Questions
After identifying a village’s poorest people, a BRAC interviewer visits each poor household to determine if its mistress qualifies for the TUP program. As he loudly accuses one woman of involvement in another NGO program, she smiles and protests friendlily in front of a smirking crowd. I shudder to think what a poor Yankee farmer would do if a man in business clothes appeared, asking to see food stashes and evidence of furniture. Even if the farmer only ate twice a day and desperately needed support, the episode would still likely end with a brandished shotgun and the squeal of tires on a dirt driveway. Steven tells me that the comparison is unfair, and that the closest level of destitution we see in the US is homelessness.
I asked Manzhu, our translator, why people willingly answer such personal questions, and he says it’s because people normally shun and neglect them, so they welcome the attention. He said if we asked the same questions of someone better off, she would refuse to tell her story. I still think if someone asked a homeless American about savings, assets, and life history, the investigator would meet with a good measure of suspicion.
I asked Manzhu, our translator, why people willingly answer such personal questions, and he says it’s because people normally shun and neglect them, so they welcome the attention. He said if we asked the same questions of someone better off, she would refuse to tell her story. I still think if someone asked a homeless American about savings, assets, and life history, the investigator would meet with a good measure of suspicion.
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