Editorial July 28, 2003 Issue

A different model for intervention in Africa

Editor

Millions of Africans know Jesus' parable of "the good Samaritan," that familiar story of a traveler who aids a man who's been wounded, robbed, and left to die. Africa's 360 million Christians would know, too, that Jesus depicted two other travelers who saw the injured man but "passed by on the other side" of the road.

Did the other two travelers fear getting involved? Luke's Gospel doesn't say. Perhaps they only saw a hopeless situation, or a potential quagmire, the cost that might come with extending a helping hand, or something else.

Today's Africa seems in many ways a collective "traveler," wounded by war, disease, famine, economic stagnation, and poverty. The statistics on the toll of warfare alone are staggering.

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