Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #140291 in Books
• Published on: 2009-05-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 274 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781599472515
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Customer Reviews

Swimming Against the Tide
It is no pleasure giving a negative review to a book of essays written by some of the most compassionate and dedicated people on the planet, but I do find it necessary to swim against the strong tide of positive reviews this book has generated. As someone who has worked with economic and/or political refugees here in the United States, I picked up this book with much anticipation and interest. Moving through the twenty-nine essays, I found much in the way of compassion and dedication, much less in the way of enlightenment.

The literature on how best to aid developing countries, and on the failures and foibles of public and private sector attempts to participate in the endeavor to lift such countries out of poverty, is voluminous. From Marx to Newt Gingrich, everyone has a solution. What I had hoped for with this book was a unifying principal, a plan with a track record, a pragmatic, ideologically untainted road ahead. In the River They Swim succeeds in other respects (more on this in a moment), but fails at all of the above.

The tone of this book, starting with an introduction by the author of The Purpose Driven Life, is often that blend of religion and capitalism (enterpreneurism is the word most frequently used) that for better or for worse has brought the economy of the Western world to where it is today: incredibly successful at growth, incredibly destructive of the environment, often destructive of the human spirit. I can hear the retort now "More destructive of the human spirit than starving to death or a life of grinding poverty?" No. But there are better ways of moving forward than reproducing a model that appears to have become most bankrupt where it was most successful.

The book approaches a blog-like quality, right down to having frequent bloggers mixed in with those who only write occasionally. Often a chapter is personal musing about what it is like to work in a developing nation. One essay compares economic intervention to the rules of good psychological counseling learned long ago from a favorite priest/professor. Others talk about their personal awakening to the fact that local people have a better understanding of their needs than expert foreigners arriving on the scene. Highly anecdotal and personal in nature, many of the chapters entertain, but fall short on paradigm shifting revelation.

From a business perspective, the quality of the advice comes close to being a long list of platitudes. You will learn that it is best to adapt to local culture. You will discover that people with a product to sell should come to an understanding of their customers. You will find that the truly successful enterprise understands its business from the point of origin to the point of distribution. These are basic business principles, developing nation or otherwise.

Who will like this book? People that enjoy stories of hope, and stories about people that are not just TALKING about making the world a better place, but are actually out there DOING it.

Who will be less enthusiastic? Those that are looking for the tool that will smash the contricting bonds that paralyze the developing nations. Those bonds, I suspect, are political and cultural in nature. Civil rights, empowerment of women, containable corruption, stable legal systems, access to education appear to be pre-conditions to sustainable reduction of poverty. In the River They Swim gives short shrift to the macro changes that are desperately needed, and long shrift to individual stories about how to market the long green raisins of Afghanistan to its neighbor, India.

In the end, it is unlikely that a book whose first line is "Poverty is a spiritual issue", and contains essays entitled "My Faith in Capitalism" (capitalism and religious faith must walk hand in hand), will have a substantial impact on addressing desperate poverty. But it will, indeed, make you feel warmth in your heart for those who are putting their lives into the battle against soul-shattering deprivation.

Rational Solutions

In the River They Swim is a collections of essays by local leaders in less developed countries. The concepts presented are varied, but all unite under the umbrella of brainstorming solutions for managing the massive problems inherent in any program that seeks to improve the conditions of society in the less developed regions of the world.

The essays are scholarly and well defined. They are written by experienced local people who understand the problems, the culture, and the barriers to progress. Many of the concepts appear new because previous publications on this topic have mostly focused on the point of view of well intentioned people in the developed world.

Several concepts are very interesting. First, several essays mention that "entrepreneurship" and "private sector" initiatives will work best. Most of these authors explain that charity from the developed world needs to support local initiatives rather that dictate solutions that emerge from outside opinions.

One author discusses the "cultural divide" that he must "ride" to function in an atmosphere of apparent cultural conflict. He sees challenges that divide people on the basis of culture, social status, generational differences and even accent. He also suggests that often the attitudes of the local elite hinder the development of new ideas.

Several authors emphasize that local firms must improve their competitiveness to be of assistance to the development of their society. In general wealth creation must be emphasized. In addition "mental walls", such as "all initiatives must come from the government", act as barriers to economic progress and must be eliminated.

In the River They Swim is a very different book. I enjoyed reading these essays. They reveal a picture of life in these countries that is very different from what I expected. I recommend these essays for anyone interested in learning about the less developed world.

Postulate a spherical horse
There is a joke that circulates in academic settings, about the mathematician who is approached by a Mafia don with a weakness for the horses. "Can you develop a mathematical formula to predict the winner of a race?" The academic assures the don that he can. And, after much late-night figuring and theorizing, the solution is presented with great fanfare.

"First, postulate a spherical horse..."

When I asked for this book to review, I anticipated it would be like other collected works I've seen on economic and social change. A group of academics postulating spherical horses.

I was (very) pleasantly surprised. While some of the essays are clearly of an academic bent, and more are clearly from politicians and businessmen (terms like "ROI" and "business model" are a dead giveaway, not to mention the bullet points), these are overwhelmed by the sheer humanity of the rest. This work is not theory - it presents personal stories from actual persons. And in doing so, it provides readers with an extraordinary perspective.

We are in the era of the individual. Facebook and Twitter break news stories before CNN. War memorials consist of lists of names, not generic uplifting statues. And potential readers check out Amazon reviews before they look at the Times bestseller list.

This essay collection is activism 2.0. It is an interesting read by itself, but I would love to see it on the required reading list in university classes on macroeconomics and international business. So maybe we can really save the next generation from the cycle of poverty, instead of just postulating more spherical horses.