Hate Materialism? Move to Ghana!

Environmentalism, which puts nature above human beings and despises true development, leaves Africans in abject poverty. I didn't just say that — De Roy Kwesi Andrew did. Kwesi Andrew is a teacher from Ghana who recently toured England to talk about a documentary he co-produced, Damned By Debt Relief. He wrote an article about his experience that amounts to a passionate defense of western-style economic progress against the kneejerk attacks of the West's purportedly progressive 'down with us' crowd:

The denunciation of material comfort is so widespread in the West that even schoolchildren seem to think affluence is an evil. Many people I met in Britain told me that there is less happiness and laughter in British society due to economic development. Some said that Africans are happier than Brits even though they are poorer. I thought that freedom from toil was the centrepiece of economic development, handing anybody the ability to unleash their potential and gain unlimited opportunities: most people in Britain have that freedom; we in Ghana do not.

If Westerners are not happy with such great things, perhaps they should swap with us Africans. We would love to have what these people seem to hate. You see, we believe in the material progress of mankind; the vast majority of Ghanaians I spoke to while making Damned by Debt Relief said they want more from life: more goods, more products, more choice. We hate being constantly subdued by nature; we are tired of dying early; we are tired of sleeping in mud huts; we are tired of walking long distances for water, food and fuel; we are tired of doing our washing by hand; we are tired of farming with hoes and cutlasses and waiting for nature to be merciful unto us. You think this way of life is 'natural' and happiness-inducing? Then you should try it out.

Touché. Whole thing here.

Comments

[tomk]

Andrews seems to think that the attitudes of a few university people and activists can be usefully generalized to "Westerners". I can only hope. Environmental regulation and working for sustainable development are not attacks on economic progress. Idealizing the material abundance and alleged leisure and convenience we enjoy is no more useful than idealizing subsistence living. The following is an excerpt from his full article.

"At another discussion, a concerned student told me that humans are destroying the planet. He said that we are greedy, consume too much, produce too much, fly too much and drive unnecessarily big cars… He said that all of this greedy consumption by Westerners is to blame for Africa’s poverty. I felt very sorry for this doom-monger. Africans are not suffering because of climate change. We’re suffering because of underdevelopment. The fact is we simply don’t have the infrastructure that has enabled the West to subdue nature. If we are at the mercy of the climate, it is because our societies remain under-industrialised."

The concerned student makes some good, if simplistic, points. Andrew's response-call him names and totally misrepresent his argument. The student obviously wasn't referring to climate change but more probably to the theft of resources (from slaves to oil, etc.) that have clearly fueled the West's material success and contributed to the poverty in Africa.

I agree that having a victim mentality is not helpful to the future of Africa, or anything for that matter, but Andrews seems to think that playing the victim of Bob Geldof, and like minded activists is preferable to acknowledging the damage that occurs in the course of "
Western style economic development".

Anyway, provocative article, but I think the man should be careful about what he wishes for. Walking miles for water must suck, but working 60 hours a week in an office so you can get out on your fancy boat for a few weeks in the summer isn't so great either.

[Rogier]

Tom:

You almost had me — until that last sentence. Jesus. That's precisely the self-hating Western nihilism that Kwesi Andrews decries, and rightly so. The difference between the things that you see as very nearly equivalent is CHOICE, and lack thereof.

Having to walk miles in the African bush for a pail of water is not a choice, but a regrettable necessity whose existential suck factor is hard to overstate. Working hard in pursuit of a material dream, on the other hand — such as a nice boat — is a choice. Virtually no one in the West is obligated to work 12- or 14-hour days, and if you decide you can work 25 or 30 hours instead of 60 hours a week, and you can still pay the bills, well, who would stop you?

While you bellyache over the exhaust fumes your car produces, or over the rat race you seem to feel Westerners get trapped in, there are dirt poor people on at least three continents who can only dream of the luxury of owning a car, and who can only long for the day when their kids will obtain a white-collar job with a salary that's more than three dollars a day.

I'd love to bring them into the fold, and I don't think the way to do that is to warn them against the dangers of working hard in air-conditioned office buildings, or against the pleasures of sailing.

[George Arndt]

It's simply not realistic to expect 6 billion plus people to have a the same high standard of living as the United States. If they did, the planet might indeed be doomed. But, there is no reason that most people in the world can at least climb out of the most disparate poverty(and perhaps working less than 12 hour days)

Poverty, oddly enough, can even make environmental problems worse. Much deforestation has been caused by people cutting down trees to make fires. If they had natural gas, biofuel or solar power for heat, they might be lest compelled to cut down so many trees. And its hard to care about the environment if you're starving too death!

I do think its very unfair to say that environmentalism puts nature above people. While some “green fundamentalist” might do so, most environmentalists are concerned with helping the poor of the third world, too.

[Dave]

I have to agree Roger. Most of the people that bad mouth materialism are caught up in it. They hate their jobs and the hours they have to work but would not give up the the boat, the gym, the bigger house, the vacations, or the pool. Their college age kids are the worst since most of them have never worked a day in their lives yet have never wanted for anything Many people talk the talk, very few walk the walk.

My insurance agent was here last year whining about the hours she (while picking my pocket) works and spends away from her family. I told her to stop doing it and give up that 3200 sq. ft. house and buy a smaller one without a pool. Stop buying a new car every year or 2 and get rid of some things. (family of four owns six vehicles and 3 boats) I told her that she could easily cut her hours if she cut her expenses. Every word went over her head as soon as I said "give up a few things".