The Road to Hell

When I think of a contemporary western aid worker, the image is that of an educated liberal steeped in the sociology of development theory. He or she has studied books on the history of colonialism, multinational corporate exploitation and the deceptive “tied aid” that even supposedly enlightened countries such as Canada use as a quid pro quo to ensure that our economy benefits from the exercise; and that person, a product of the exploitive West, seeks, in part out of guilt but also out of passion, to counter this legacy. Our culture also tends to view aid workers uncritically, perhaps because they exemplify what we consider some of the best traits of being Canadian, seeking to bring change in a non-violent way.

Film maker and journalist Larry Krotz pokes a hole in that mythology in his book, The Uncertain Business of Doing Good: Outsiders in Africa. Krotz has written and filmed extensively about Africa over two decades. He has gotten a close-up...