Publisher's Synopsis
The story of Nina and Hamza is a novel and the product of an inventive mind. All the same, in one way or another, the incidents that occur in the book are based on real events and actually happened in the world of an Asian developing country, as expressed by an author who worked for over 40-years in the development field in low-income countries. The book introduces a remarkable range of wonderful characters that the consultant comes into contact with. A poor farmer, Hamza, and his family and friends as they struggle for survival in a tough world; how a whole town is created in a rubbish dump that provides work requiring diligence and skill, and how it is that their daughter, Nina, is kidnapped for sale. We get to know the chief of police struggling to implement the laws equitably across all of society yet fails to secure the safety of Nina. We get to understand how it is that the village leadership and the health department seek to keep donors happy when the projects they fund fail to reflect societal realities in the field; where the recipients of help see themselves as hostages and servants to development programs rather than the owners and primary beneficiaries of them; how the local military commander got himself appointed and became remarkably wealthy but how he loses everything; how rapid urban development creates great wealth and real development for those with money but how the poor, the original farmers on the land, lose out on the deal; how the wealthy manufacturers feel they have to treat their workers and how the workers struggle to gain reasonable wages; how religious leaders react to foreigners and aid; how those preferring to live a more "spiritual" life live and survive as well, and how David, the World Bank consultant, works within the government and social environment and struggles with the realities of the developing world and its people and, eventually, after many misadventures, and with the help of Nina finds solace in reality. In general, these intimate and fascinating stories reflect the realities stated in an opening synopsis: How it is that the poor must bind themselves to their masters, the wealthy, and how the wealthy must bind themselves to the poor, each for their own apparent sustenance and security.How these bonds are an illusion and serve the real interests of neither, and how they must be broken if efforts to seek truly prosperous and just societies are to be achieved.And how it is that no matter how hard we try to support the poor and disadvantaged we can accomplish only superficial results because our efforts mollify their suffering and so tighten the bonds that bind them to their master.
