Pakistan, Productivity and Why I’d Rather Write Books
by MW Cook
My wife and kids are off to Pakistan in a week. I’ll be following them a month later. I’m stoked. I tend to get all glossy-eyed when I talk about Pakistan. Kinda like a high-school girl talking about the head of the football team. What can I say? Pakistan is my lover.
That tends to freak people out a little. Then they ask what I love about it. And I have a really hard time answering them. I mean, the place is pretty rough. It’s hot. Stinky. There’s a few shady characters. Not much chance for the trendy nerd conversations I like having. But I love it anyway.
My wife is running an informal little charity thingy. Helping out widows and orphans. She calls it i117, go check it out. That’s one of the reasons we’re going this summer. Hunting down folks suffering in extreme poverty and coming alongside them to make life better.
I get bothered when I think about how much my country suffers. I have friends who are malnourished. Literally. I have family who had to cut their caloric intake when American bio-fuel companies started buying up all the rice and grain that used to be used for food. For four years I lived among a people who simply did not have enough.
But now I live in Canada. And we have too much. Way too much. So I don’t really want to be productive. Because we’re producing so much that most of what we work 40hrs a week for ends up in a dump before it goes stale. Because we buy new printers instead of refilling toner. Because the average household drill runs for 16 minutes during its entire life. Because everyone on the street owns a lawnmower that they use once a week in the summer. Because we eat so much we’re dying because of it. We’re just producing too many things. We aren’t even consuming them anymore. And it can’t go on, friends. It won’t.
So I’d rather write books. I’d rather sing songs. I’d rather dance. I’d rather do plays and cook fancy meals and drink tea with strangers and tell funny stories. Because those things don’t take up space and don’t take away from my friends in Pooristan.
My old protestant work ethic is yelling at me right now. He’s telling me that hard work and productivity is a virtue. I figure he’s wrong, though. Our craze for being productive has made us the economic lords of the earth, yes. But you can’t have lords without serfs. And I think it sucks to have either.
So I’d rather write a book.
Matt W Cook 
Just out of curiosity Matt, where would Ruth’s charity thingy be if all everyone did was dance, sing, and cook fancy meals.
You speak as if work is a bad thing, yet Adam and Eve worked the garden before sin came into the world, yet Paul himself
“did (not) eat anyone’s food without paying for it. On the contrary, we worked night and day, laboring and toiling so that we would not be a burden to any of you.”
It seems the ‘old protestant work ehtic’ started way before the protestants.
God created work Matt, true there’s many who let work consume their lives, but it’s not a bad thing in itself, in fact, God only has good things to say about it in His word.
Drinking tea and telling stories may not take away anything from our friends in Pakistan, but it sure won’t give them anything either.
I definitely see where you’re coming from. After reading Matt’s post I felt that it was a little one-sided as well. Have you read the linked article though? In that article Russell makes some really good arguments, not for the abolishment of work, but for the appropriate downsizing of work until everyone is both contributing economically as well as free to put time into other pursuits.
As far as “God only ha[ving] good things to say about [work] in His word”: what about all the parables where rich dudes get thrown into hell? I guess it could be argued that God is just punishing them for loving and trusting their riches more than him, but I think the case can also be made that at least some of them were being productive in a way they thought was pleasing to God, when in the end it was just a waste of time.
I love the example of Paul working as much as the next guy, and I want to emulate it with my own life, but I figure that if Paul had had the mindset of many “Christian” businessmen today half the churches he was a part of seeding would never have existed. Most people use the cop-out of “I’m doing my job in worship to God”, but when they spend the majority of their earnings making their own life a more comfortable and cluttered place are they really?
Jesus spent three whole years unemployed, singing, going to parties and telling stories. The way I see it, Jesus breaks every rule in the book when it comes to being a good Christian man. Why didn’t he start his ministry sooner, when he was 20? Why did he spend three years without working? I think if we all follow the Spirit above all else we are going to break a lot of man-made rules.
At this point I’ve been in Pakistan for two months, and I haven’t done any work yet. It’s not that I haven’t been looking for volunteer positions; there just hasn’t been anything that has worked out yet. In the meantime, I’ve just been drinking chai and making friends and telling stories. Am I going to do only that for the next 30-40 years? I hope not! As I get to know people and their problems I will be compelled to do what I can to help them. In the meantime, though, I don’t want to get so busy with make-work NGOs that I burn myself out and never end up helping the people who really need help.
Never suggested work was bad. Just suggesting we’re doing far too much of it here and it’s hurting things.
