A Response to Mr. Paul Driessen
Ms. Jennifer Zambone

The following remarks were given in at "God Is Great. Is God Green? A Conference on Evangelicals and the Environmental Task."  They are in response to Mr. Paul Driessen's presentation, "Building a Brighter Future for Africa and the Third World"  The conference took place in Washington, DC on November 14, 2008.

I’d like to start by apologizing to any reporters left in the room. I’m afraid my response is not going to be as controversial as it could be, because I agree with a lot of the essence of Mr. Driessen’s points. So I’m afraid the fireworks that you may have been anticipating will not happen.

I would like to thank IRD for holding an interesting and informative conference on the topic of evangelicals and the environmental task. It’s a particularly apt topic to discuss in the United States and indeed in the Americas as a whole, because on his third voyage to the New World Columbus was convinced that he had discovered the Garden of Eden. That he did so was more due to his misunderstanding of geography—after all, he thought he had discovered Asia; he didn’t realize about the Americas—and also that he was a product of his time. The belief in the continued existence of the Garden of Eden persisted well into even the early 17th century. Over 500 French travel books published before 1610 state its continued physical existence as a fact.

Unfortunately, we, as products of our time, know that we are not in Eden. We should also know and take comfort from the fact that we are not the first, second, third, or even fourth generation to struggle with the question of where man stands in relation to creation. Generations before us have struggled with these very issues. Generations after us will continue to struggle, just as they struggle with what I think is the essential issue raised in Mr. Driessen’s paper.

Having discussed briefly last night, in the general conversation after Cal [Beisner’s] presentation, the importance of stories, I would like to begin with a story that puts this central issue in context. It’s a story with which I’m sure you are all familiar, but is one that bears repeating, and that is of particular importance in the area of the environment and poverty.

On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, ”what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

“What is written in the law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”

He answered: “’Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’”

“You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”

But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’

“Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”

The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”

Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”

“But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, ‘And who is my neighbor?’” The deep human desire to justify oneself is not unique to teachers of the law or indeed, as some people might think, lawyers. We all want to justify ourselves. We all want to believe, on the right sides of our brains, if you will, that what we are doing is well in the eyes of God. That we know who our neighbors are and that we are caring for them. We want to believe that, even though we know on the left side of our brains that we aren’t doing well in God’s eyes, that we don’t know who our neighbors are, and we definitely are not caring for them.

What Mr. Driessen correctly points out in his paper is that, like teachers of the law, we may be wrong in thinking about who our neighbor is. And even more importantly, even if we have the right neighbor, we are wrong in assessing his condition. Fortunately for our neighbors, most of them are in better condition than the robbed man. They can speak and tell us what they need. And they do; we just have to listen.

In his writings, William Easterly divides people concerned about developmental issues—people who have, all of them, the best of intentions, people who all wish to help their neighbors—into two categories: planners and searchers. Planners believe that the best way to do anything—promote development and [alleviate] poverty, protect the environment—is to impose a plan from the top down. Planners argue that there is a best way to do something. And people need help in order to implement the best way.

Searchers, on the other hand, believe that solutions to problems exist on the ground. That if the word could be spread about how group A dealt with problem X, then group B could learn from group A’s example on how to deal with problem X. The advantage of this method, searchers argue, is that in at least one place and at one time, this solution has in fact worked—something that cannot always be said about planning solutions.

As I’m unable to plan even the course of my week, I have to confess that my belief as to which of these methods produces a better result lies firmly with the searchers. As the poet Burns said—and with the bagpipe virtuosos and degrees in Scottish history, someone will correct me if I’m wrong—“the best-laid schemes o’ mice an’ men gang aft agley, an’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain, for promis’d joy!”
 
Although I am in no way representing my organizational opinion, as I mentioned before, the Mercatus Center does have a program of which I’m a huge fan, because it is a searchers’ program. The program is called Enterprise Africa. Although it would never, ever couch its mission in this fashion, what Enterprise Africa does is ask, “Who is my neighbor?” And once it determines who is my neighbor, researchers in this program go into the field and listen to what the neighbor has to say.

As I’ve already started telling stories, I’m going to stick with the story theme aspect and tell a small story from some of Enterprise Africa’s research, and it concerns Namibia. Namibia is a country in southern Africa that has a very varied environment, but it was under government control for a very long time. The government decided to free it up and place it in control of the local tribes and people of that area. And what has happened has been a revival of the environment. It’s called community-based natural resources management.

One of the particular stories dealing with this arises from the black rhino, which is an endangered species and was particularly endangered in Namibia. This is at Khorixas reservation. Years ago, the rhino were here, and when we came in 1972 from South Africa, the rhino were here, but then they were removed. The government sent them to Etosha and other places to make room for people and crops.

After the conservancy was formed, we started to ask: “What happened to our rhinos? We want them back.” We’ve had lots of meetings over the years about this issue. Finally, the stakeholders decided that they must be brought back. Khorixas was chosen to get two male rhinos. If they settle, then we’ll get females.

We were chosen among the first conservancies to get the rhinos, because we look after our animals and we have taken responsibility for them. Wildlife numbers are really increasing. I see increases in every species. When we started, there was no wildlife. The animals were owned by the ministry, so people poached them. Everyone was poaching. What ownership means is you have to take care of it.

Damaraland camp manager Lena Flory said: “People come here to see the desert elephants, the magnificent scenery and wildlife, the black rhino and the local people. We have stopped poaching because people value wildlife and see what tourism can do.” Namibia had a long history of quite radical poaching during the years that the government was in control of the property of the animals because they [the people] had no rights in them [the animals]. And it raised “the tragedy of the commons.”

Listening to our neighbors is vital, telling their stories is crucial, but just as language is important, so is tone. I’m the editor of economic policy pieces, so I confess this is bit of a hobby horse of mine. And Paul [Driessen], I can give a list of people with whom you can commiserate about my attitude, and I’m sure they’ll all agree with you. But passionate topics solicit passionate responses, and as much as we can as fallen human beings, passion should be directed in proper ways. It is important to tell stories. It is vital to tell stories. But when telling stories, the second most important thing about them is the audience.

Everything you say may be correct. The left side of your brain rejoices; it’s fully fulfilled. But if the right side of the brain doesn’t feel good about your story, if it doesn’t appeal to that core value, the brain as a whole will reject it.

I get the feeling this is pretty much the choir. As a long-term alto, I respect that. But when you’re out there in the greater world, you’re not always preaching to the choir. And so a paper like Paul’s, while being true and accurate in many of its ways, can in some ways ruin his argument by the tone that he takes. As popular as it may be here, it’s a harder take to do out in the world. And I know this from having worked in the malaria issue for a few years. It was a difficult row to hoe at the beginning, which you wouldn’t think it would be.

It’s stewardship time at my church, and this past Sunday in class, we were discussing the different motivations people have for performing charity. The book we were reading gives ten, some more Christian than others. But the ones judged to be the highest motivations, that expressed the Christianity the best, were to express the love of God and to express Christ within. I would urge those concerned about the environment in the developing world and poverty in the developing world, to direct their work toward listening to their neighbors and to helping those very neighbors express Christ within. Thank you.

Ms. Jennifer Zambone is the publications manager for the Mercatus Center at George Mason University.