![\"city](\"https:\/\/angelkyalo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/IMG_0804-scaled-e1739075183991-1024x876.jpeg\")
My interest was drawn to a contradiction. The community actively participated in deforestation and charcoal burning, yet at the same time spoke passionately about the impacts of climate change \u2014 especially as rain dependent farmers navigating low rainfall, failing seasons, and occasional floods that triggered climate mobility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I went to observe more closely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Somewhere along the way, the focus shifted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I found myself studying human behavior.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In semi-arid lands, survival teaches creativity. People learn to spare water, read wind, and negotiate droughts and debt. Hard places produce intelligent people. But they also produce coping systems \u2014 and sometimes, those coping systems quietly become cages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There is a kind of poverty that comes from lack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And there is a kind that comes from performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is about the second one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Survival Script<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n In my community, having lived long with scarcity, external help has become part of the ecosystem. NGOs, government programs, donors, researchers, and resilience projects arrive with proposals and leave with reports. No community ownership to projects so failing, unfortunately also due to no long term visions but instant gratification.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Over time, the community has learned something subtle: development is not just something you receive \u2014 it is something you must appear to deserve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So people learn the script.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To appear needy, but organized. Not because people are foolish, but because historically, this posture has worked. It unlocks resources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And so poverty becomes negotiated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Performative Poverty<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I began noticing patterns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And the community absorbed the wrong lesson: development is not built \u2014 it is captured.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is performative poverty \u2014 a costly survival tactic. Costly because while it may bring short-term aid, it quietly blocks long-term transformation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Political Economy of Stagnation<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Sustainable progress depends on cooperation. Water systems require trust. Land restoration requires patience. Climate adaptation requires collective restraint.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But cheap politics thrives on urgency and division.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So every few years, the cycle repeats:<\/p>\n\n\n\n A project arrives. And the cycle repeats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The land remains dry. Certain families accumulate influence \u2014 sometimes through reimbursements, sometimes through development meant for the community quietly becoming personal gain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Meanwhile, the community gains very little beyond frustration and distrust toward development organizations. Over time, this has hardened into entitlement. When a meeting is called, the first question becomes about sitting allowance \u2014 before even understanding the purpose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What looks like ignorance is often incentive. And sometimes, strategy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n My Discomfort<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I came thinking I would help build programs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Instead, I have learned to stand slightly outside them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I am choosing something more uncomfortable: to be an honest storyteller within the community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Not a critic from afar. But a witness who refuses the script.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A community liaison and bridge \u2014 hoping to guide a shift toward systems and mindset change, toward development that is actually sustainable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Because the hardest truth is this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sometimes communities sabotage their own development \u2014 not intentionally, but protectively. Change threatens social balance. Sustainable systems redistribute power. And people often fear losing what they understand more than they desire uncertain improvement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So I cannot simply teach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I have to live differently, in public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Leading by Example<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I am discovering that demonstration works better than persuasion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If transparency is rare \u2014 practice radical transparency. Not loudly. Not heroically. Consistently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Parallel building.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Creating working systems beside broken ones, so people can compare without feeling attacked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Because people rarely change when corrected. They change when they see that a softer life is possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What I Want to Redesign<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Not just projects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But the psychological contract of development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I want communities to show up for their own future \u2014 not as applicants, but as partners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I want funding to support ownership, not dependency performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I want representation to be negotiated honestly \u2014 not theatrically.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I want development to mean:<\/p>\n\n\n\n More maintenance. The Frustration<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The most exhausting part is not poverty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is watching cycles repeat \u2014 often benefiting specific groups or families while exhausting everyone else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ignorance is rarely empty. It is often maintained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And calling it out makes you suspicious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You become \u201cdifficult.\u201d Sometimes even unsafe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So I am learning \u2014 and choosing \u2014 a delicate balance: to tell the truth carefully, build quietly, and document faithfully.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Change-Maker I Am Becoming<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Not an activist shouting. Something else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A community journalist \u2014 documenting honestly. And above all, someone who refuses to perform poverty \u2014 even when it would be advantageous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Because we deserve dignity \u2014 and dignity is developmental infrastructure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Real Cost<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Performative poverty attracts aid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But it repels transformation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It keeps communities legible to donors \u2014 and illegible to themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And in semi-arid lands, we cannot afford illusions anymore. Climate change will not negotiate with politics. Soil will not regenerate through speeches. Water will not flow through reports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I once believed development begins with funding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But I have come to see that it begins with maturity \u2014 the moment a community decides it wants a better life more than it wants familiar roles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Until then, projects will come and go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And the drought will remain \u2014 both environmental and social.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So here\u2019s to trying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here\u2019s to systems change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n #BundusBabeJourney #BundusBabeJournal<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When I first went to the village \u2014 my Bundus \u2014 it was to research grassroots communities: their lifestyle, and the relationship between people and the environment. At the time, I was already working within the environmental and development space, where a common narrative had began \u2014 that grassroots communities often failed to engage in… Continue reading The survival script -Performative poverty<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,20,10,21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bundus-babe-journal","category-community-development","category-sustainable-development","category-systems-change","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/angelkyalo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/angelkyalo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/angelkyalo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/angelkyalo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/angelkyalo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=334"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/angelkyalo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":348,"href":"https:\/\/angelkyalo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334\/revisions\/348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/angelkyalo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/angelkyalo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/angelkyalo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Grateful, but helpless.
Hopeful, but incapable.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"community](\"https:\/\/angelkyalo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/20220309_114512-1024x461.jpg\")
Expectations rise.
Factions form.
Leaders compete.
Distrust spreads.
Implementation weakens.
Failure is blamed externally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the reports remain successful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/angelkyalo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/20220331_170621-1024x768.jpg\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/angelkyalo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/20220331_162249-1024x768.jpg\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/angelkyalo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/20220401_184701-1-1024x768.jpg\")
Not a savior from above.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If leadership is performative \u2014 practice quiet competence.
If dependency is rewarded \u2014 model independence without isolation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
More ownership.
More responsibility.
More durability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Or \u201cproud.\u201d
Or \u201cdifferent.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Not an NGO chasing projects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A consultant \u2014 armed with information.
An advocate \u2014 negotiating fair terms externally.
A practitioner \u2014 implementing transparently when possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n