et a-thinking by some of the things said at the meeting,
Homer. In particular, what Dr. Smythe had to say. Homer, are we sure
these people _want_ the things we are trying to give them?"

He looked at her uncomfortably. "No they don't," he said bluntly.
"Otherwise we wouldn't be here, either your AFAA or my African
Development Project. We utilize persuasion, skullduggery, and even force
to subvert their institutions, to destroy their present culture. Yes.
I've known this a long time."

"Then how do you justify your being here?"

He grinned sourly. "Let's put it this way. Take the new government in
Egypt. They send the army into some of the small back-country towns with
bayoneted rifles, and orders to use them if necessary. The villagers are
forced to poison their ancient village wells--one of the highest of
imaginable crimes in such country, imposed on them ruthlessly. Then they
are forced to dig new ones in new places that are not intimately
entangled with their own sewage drainage. Naturally they hate the
government. In other towns, the army has gone in and, at gun point,
forced the parents to give up their children, taken the children away
in trucks and 'imprisoned' them in schools. Look, back in the States
we have trouble with the Amish, who don't want their children to
be taught modern ways. What sort of reaction do you think the
tradition-ritual-tabu-tribesmen of the six thousand year old Egyptian
culture have to having modern education imposed on their children?"

Isobel was frowning at him.

Crawford wound it up. "That's the position we're in. That's what we're
doing. Giving them things they need, in spite of the fact they don't
want them."

"But _why_?"

He said, "You know the answer to that as well as I do. It's like giving
medical care to Typhoid Mary, in spite of the fact that she didn't want
it and didn't believe such things as typhoid microbes existed. We had to
protect the community against her. In the world today, such backward
areas as Africa are potential volcanoes. We've got to deal with them
before they erupt."

The waiter came with the bill and Homer took it.

Isobel said, "Let's go Dutch on that."

He grinned at her. "Consider it a donation to the AFAA."

Out on the street again, they walked slowly in the direction of the old
administration buildings where both had left their means of
transportation.

Isobel, who was frowning thoughtfully, evidently over the things that
had been said