlands, aid was wasted, corruption was rampant, and the natives were reliant on international handouts rather than developing their own infrastructure. He went in as an idealist, writing eagerly back to his fiancee in the States and espousing a sort of post-sectarian missionary zeal to help the noble Liberian people. He ends up rather soured on the whole experience, even when he does get out into the country, find more responsible economic development models (i.e. building capacity in sustainable agriculture) and finding a Liberian girlfriend when his engagement falls apart. Moral of the story: International development is a dicey business, and living in a developing country is good for introspection and personal growth, but risky for your love life.

Honest and forces you to rethink things..., October 11, 2006
Reviewer: Michael J. Vuolo "phunkiepooka" (Ridgewood, NY United States)
- See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)
This book is a must read for anyone who professes to want to effect a change in the world, specifically when it comes to helping people less fortunate than ourselves, home or abroad.

There are conflicting issues of sustainabilty versus compassion, saving economies versus environmental holocaust and culture imperialism versus saving lives that don't often get brought up. How do we deal with these seemingly impossible concessions? Read it, then make up your own mind.

Powers is also a very stirring writer of narrative, and aside from the larger issues, it's a personal journey that I found so easy to internalize and feel as if I were involved personally.

Worth a read , July 24, 2006
Reviewer: Karen Hashley (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)
This is non-hero real look into the day to day opperations of foriegn aid work. It presents clear looking to issuse of poverty and enviroment and the history of a unstable area. Worth the time if you are interesting in topic or think of traveling to do aid work.





  • [permaculture] Amazon.com: Blue Clay People: Seasons on Africa's Fragile Edge: Books: William Powers, Lawrence F. London, Jr., 05/03/2007

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