by Michael Maren

About the author: Michael Maren, a former aid worker for the Peace Corps, Catholic Relief Services, and the United States Agency for International Development, is a journalist whose work on Africa, and Somalia in particular, often appears in The Village Voice.

From a speech delivered in March [1993] by Michael Maren to the Camel Breeders, a group of Cornell University graduate students from various disciplines who are preparing to work in international development. [Editors of Harper’s Magazine]

As you [graduate students] prepare for and look forward to careers in international development, I am compelled to issue a warning. With the hindsight of someone who spent five years in the development business, I’m going to tell you that the development industry hurts people in the developing world. Its greatest success has been to provide good jobs...