Sunday 10 April 2016

They tell us we're a highly developed country. Really?

As you know, I've travelled a bit - and often in countries that are defined as 'developing'. As I understand it, the word refers to these countries efforts to modernise their economic systems, thus involving as many people as possible in the commercial life of the country and bringing prosperity to as many as possible.

It's a complex process, underpinned by education. There is a drive to ensure that children all over the world learn to read and write, and that even the most disadvantaged have access to books. When I first visited Nepal books were scarce - often only tattered copies left behind by trekkers or printed on such thin paper you could put your thumb through it. There is now a library in Pokhara, a facility well-used by both children and their parents, with no regard for income nor social status.

But countries can't wait for this generation to mature. They need their economies to grow now. For many, this means providing transport for as many as possible to reach markets - where they can sell their own produce and buy goods from their neighbours. It is a basic means of exchange and can be the prelude to more ambitious trading. Rickety buses trundle up dirt tracks and ford streams in order to make such trading possible. I have shared a bus seat with a woman with a chicken on her knee and another where someone hoped to buy her fare with cucumbers.

This is what I understand by development: the inclusion of as many people as possible in social and economic life, in order to promote the prosperity of the many.

Or am I missing something? For here in the UK, with what we are told is the fifth biggest economy in the world, we are closing libraries (excluding the disadvantaged from access to books) and - here in rural Wiltshire - we are cutting buses (excluding the disadvantaged from access to markets and social interaction).

Or does 'development' only apply to the 'haves' and the 'have-nots' don't matter any more?

10 comments:

  1. Excellent points, Jo. You can't help but thing that only those aspects of life that benefit the haves are 'worth supporting' these days. In that sense, give me a developing cuntry any day!

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    1. Sorry! Country, not cuntry...pfff (morning butter fingers)

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    2. We all have fingers with minds of their own. And some seem to have their minds in their wallets and don't care about the rest of us!

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  2. In developed countries, everyone has more money. The people at the top in real terms can get LOADS more money than they could if they were leading an "undeveloped" country. This is probably the main motivating factor behind development efforts, and I wonder myself if ordinary people in Nepal mightnt actually prefer to have as much money and similar material wealth to people in the UK. The problem I see is that there is no long term strategic plan in the UK , nobody's asking what is best for the social spiritual and economic development of the country,. if we need an educated workforce, if we need to look after the poor, etc.

    There was a very interesting Guardian article which touches on such issues ( better than I could. )http://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/apr/03/uk-free-market-economy-isnt-working

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    1. Thanks, Jenny - I'll follow up that link. I know it's complicated (and there are some hugely wealth people - like Mugabe - in some developing country), but I do agree that there is no one looking at the social and economic implications of policies in the long term. They seem to have lost sight of things that matter to ordinary people.

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  3. I've seen this very thing, Jo, and wonder about it as well. In the U.S. red tape and restrictions on small local business is so extreme it's impossible to make any money. Yet in Guatemala and Mexico I've seen people setting up their business ventures on very little cash but a lot of creativity and hard work, and I've thought how in the U.S. this would never have been allowed, for everyone's "safety." Same with the bus system. My husband and I have been able to get wherever we want to go throughout Central America without a car, thanks to widespread public transportation. When we lived in Salt Lake City, whenever we tried public transportation to save on gas it was such a frustrating experience we gave up and went back to our car. You almost don't want to see the "developing" nations become developed if it means restricting the freedoms and benefits that allow people to grow a business and support their families.

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    1. I don't have a car, and use buses - but I can drive and could buy a car if it gets impossible. But what about frail, or poor, or disabled people? And I'd not thought about all the restrictions we place on small businesses - I can't see anyone here offering bikes for hire at the side of the road.

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  4. We are becoming a replica of Orwell's Animal Farm, with 'some animals' being 'more equal than others'. Democracy has been replaced by survival of the richest. It started under Thatcher, who denied the existence of 'society', ruthlessly destroyed the manufacturing businesses that were the main employers of the 'working classes' and worshipped those who had money. Greed is good. Only it isn't. The same vast wealth gap was present in Victorian times, BUT there also existed many many philanthropists who believed the scriptural injunction to feed/clothe/house their 'lesser brethren. This has been swept away in the atheistic, selfish mindset that prevails today.I'm glad I believe in Hell ... it's comforting to think that many many rich corrupt greedy people will be getting their punishment for what they have inflicted upon their fellow man.

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  5. Excellent points. Libraries are either closing or under threat in the Midlands too and I know that my family in Dorset are struggling with no car and a vastly reduced bus service - car owners possibly haven't even noticed the deprivation. And where could we begin to insist on changes? No where. The government won't listen.

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  6. Bus services are terrible,it's a joke. The books in our library are so old I're read them all. The council is pleading poverty.

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