Culture Guides

Mini-guide by Suzie Capelli

On the face of it aid and development which is tied to churches or otherwise religiously motivated ought to be some of the most unbiased aid. The church does not need development to survive and they don’t, as a general rule, have their eye on the natural resources of a country. There’s no doubt that they have made valuable contributions in areas like universal access to healthcare and education, and were active in them far before development existed in its present form.

. However they may have played some part in keeping the developing world behind by funding schools and hospitals on traditional homelands which were no longer sustainable. The presence of infrastructure sometimes keeps people in rural communities which are unsustainable (ie do not have enough employment). Rather than letting market forces and play out with its inevitable migration, people are encouraged to remain in areas where they will be permanently aid dependant.

Apart from that earlier missionary efforts served to discourage local culture and hence they, perhaps unwittingly, contributed to western hegemony. This could have had an effect later in leading to a view that when foreigners came, their dictates were to be questioned. For instance when Christian missionaries came to the Polynesian peoples of the south pacific, they found converts easily as the story of Jesus second coming closely paralleled Polynesian traditional beliefs. However they were instructed that the traditional tattooing was not in line with being a good Christian, which left many conflicted.

The Christian Church has long had a foothold in developing countries and a strong influence on the hearts and minds of their citizens. It is unsurprising then, that the Church is more likely to be believed in some communities than other foreign experts, or even their own governments. Teachings on HIV/AIDS are an example of the deadly consequences of this influence. Many branches of Christianity, notably the Catholic Church
, have strong views against the use of contraceptives in general and condoms in particular.

Even more worrying is a Vatican statement that condoms were not effective against the HIV virus because the virus could pass through latex and condoms were lulling people into a false sense of security. In fact an individual HIV molecule could pass through a latex pore, however HIV molecules are only found in clusters which cannot pass through latex.

Some political leaders in Africa propagated the Vatican misinformation thus putting the progress against the spread of HIV/AIDS back a few paces. HIV/AIDS is seen as a development top priority, that is to say, the spread of HIV and mortality rates from AIDS is one of the main issues keeping poor countries poor.

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