Travels to Rwanda

On the plane leaving Rwanda after 18 hour whirlwind tour. Regarding this trip, I have spoken with at least three very successful Christian businessmen and one senior political leader regarding the opportunities in Rwanda. To the individual, they have all told me not to focus on serving the poor, that there isn’t a business model that will be sustainable. The government doesn’t have enough resources to do everything so it has to focus on what has the biggest bang for the buck. In some scenarios, that includes razing higher density poorer peoples’ housing in order to build lower density housing for the burgeoning middle class. They each told me in some form or fashion that economic development theory and practicality proves that you have to invest in the country and grow the economy in aggregate in order to increase the tax base. This puts more money into government coffers which can then (maybe generations from now) be poured back into services for the less fortunate.

How do I reconcile that with these Proverbs 22 and 23 verses:
22:16: He who oppresses the poor to increase his wealth and he who gives gifts to the rich-both come to poverty. We can claim that it isn’t oppressing the poor to kick them off their land and we can claim that it isn’t for the sake of increasing our own wealth, but I guarantee we wouldn’t be doing it if it wasn’t increasing our wealth.

23:10: Do not move an ancient boundary stone or encroach on the fields of the fatherless, for their Defender is strong; he will take up their case against you. God loves every individual and I don’t believe his model for economic development involves sacrificing one generation for a future generation. But this brings us back to the argument that there are limited resources and they have to be allocated most efficiently in order for a country to develop.

Whose economy are we speaking of? Is it the economy of the allocation of scarce resources or is it the economy of a God who owns the cattle on a thousand hills? What do we believe about God’s miraculous power? We circumvent it when we make choices that put the power in our hands.I believe that there must be a way to honor the poor today, not in the next generation. And as a side note, I’m done using the phrase, “serve the poor,” because God calls us to honor them, not serve them. Does it require creative business models and people who aren’t solely focused on profit maximization as the purpose of business? Absolutely. Does it depend on a belief in a God who isn’t resource constrained? Absolutely. Is it what we are called to do today? Absolutely. If we don’t, “their defender is strong and he will take up their case against us.”

What is the goal of economic development anyway? Do the Rwandans want their country to become like the United States? We had and still have the same mentality we had when we were going through the industrial revolution. As a developer, I see that now, 200 years later, designing and building spaces that honor the poor is merely an afterthought. Don’t believe the lie that we just have to build a middle class and then we’ll figure out how to honor the poor because we won’t. It has to be an integral part of everything we are doing.

But this perspective is lost on most of our world. I speak of the perspective that propels the soldier to run into enemy fire in order to save his wounded friend, knowing that he will likely die in the process, and probably not even save his friend, but doing it anyway because it is the right thing to do. Rwanda doesn’t have enough resources to honor the poor today (nor does the United States), nor will it 200 years from now. There aren’t economically viable models. To use an adolescent phrase, “so what!” It’s not an option. It’s a command.