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16 Int'l Soc. Work 1 (1973)

handle is hein.journals/intsocwk16 and id is 1 raw text is: EDITORIAL IN this first issue of 1973, we are glad to welcome again to our pages a distinguish- ed past contributor, the former President of I.C.S.W., Professor Eugen Pusic, who puts forward a most interesting plan for a topic of cross-national research in social policy, selected for its general interest, practical urgency, intellectual challenge and methodo- logical feasibility. Rapid social change is certainly an extremely widespread pheno- menon, which spawns a host of social prob- lems much faster than planners and ad- ministrators have been able to mobilize re- sources, adapt traditional strategies or devise new ones in order to meet them. Let us hope this suggestion will fall on fertile ground and bring forth abundant and fast- ripening fruit. We have clearly not done yet with the topic of misfit models of social work and the training of its practitioners, exported un- changed from highly industrialized and in- dividualistic societies to developing countries very different in economy and values. The subject is now reopened in very concrete form by an article by Lynn and Betty Vogel on the situation in South Vietnam, where we are devoutly thankful that hostilities have been halted at last. The Vogels mention, among other things, that as recently as 1966 the United Nations set up, in that war-torn country, a school of social work closely fol- lowing the American model, with a 4-year programme covering all the traditional spe- cialisms. In a country full of urgent crises of mutilation, starvation, bereavement and family breakup, should we applaud this as the wisdom of long-term planning for the future (however uncertain), or is it fiddling while Rome is burning? In particular, can this school and its staff really be as un- concerned with the special features of cur- rent and local needs as the Vogels believe? The section concerned with foreign in- volvement in social welfare is also sadden- ing, with its account of funds generously contributed, poured into this tragic country, and used - with the best of intentions - in ways that compete destructively with local effort, and run the risk of permanently im- pairing the self-reliance of the client com- munity. We are reminded of an earlier article (Arthurs, XIII 3) describing similar prob- lems in Lesotho, and carrying the same mes- sage, that the principle of self-determination should apply as much to peoples as to in- dividuals (and the risk of pauperization is as great). Finally, the story of the nun with the truck- load of goods reminds us of the extreme complexity of the ethical issues we discussed last year. Here is a social worker using con- trol of scarce and precious resources in a highly directive and paternalistic way in order to induce (virtually to force) a poverty- stricken and hungry community to carry out some work, undoubtedly for its own good, which it seemed unlikely to perform without such pressure. A similar procedure has been criticised by various (white) authors when practised by African governments or their officials, and is sometimes described in terms which make it sound almost inhuman: but this story has a final twist which makes us think again. Here is a representative of the client

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