A Life Half Lived

I decided to share this book because it had a visible impact on my thinking. This book addresses various issues that prospective aid workers face.

Key Quotes

If you have the good fortune to be born in a country with freedom and education, then you must hone your skills and use them as best as you can for the betterment of other people.

A poor leader surrounds himself with sycophants

On a superficial level, elections are a sign of democracy. But if a country does not foster the creation of a civil society that has healthy public debate, and a party-political system that represents the people rather than elites, then elections held too early in that country’s history will hinder and not help democracy.

Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of the rest or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from millions of centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance…

Having a law degree does not grant you a happy life and wealthy existence; it imposes upon you an obligation to use your skills for the betterment of other people

For me, if we are simply producing children who themselves have a better future, who in turn produce more children having the best, surely someone along the line needs to do something to justify not only their existence, but the existence of all the people along the chain?

REVIEW

We often hear the saying ‘Give a person a fish and they will go hungry tomorrow. Teach a person to fish and we beat hunger’. The private sector ‘teaches a person to fish’ whereas the public sector-based aid and development industry still spends considerable time ‘giving fish’ instead of teaching to fish. Unless the public Sector changes its way of thinking and unless the private sector is accepted as a leading partner in aid and development then poverty will not be defeated. He accepts Private/public collaboration, together with the rehabilitation of profit, as an accepted incentive in a revolution in thinking.

As a Law student, Andrew MacLeod chose to work in aid, first as a red cross delegate in the former Yugoslavia, then in Rwanda and later with the United Nations, where he was appointed chief of operations in the international response to the 2005 Kashmir earthquake in Pakistan. After spending so much time working in the aid sector, Andrew had a few tough questions, one of which was: Can the private sector take up the mantle to improve the lives of people in extreme circumstances?

This book has had a significant impact on my life because it shows me the flaws in all human behavior regardless of organization. One would hope that the sense of a common goal would have people collaborating naturally. You will think that this is true of the UN family. If you thought the common goal should be able to alleviate global suffering, you will be right. Unfortunately, the goal of many organizations seems to be the longevity of the organization itself.

The book tries to encourage open discussion about poverty issues, how to measure aid effectiveness and how to bring innovation and business focus to the arena, making problems and solutions transparent.

To order this book go to:http://www.amazon.com/Life-Half-Lived-Andrew-MacLeod/dp/1742572529

More from Andrew MacLeod: http://www.andrewmacleod.com.au/