Professional standards in a developing country

As I mentioned in an earlier blog post, Runa (the company) knows very little about Guayusa as a plant. They have a small research center about 15 minutes away from Fundacion Runa’s office to make their Guayusa investigations. When I went to go visit it, we were shown around the nursery where they were growing Guayusa in different soil compositions and then to the lab where they were preparing samples to be DNA coded in Quito. I was surprised by how methodical and regimented the facility was. Was it unfair of me to be surprised? What should we expect of professionals in a developing country?

Overall, developing countries are almost indefinitely less organized than a country like the United States. Fewer resources can be allotted to things like health code enforcement, the national government is often less stable, and punctuality just isn’t as much of a “thing”. As such, it seems like I have a right to be surprised by how organized the Ecuadorian-run lab was. Does this mean I am holding Ecuador to lower standard than I do the US? Oscar, a Quiteño family friend of ours, was telling me last weekend that, in order for Ecuador to develop, we need to hold the professional workers to a higher standard. Ecuador shouldn’t allow incapable doctors to practice and shouldn’t pay ineffective teachers to teach. He believes that, if the bar is raised, people will rise to meet it.  To a certain extent, I agree with him. I think that lowering your expectations of a person can keep them from achieving their fullest potential. Not only that, but it can create a paternalistic and belittling relationship. However, I also think it is much more difficult for a person in a developing country to receive an excellent education in medicine than it is for an upper class private schooler like me. In this, it may be unfair of me to expect them to meet my Western standards for the professional workplace.

Congrats if you managed to work through that half-developed musing.