Dirty Development?

Got a note the other day from one of our donors:

I think this site is a great idea, and I went ahead and added my drops to the bucket, but I have to admit that I feel a little funny giving money to a country whose government is so violently homophobic. I know that's all too common in sub-Saharan Africa, and it's certainly no reason to deny children clean drinking water, but it left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth.

And there in a nutshell is one of the great dilemmas of development work. In most of the countries with the greatest need in our world, social conditions are--shall we say--less than ideal.

By giving anything--money, resources, volunteers, even attention--to these countries, are we not somehow complicit in their corruption, their repression, their cruelty? Are we not somehow saying that it's okay to be violently homophobic, to treat women like cattle, to make those who oppose you conveniently 'disappear,' to rule by fear and perpetuate idignity, to live in splendor while millions around you starve?

On the other hand, should all citizens of a country suffer because their government embezzles millions from the aid they receive? Should children continue to die of malaria because the government oppresses their mothers? Should peasants remain landless and destitute because their courts can't be trusted?

Where's the line? and how do you know when you cross it?

I don't really have an answer--and the deeper I get into this world, the more often I get that "bad taste in my mouth." Still, I believe in compassion, I believe in cooperation, and I believe that it is better in the long run to dig in and engage with a problem (even if you get your hands dirty) rather than standing on the sidelines waiting for the situation to be less messy.