And singing and dancing and telling stories, I think, gives MUCH to our friends, both here and in Pakistan.
What I’m finding is that when we sing and dance and tell stories, we are placing ourselves on the same level as those we are interacting with.
There’s nothing magical about the song & dance & story in themselves, but through them people can come to the realization that we want to “share with [them] not only the good story but also our own selves, because [they] have become very dear to us” (1 Thessalonians 2:8).
I think they will be much more open to receiving what we want to offer them when they understand that.
Hey Guys, great subject. I’ve often pondered the plight of chronically materially poor regions of the world, and wondered how much of that poverty is attributable to unfair dealings with richer countries/regions, poor governance, lack of education, cultural norms, and just plain laziness. It’s not abundantly clear how much any of those specific things play into chronic regional poverty. It is interesting that if you take a globe cut it in two at the Northern 45 deg parallel, and compare the wealth of the northern chunk to the southern chunk – you have complete economic disparity. (With the significant exception of a chunk of the US, which benefits from federalization). My theory has always been that surviving in northern climates has always required significant amounts of work ethic, until the dawn of industrialization when it became much easier with the assistance of machines. This cultural phenomenon persists today, but as Matt has pointed out – we could probably work far less hard than our pioneer forefathers to maintain a living standard comparable or even better than theirs with the benefits of modernization. (Although I would suggest our 40 hour weeks would hardly look excessive compared to their dawn to dusk regimen to eek out a living from the land.) I guess I would suggest that the work ethic that was required for grim survival has now translated into wild excess. (Again, comparatively speaking)
Conversely, in equatorial latitudes, you essentially need something to keep the rain off your head, water, and something to eat. These less significant survival requirements have produced a culture that is less driven – much more grasshopper than ant. Modernization has NOT benefited these regions, because with increased population and no significant technological advance – the smaller and smaller tracts of land per capita cannot sustain the burgeoning populations of these countries. In other words the reverse of what has happened in Northern Latitudes – reduced standards of living and increased abject poverty.
I realize that’s a sweeping generalization – and probably not entirely true in specific locales – but that’s my take on the global economic picture.
Cheers guys!
I can only speak from my experience, having spent a summer in Africa. It was a pretty poor area (Zambia), but so verdant and food could grow all year round, so I wondered why there was such poverty.
This is what I saw (and I realize it may not be the same in Pakistan, but then again, maybe it is). The women were very hard workers. They worked from dawn till dusk, lugging water, plowing and caring for fields and having/taking care of babies. I could hardly believe it when I saw women who were 9 months pregnant carrying huge vats of water, or plowing fields.
As for the men, they considered ALL work to be “women’s work”. It wasn’t about drawing a distinction between gender roles because there was no role for men. Men were to relax with their friends and women were to work. Work had to get done by someone, afterall. The food still had to be grown and cooked…the kids needed to be cared for..it just had to get done. But it wasn’t men’s job to do. And so they were lazy, sitting around the fires, smoking their pipes and talking about life. No chai, but you get the picture.
Because of this, you can imagine how that lowered the ability of a family to care for themselves. No one is going to say that a woman doing EVERYTHING can accomplish as much as a husband helping her. So the families barely eeked out a living.
I wonder how much of what we see in poor countries (not all, but some) has more to do with gender roles. It was in Africa, at least.
By contrast, the Christian families where the husbands worked were doing well, by African standards (and even ours, to be honest). I have friends there…the husband is a nurse and works very hard to take care of his family. They have a little home, they send me emails and letters (which means they have access to internet which is rare in that part of Africa) and their kids always have good clothes and enough food. You can totally see the difference.
So, my question is, is it really work ethic you are talking about or is gender roles? I just have a hard time believing that while the men are drinking chai, the women get to do that too….and if that’s the case, we should have a BIG problem with it. Again, I can’t speak for Pakistan, but from what I’ve seen of many countries where women aren’t valued, this is often a huge problem.
Also, how does this fit with the NT’s exhortations to work hard so that we have something to share with others? Eph 4:28 “Anyone who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with their own hands, that they may have something to share with those in need.” (And we can apply it ourselves even if we aren’t thieves. The principle is the same.) Ben makes a good point that the only way charities like Ruth’s can survive is by people working hard enough to have something to share.
I mean, we could be unproductive and bemoan how much we waste here. Or we could work hard, live simply & give more to those who need it over there. It seems like an obvious answer….
