The Expert

Check out Taleb's review of William Easterly's book The Tyranny of Experts: Economists, Dictators, and the Forgotten Rights of the Poor:

The point that top-down development methods are great on paper but have not produced benefits ("so far") is a point Easterly has made before, heavily influencing yours truly in the formation his own argument against naive interventionism and the collection of "humanitarians" fulfilling their personal growth and shielding themselves from their conscience... This is more powerful: the West has been putting development ahead of moral issues, patronizingly setting aside the right of the people to decide their own fate, including whether they want these "improvements", hence compounding failure and turning much of development into an agenda that benefits the careers (and angst) of "humanitarians", imperial policies, and, not least, local autocrats *without* any moral contribution. Talking about a sucker problem.

To put it in an aphorism, they didn't ask the people if they would rather get respect and no aid rather than aid and no respect.