Power, Privilege, and Relationships

1. Soniya Sheth
Professor Green
UNIV 292-001
24 September 2014
Service: Power, Privilege and Relationships
After reading Davis’ article What We Don’t Talk About When We Don’t Talk About
Service, individuals encounter themselves at the conclusion that “service is not simple”. Service
is not simple due to the idea that there are many components an individual needs to acknowledge
if they are serving another individual. These components can include how the person being
served feels, how much they actually “need”, if they want to be served, as well as the cultural,
lingual, or status components which fit into serving in a global or local community. One cannot
just go out and hurl starfish, which Keith Morton alludes to within the Starfish Hurling and
Community Service article.
Morton exemplifies the complications and contradictions one encounters when trying to
serve or perform an act of kindness. The starfish hurling tale portrays the individuals in society
who are opposed to serving because they don’t believe performing a small act or putting in effort
actually changes the world. According to the starfish hurling tale, these opposing individuals my
question the act of service by stating, “Your effort makes no difference”. This is evident within
society because there will always be individuals present who believe that one is invading within
a society or is complicating the lives of individuals being provided with service. Before we
proceeded to our mission trips to Ghana and Nicaragua there was a lot of skepticism from one of
my friends who believed that I might be invading in someone’s environment and situation. My
friend questioned me with something that made me think about what I was actually doing. He

2. questioned, “What if these people are happy with their sickness?” At first I thought it was such a
ridiculous question, how could anyone be happy with their sickness and their way of life if they
are in pain? However, this led me to the idea that this is all they know; this is what defines
survival for these individuals. This instance mainly led to widening my horizon and thinking
about the individual receiving the service. Before I was just focusing on the idea that I wanted to
help, I didn’t consider whether or not the individual wanted to be helped.
Furthermore, this skepticism is present within Ivan Illich’s article To Hell with Good
Intentions. Illich voices his concern about individuals who decide to spend their summers on
mission trips in Latin America. Illich specifically focuses on the idea that serving in these
countries actually creates “voluntary powerlessness, voluntary presence as receivers, as such, as
hopefully beloved or adopted ones without any way of returning the gift”. Illich basically refers
to the idea of powerlessness because the people being served have no way of repaying what a
server has done for them. Power is such an important component within the act of serving
because someone who is believed to be “more privileged” goes to serve and share with an
individual who is “less privileged”. These individuals are believed to be less privileged with
resources such as medicine, sanitation, water, and education. When our brigade was in Ghana we
built a water harvesting system for a family because they did not have the money for the
resources to build a water harvesting system themselves. At the end of our construction the
family gave us a picture of them and took down coconuts from the trees to share with us. The
family reiterated the idea of not having any more to share with us because that is all they had.
This moment portrays the differences of privileges and power. However, I did not believe these
individuals were powerless; they had the power to help out and work beside us during the
construction. This family had the power of love and the power of community. The father of the

3. family was a priest; therefore he had the power of God. At times our team became tired, but the
father kept helping and had the power of determination. All of this power translates into the
privileges that this family was blessed with. These are privileges that people in developed
countries do not value every day.
Therefore, the privileges that both the server and the person being served come together
with allow these individuals to build a relationship. The relationship is what allows both parties
to share with each other a part of themselves and help serve each other. Regardless of cultural,
lingual, and status barriers relationships can still be built. On the other hand, Illich contradicts the
ability to form these relationships because he believes that within only a small percentage of the
people do the servers find their “equals”. In the case of our global brigade excursions to Ghana
and Nicaragua we were able to speak and make connections with individuals who were at our
education and status level; however at the same time we did not distinguish these individuals
from the ones who weren’t our “equals”. Equality is a form of mentality that creates the
differences of power and privileges within society. Believing another individual is not equal or
of less quality is what restricts people from building relationships with other human beings. In
the end we are all people of the Earth and we should overcome these barriers of inequality if we
want to place ourselves at the same level as another individual. This is all in the effort of being
able to share our resources with others. Overcoming the barriers of inequality doesn’t necessary
bring down an individual from their “status”, instead this allows individuals to reach out and
offer a hand to someone in need.
However, because service is not this simple, there has to be effort placed within the
construction of a relationship. Individuals who are serving need to communicate with the
individuals being served. According to Morton, serving is not as easy as the starfish scenario

4. because in the community we are dealing with individuals who withhold emotions and voice
their concerns. An individual needs to be willing to be helped. If an individual refuses help, one
cannot force help onto someone who won’t accept it. Morton alludes to these complications of
human beings which are set aside from starfish. These complications include power, privileges
and relationships. When we went on our global brigade trip to Ghana we started off by going
from home to home and asking these families what problems they would like us to solve within
their community. The families that were willing to talk to us spoke to us about the help they
required. Even with a cultural and lingual barrier we did our best to establish relationships
through translators. We laughed, we listened, we hugged, and we allowed these individuals to
feel powerful by establishing relationships with them and opening up their hearts to us. Contrary
to Illich’s views of invasion into a country, these communities welcomed us with open arms,
because these communities wanted to be served. Service will always include components such as
power, privilege and relationships, because service is not simple. In the end it is up to the
individuals serving and the individuals being served to establish a leveled ground for
understanding and building relationships.
Overall, power is provided to the one’s being served through compensation of resources,
however the individuals being served also provide the servers with the power of love, the power
of community, and the power of gratefulness. Privileges can be shared with one another because
they teach each other how to be human. These individuals teach us to be grateful for what we
have, and to not take advantage of what we have been given. This connection in fact constructs
relationships, because in the end we are all people of this Earth. Thus, we should stop hurling
starfish and consider the complications of the act of serving. There may always be skepticism in

5. the world, however as long as we keep in mind the ideas of the individual being served we
should be able to build a better world, even if it is just one individual at a time!