I’m going to suggest that anyone who wants a general overview of why some countries are poor, and why Western aid isn’t helping them change, should check out William Easterly’s book “The White Mans Burden”. In it, Easterly makes a number of very well supported arguments describing what got poor countries where they are today and what isn’t going to get them out. He puts little time into recommending a solution, but his main thesis is that there is no “Solution”. There are only small scale, lower case solutions. Individuals at a grassroots level helping other individuals.
So much of the time Christian organizations (like World Vision, or Churches Helping Churches) buy into a Spiritless, worldly mindset when they implement their calling. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to make some poor people better off or rebuild some churches. The problem is, how do poor people need to be better off, or does that church actually need to be rebuilt? Shouldn’t the poor people have a say in how their lives get “improved”, and shouldn’t we spend more time making sure that churches and pastors are actually deserving of help? But there isn’t enough time – or in actuality it isn’t a priority – to gather information and process it effectively, so organizations roll out their 5-step or 10-step plans, and end up wasting tons of money and time just spinning their tires.
Steph, you submit the either/or of critical unproductivity vs hardworking generosity. There is a third way which rises above both of these lesser options, and yet includes aspects of both. There is a time for everything. There is a time to be unproductive (in the eyes of the world) and just absorb the culture, the language, the subtle distinctions between levels of poverty. There is a time to sing, and dance, and tell stories. There is a time to let those you wish to help know that you are not just going to ride in on a white horse (or drive up in a shiny SUV) and “fix” their problems. There is also a time to be productive, to make money, to respond to a disaster, to hand out cool water to “the least of these”. Neither unproductivity nor productivity should be a fixed way of life. If we really are following Jesus we will oscillate between the two as the Spirit leads.
Poor people don’t need our money. In some cases we will definitely need to provide water, food, clothing, and shelter like Jesus told us to. The last thing we need to do though is roll out water-programs, food-programs, clothing-programs, and housing-programs. All of the above cost pennies over here in South Asia, and in Africa. Their low cost is what organizations use to justify spraying aid everywhere, with little or no on-the-ground follow up. I’m not just talking about some white-do-gooders-visiting-a-couple-shacks-and-soothing-their-guilty-conscience follow up, I’m talking about on-the-ground-knowing-the-language-having-a-real-heart-for-the-people and not just desire-to-have-a-cushy-job-working-for-aid-organizations-or-missionaries follow up. Validating the poor by living life with them, experiencing the highs and lows with them, and gaining the ability to see where they need help is what we need to aspire to, not blind productivity or unproductive criticism.
You are absolutely right that there is a time for everything, especially when you are becoming a part of a new culture. I didn’t get the vibe that was what Matt was talking about, but maybe that is for the next blog. :)
Hmm..I’m totally with you about World Vision…but have you kept up with what CHC does? Rebuilding the buildings is a small part of it (and yet very necessary because worshipping in an open field is not very practical, but the churches are very simple and in some cases all they do is keep people dry)…however, rebuilding the people is a bigger part (especially because of the trauma they’ve experienced). They have retreats for the pastors and then the pastors go back with the counselling and encouragement they’ve received so they can do the same thing with their people. CHC doesn’t just roll out a program or give it to every needy church. What they do is they find worthy, solid, growing churches and they allow THEM to disperse the money or resources to the poor in their group. That’s the most efficient way to do it. And in fact, in Haiti, they required the people to give first towards rebuilding their church(a small amount) and they would multiply that amount. This meant that the people took ownership. It wasn’t just a handout-it was us partnering with them. The way it should be! And as I said in another post, now the Haitian churches are giving their pennies for the church in Japan, which is so biblical. Poverty doesn’t mean we can’t give!
My bottomline is that leisure is not wrong, and as you said, there are times when we need to just chill and invest in relationships. However, I think MOST of us can say that if given a choice between working hard or drinking chai, we will choose the chai. I just want to make sure that whether I’m drinking chai with my Muslim friend or working hard to take care of our home and raise our daughter, I’m investing for things that last. “Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” I Cor. 10:31
A little graphic to illustrate my theory. Notice the green in northerlies and southerlies, with a big old band of malnutrition throughout equatorial latitudes.
Coincidental? I dunno…
I dunno either. Before you fully make up your mind you should read these two books:
The Bottom Billion, by Paul Collier (If you don’t want to buy a copy and your library doesn’t have a copy I could led you one when I get back to Canada) – http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0195373383/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_1?pf_rd_p=1278548962&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=0195311450&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=0EBB7Z2HK9E562XH19AN
The White Mans Burden, by William Easterly – http://www.amazon.com/White-Mans-Burden-Efforts-Little/dp/0143038826/ref=tmm_pap_title_0