On the critical blog "Good Intentions are not Enough" blog, an interesting piece about the inconsistencies between Western religious and cultural influence:
In Thailand before the influx of missionaries and other foreigners most children went around naked until puberty and after that young women wore only a sarong around their waist. In many rural villages today old women still go around with just a bra for a top.It reminds me of a conversation I had with a colleague in Malawi once. He, like many Malawians I came across, was concerned by my lack of religion.Today young rural Thai women dress very modestly. If shorts are worn at all they're very long, shirts have sleeves, necklines are high. This standard of modesty meant that some of the clothing donated after the tsunami was too indecent for them to wear.
Ironic isn't it, first we import modesty standards then we import immodest clothing.
"Matt, why don't you go to church?" he said.
"I told you," I replied, "I'm not religious."
"I'm not religious either," he explained with resolve, "I just have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ."
I sighed with exasperation, unsure on how anyone could respond to that.
Later, he continued: "I find it very odd that you [Europeans] brought religion to our country, but now none of you seem to be very religious!you've all since lost your religion."
Of course our hypocritical preachings are not limited to the spiritual realm: while I worked in the budget division of the Ministry of Finance in Malawi, we were subjected to all sorts of complex reform attempts pushed on us by donors that were unlikely to deal with core problems. Even worse, while the solutions often emulated theoretical "best practices" in some way, they were best practices that the donors and similar agencies back home would never dare follow themselves.