Today during Initiative For Peace (IFP) we participated in an activity which aimed to simulate and recreate some of the key principles, emotions and misconceptions with the provision and acceptance of foreign aid. For the simulation, the Kays, were a rich, educated and privileged society, looking to help out the Jahs, an underdeveloped and poor society, I was assigned to the Kays. To begin with, as Kays, we were told that we had everything we needed, our society was highly functional and therefore we were going to try and help out the Jahs. Without knowing anything about who the Jahs were or what they were doing, only that they need our help, we tried to plan out how we would help them with the resources we had. When we finally visited the Jahs (in the classroom next to us) we did not get the reaction we expected. We were not viewed as help or saviour, rather the Jahs viewed us as a threat to their ‘peaceful’ existence and saw no use in what we had to offer. After this moment the simulation slowly broke down as conflicts started to develop within and between groups. However, the main idea of the simulation was still conveyed as it was clear to both groups that nothing good came out of what we perceived to be a ‘noble’ act.
One of the biggest take away from this exercise was that empathy is fuel for change, not sympathy. As Kay’s, reading about the condition of people in the Jah society we immediately felt sorry, as if we owed them something. From there we had already put ourselves above the Jah’s and a power dynamic was created. This power dynamic acted as an obstacle throughout the rest of the simulation preventing us from slowing down and considering what the Jahs would actually want. Therefore, when we walked in the Jah society offering our expensive resources and ‘expert’ advise we made the Jahs feel lesser, pride became a factor that lead many of the Jah’s to decline our offerings and at some points even resent them. If we had approached this activity with a more empathetic approach, we would have taken more time to really understand the Jahs’ situation. Instead of looking down on them, we would have stepped down into their situation to see what it is they could really use from us. If we had done this there would have been a more mutual understanding about what we were providing and the Jahs wouldn’t feel inferior to us.
In the context of a peace building conference I think this activity is extremely effective in bring up some of the emotions involved in foreign aid situations. This activity shows how easy it is for good intentions to be mis interpreted. It is also interesting because it allows you to experience the situation from a perspective that you may have not considered before. For example many of us have only ever been the ones providing the aid and today we had the opportunity to experience being the ones receiving the aid and therefore adopt a new perspective on the topic.
