Fabian Lifka

EXPL 292
Patrick M Green
02/10/2016
Reflection B
One of the most important form of service by industrial countries is development
assistance. It seems easy to say what development assistance or service in general means but
service is very complex. The complexity of service is emphasized by the question if service is
helpful and should be done or if service is just an ineffectual gesture. Ivan Illich and Keith
Morton discussed the complexity of service in their work.
In Ivan Illichs speech To Hell with Good Intentions service is described as dubious.
He addresses young people who plan to go to Mexico during their summer vacation to service
Mexicans. Illich argues that the service would be offensive to Mexico and that their good
intensions wont help anybody. His argument is that they are not able to help the Mexicans
because the only thing they know is the American middle-class and the American Way of
Life. Here, he is saying that they are not taught to be in this situation of the Mexican middleclass because middle-class in the United States is totally different than the middle class in
Mexico which Illich exemplifies by politics, values and the number of students who drop out
of school in each country. In addition to that, the political system of the United States is not
compatible with the circumstances in Mexico. The United States and also other industrial
countries try to expand their idea of democracy which is also connected with free market
economy which makes the richer even richer, and the poor increasingly marginal to that
system. Another problem is the relationship between Americans and Latin Americans. The
simplest difference is the language barrier. Even if the Americans could speak Spanish or in
the case that the Latin Americans could speak English there is still just a small common
ground. Since the people in Latin America who have a similar education than the Americans

are the minority and the majority of Latin American have not the same background than the
American students. He exemplifies that with an instance, you have to imagine that an
American from the middle-class would go to a poor U.S ghetto and would try to help them
with his values. Illich argues that Very soon you would be either spit upon or laughed at.
This would be the same scenario in Latin America for the American students. Because of that,
he states that the students should stay at home since in the U.S they understand the meaning
of their work, they wont have any impact in Mexico because they are powerless there.
Keith Mortons Starfish Hurling and Community Service starts with a story of a person
who is running around the beach to throw the starfish back into the sea. Another person asked
the active person: What are you doing? You cant possibly throw all the starfish back. Your
effort makes no difference., which the active person replies with: It makes difference to this
one. Morton introduced with this problem the complexity of service, he tries to explain 5
reasons why this example illustrates a negative outcome of service. At first, he argues that this
phenomenon is caused by the nature and that is is meant to happen. Secondly, the starfish is
not able to speak so we cant judge if they deserve our help. In this example we can see that
Morton is aware of privilege because he differs animals from humans. The third reason is
similar to the fist one since he argues that throwing the starfishes back into the sea would
influence the ecology and other animals such as the nature. The fourth reason is more a
systematical mistake from the active person because his service to the starfish could me much
more effective with an organization of more people since this problem happens frequently.
His last reason questioned if the act of the active person is an act of community service since
it does not effect the community. Morton finishes his text with a message which says that the
story in the beginning does not answer the question what community or service is. He
suggests that we should rather Talk, listen, build relationships, know your self, your
environment than do actions which are ineffective and are not defined as service.

In both texts we can see the complexity of service and mostly a negative outcome of
service. But to my mind, not every statement from both writers are necessarily truth. In
Illichs story there are many patriotically expressions of the U.S. For him there is no doubt
that the U.S is the best country in the world but for me that is a weak argument to use against
other countries in Latin America. Furthermore, and even more important is the fact that he
argues that every kind of community service is bad as long as it is in his beloved country. I
think it is good to question community service as he did but I believe that community service
is needed. Maybe he is right that with his claim that the system of the U.S is not compatible
with Latin America but we have to give them the chance to build their own, they need
foremost assistance in education. Another argument to talk about is the relationship between
Americans and Latin Americans. In my opinion, people in the same age have similar interests,
of course they can differ since everyone has a different background but I think both sides are
interested in each others culture. So the connection between the American students and the
Latin Americans would improve over the time since everyone learn the other culture more and
more. In addition to that, we need to connect with people from developing countries to learn
their needs and wishes so we can help them more effectively such that the students would be a
powerful impact. For these reason, I totally disagree with Illich that the American students
should stay at home because it gives them a better understanding of community service so
they could help the Latin Americans better.
Mortons text has another and for me more meaningful message than Illich. To my
mind, he makes a good point by saying that we should Talk, listen, build relationships, know
your self, your environment to improve community service but also in his text there are some
points I disagree with. I believe that in his story, the active person is the good person and I
would not criticize him for his action. I would disagree with Morton that we should privilege
humans over animals just because humans can speak because we have a higher IQ, service
means also to help animals. In addition to that, our service should not be influenced by the

relationship to an animal or a person. Moreover, I think this story can be related to homeless
people, if I help one homeless person by giving money to him, he could buy food which
would help him to survive, so it is not just a individual act of kindness. So I would disagree
with his fifth reason. But if we relate this instance from the homeless person to Mortons
message at the end we would not only give the homeless person money, we would teach the
person how to get money by finding a job or get the person entrance to education so the
homeless person would not need to beg anymore. I believe that Morton is more concerned
about powerful service than the daily service we can provide but I think that both are
important to live in a functional society.