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Notes from the Author

The Blind Men & the Elephant

The business that is International Aid has more in common with the story of the Blind Men

and the Elephant than ordinary people are led to believe.

There are many good people involved in International Aid activities. But all too often

their work is overshadowed by ‘blind men’ who know less than they think they do but
demand that others follow them.

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There are numerous versions of this fable, which is about a group of blind men who are in

one village but want to travel to another. Because they are blind, they are supposed to wait
for a guide to lead them through the jungle.

Key to understanding the main message is that these men have been blind from

birth. They have never been able to see.

Their guide is very late in coming. This frustrates the blind men who know that they

must reach their destination before night. Because darkness brings out man-eating tigers.

As people are wont to do, the blind men, these men who have never been able to see,

decide they cannot wait for their guide to arrive. He might not ever come. Better to set out

now while there is still daylight. Or so they think. So they set off.

On their journey, they run into an obstacle. Something so big it blocks the narrow

jungle path they are one. This obstacle is an elephant. But these men, blind since birth,
have never seen an elephant before. So they are confused by this obstacle that blocks their

path.

They are desperate to reach their destination before darkness brings out the man-

eating tigers. And so they try to determine exactly what this obstacle is. And because none
of them can see, they try to do this by touching and feeling this obstacle.

They each take turns to touch the elephant. Never having seen an elephant before,
they have to rely on their limited experience when deciding what the obstacle is. Each then

tries to persuade the others that they, and only they, know what the problem is. But

because each man touches a different unique part of the elephant's body, each man's
explanation clashes with what the other blind men 'know'. In the version taught to me, the

Blind Men argue so long that night falls and man-eating tigers come out and eat them!

There are a number of lessons we can take from this fable.