4 ms·

There is very little long term planning in Africa.

• TaylorAlexander 7y ago
  Poverty is a big factor in long term planning. For example in America poor people pay more for toilet paper because they can’t buy a large pack of toilet paper rolls, instead they often can only afford to buy one roll at a time. This is a well documented effect of poverty or financially constrained living.
  • jandrese 7y ago
    It's not the only factor though. I've talked with my father-in-law who does a lot of work in Haiti. His observation is that it is a much more systematic problem. Kids don't learn to plan ahead because the schools only teach memorization and they don't play with toys like building blocks. It's very frustrating for him because he finds himself having to hand hold a lot when doing construction projects like building schools, even when the people doing the work are supposed to be professionals. For example, if he orders a truckload of gravel he has to watch the entrance like a hawk and be ready to rush out the instant the truck arrives, because if he doesn't the truck will just dump the gravel right in the middle of their entrance and block everybody in until he can round up people to shovel it into wheelbarrows by hand. The idea that you might want to ask where to dump the load is not something that will ever cross the truck driver's mind. The project manager won't think about it either unless my father-in-law asks him explicitly where he is planning to store the gravel he just ordered. It's these kinds of problems day in and day out that makes reconstruction so difficult. Learning how to think ahead is something we take for granted in the west, but it's not an innate human skill. It has to be taught. Worse, if you never learned it yourself then you won't notice that your kids lack the skill. It's a difficult cycle to break.