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[quote=Anonymous]So, I'm 12 years into an international development career.  I am white, but certainly not a trust fund girl...  I'm from "flyover" country with a solidly middle-class background.  I recognized as a teen that I had it good, relatively speaking, and that not everyone was so lucky.  Combine that with a sense of adventure lead me to join the Peace Corps after college.  Peace Corps is not development, for sure, but its a great opportunity do some good.

There are better ways to facilitate development in other countries though, so I went to grad school to learn more and continue my education, but fundamentally I was motivated by "trying to make the world a better place" even if it was indirectly.

Now, my motivation is a little less clear.  Part of that is just getting older and becoming a bit of a cynic, but also realizing that the "industry" requires a much more nuanced view of the world that has to do with geo-politics, human nature, and economics.  I know without a doubt that the programs I've managed have made a difference in people's lives around the world, but are they necessarily sustainable or will have long-term results?  I'm not sure.

No one in this industry assumes any of the people we work with around the world as "poor helpless others" and if we're vacationing in Paris its because we fly enough to have the miles and/or the stopover to make it happen (I've only been once, and it was under such circumstances - the only time I've been to Europe really).

My organization actively recruits people from other races and nationalities, but its a highly competitive industry with a lot of well-educated people willing to work for low wages to get their foot in the door.  (Wages are not so low outside of entry level jobs.)  I actually do know half a dozen Iraqi refugees that now work here in DC in this industry, but that gets really hard to do with immigration laws being what they are in this country.  [/quote]

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