‘LIFE OUTSIDE THE ‘BELL CURVE’ “Building”, “sustainability” and “community” are fashionable concepts.

Each requires discussion and a ‘context’ in which to operate. These concepts are often flawed in terms of their practice as it relates to addressing the issues of poverty. “Life outside the Bell Curve” takes a look at the world of individuals and societies who do not live under the roof of a ‘formal’ economy.

Most do not have access to our realities of mortgages, loans, credit or job security. They have created their own economy and live by following the ‘whiff of money’.

Theirs is a unique and fascinating world and yet they build sustainable communities in their own way.

Life outside the BELL CURVE takes a look at the differences between life in Western societies and life of those living in Developing nations.

To date:

• Many Western models for “sustainability” are flawed (Education report card, Residential Care models etc)

• Trillions of dollars of ‘aid’ and ‘development’ money have not brought about sustainability

• No literature is positive on ‘villageization’

JEFFERY SACKS MODEL• Sacks disagrees: "The poor you will always have with you."

• The suffering and death he saw shocked him. Eventually he devised a massive experiment in foreign intervention at the village level

• Sacks: “poverty is a problem that can be solved .. beating poverty wasn’t just doable, but easy”

• Task: ending extreme poverty, to prove that the world's most destitute people can be lifted onto "the ladder of development.“

• 2006 backed by $120 million dollars Sachs rolled out a dozen model villages in ten sub-Saharan countries

• the medicine was right (Bell Curve); it was only that the patient failed to follow the doctor’s orders!

World’s apart: Life in the SLUMS

WEST• deprivation, chaos, inefficiency• obsession with cleanliness and order• High service provision• Can’t adjust, must fix / intolerance• Avoid slums due to middle class

values• Avoid low-class living areas• The individual is supreme• Lack of community• “high-modernist ideology,”

DEVELOPING NATIONS• ‘interim’ stage … work to get back to their

villages to retire.• They adjust … if electricity or water runs for

one hour, they adjust. • High elasticity because service provision is

low. • High level of resilience• ‘informal’ settlement = ‘informal’ economy …

follow the ‘whiff of money’• But do endure a desperate daily life; crime,

disease, exploitation, living hand to mouth• Life is random and unpredictable• ‘Community cohesion’ … street women, shop

owners, church, family

The route to sustainabilityreflections & considerations:

• Do not impose your values (time, linear approach, beliefs etc)• Don’t assume they want your help.

• Attitude: without addressing this, change will not be sustained (pic)• Voice: Anywhere without it, it is not sustainable whether a leader

or resident• Local initiative … build on what they have started• Scalable Models …’one-off’ projects which cannot be reproduced

or scaled up are not sustainable (‘white elephants’)• Livelihood generation … simultaneous enterprise development and

job creation is needed for poverty reduction and securing community incentive to maintain it for the future

Positive Interface: M-Pesa - mobile-phone based money transfer service.

• M for mobile • pesa is Swahili for money• Currently the most developed mobile payment system in the

world, • The service allows users to deposit money into an account

stored on their cell phones, to send balances to other users (including sellers of goods and services)

REMBA BEAUTY TRAINING CENTER (pic)

BETHLEHEM CHILDREN’S HOME (pic)

Invitation + Local initiative

Invitation + Local initiative

HOW THEN SHALL WE LIVE?

Francis of Assissi .. “leave your places of privilege (life under bell curve) and walk to the margins of society where you have the broken, the poor, the dispossessed, the outcasts ..”

Encounter: leads to new perspectives (holy ground)

‘HOPE’ … God’s trick to ‘hang on’

Invitation

Story: