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Exercise

Ted, a British engineer, works for an international aid agency. He was assigned to a 9-month program in rural Peru to help develop disaster preparedness schemes following a particularly severe earthquake. Although he had some success in convincing local government leaders of the necessity for the measures, he was continually frustrated in trying to initiate preventive building and health programs among the largely Indian population. Ted was impressed with their rebuilding efforts after a disaster, but could not interest them in preparation for disaster. These people were ardent Catholics and believed that natural disasters were acts of God, and that their survival was determined completely by God's will. Preparations intended to minimize the effects of calamities thus seemed futile, as no one and nothing could subvert God's will. Ted himself was a practicing Christian and respected the strong faith of the people, but he could not accept or understand the Peruvians lack of support for his work.

• The Peruvians did not have sufficient education or sophistication to appreciate his viewpoint.
• The Peruvians had been repressed so long by political and economic forces that they had lost the will to act on their own behalf.
• The Peruvians probably had an inherent distrust of outsiders and were using their religious beliefs as an excuse not to cooperate.
• The Peruvians had an intense devotion to religion that pervaded their lives to a degree that Ted was not likely to experience in his culture.