Development – Good Change Essay Example

about developing them in their own images.Any attempt to construct a list of the most essential properties of human existence which can then in turn be used as a guide to development is bound to enshrine certain understandings of being human and devalue others (Nussbaum 1998). In most cases the understandings being enshrined will be those of the majority. Hence, cultural and historical differences in the understanding of human life by the minority will be neglected.In order to demonstrate this I would like to consider how the World Trade Organization (WTO), in the words of Noam Chomsky (Chomsky 1999), 'exports American free-market values' under the guise of development, and in doing so causes harm rather than welcomed change.

In 1996 the WTO came to an agreement on telecommunications. The agreement empowered the WTO to go inside the boarders of the 70 countries who signed it and privatise the telecommunications industries so that the countries in question could achieve economic development (Silverman 1997). In reality what happened was that large U. S. elecommunications corporations moved into countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America creating global oligopolies, causing locals to loose their jobs and granting only marginal if any advantages at all for the local populations. The proposed chief advantage this agreement was to give to the populations of the countries involved very much cheaper oversees call rates.

In country like Indonesia though with a population of roughly 200 million people, where only a miniscule 300 thousand of those people ever make oversees calls, we can see that these so called 'advantages' are almost non-existent (Chomsky 1999).Development can not be exported; it must come from within the

area being developed. Different people have different understandings of the meaning of development. And in order for the development to satisfy the needs and expectations of the people being developed, it is imperative that it is their local understanding of development that prevails, and not the ideals of some other individuals.

For example, we might observe the situation that is presently transpiring in Iraq. The U. S. s exporting their understanding of democracy (political development), and imposing it upon the Iraqi people whom, it has been argued, have an entirely different understanding of what democracy is.

Dwindling Autonomy By 'determining in advance which elements of human life have most importance' (Nussbaum 1998), exporting development projects are unsuccessful in appreciating the right of people to choose a plan of life according to their own lights, determining what is essential and what is not. On March 27th 2001, 25 year old Betavati Ratan took his own life because he could not pay back the debts for drilling a deep tube well on his two-acre farm. The wells are now dry, as are the wells in Gujarat and Rajasthan where more than 50 million people face a water famine. " (Shiva 2000) The drought she spoke of was not a natural disaster. It was man-made disaster that resulted from the mining of scarce ground water in arid regions to grow hungry cash crops for exports instead of water prudent food crops for local needs.The abundant range of food and sustainable systems of food production are being systematically dismantled, again under the guise of development, this time with the goal of increasing food production.

However, this destruction of diversity causes

rich sources of nutrition to disappear. Many farmers in rural and indigenous communities work jointly with nature's processes, their work nevertheless, is often contradictory to the dominant market driven `development' and trade policies which demand large yields of cash crops, ostensibly to feed the poor and starving.And because work that satisfies requests and ensures sustenance is devalued in general, there is less nurturing of life and life support systems. Hence, industrialisation, genetic engineering of food and globalisation of trade in agriculture in reality cause more starvation than they relieve. These farmers then become dependent on high prices in the markets for cash crops they have been coerced into producing.

When these prices fall so do their incomes and therefore the incomes of all those who work for them i. e. a loss of autonomy.In addition to this loss of autonomy, the human hands that used to work on these fields are being replaced by machines and chemicals bought from global corporations (Gatter 1993).

This kind of 'development' steals the livelihoods of the poor to create markets for the powerful. Prejudicial Application of Development Plans Even in a situation where the plan for development is impartially an comprehensibly designed the powerless can be excluded from the plan. Women and their roles for example can be ignored by development plans.Here I will turn again to the example of cash crops, but this I will consider the effect on women.

The demand for high yields of cash crops created in developing countries by the WTO's privation schemes in the field of agribusiness have been defined in such a way as to make the food production on small farms

by small farmers disappear. This hence, hides the production by millions of women farmers in the Third World. That is is to say that indirectly the role of women, as it was mostly women who worked on hese small farms, has been ignored by these development plans. Women who produce for their families and communities are condemned as `non- productive' and `economically' inactive.The devaluation of women's work, and of work done in sustainable economies, is the obvious outcome of a system constructed by capitalist patriarchy.

This is how globalisation destroys local economies and destruction itself is counted as growth. Hence, this blindness towards the production by women allows demolition and requisition be projected as creation (Fu-Lai Yu 001). Thus, in conclusion development cannot be equal to good change if all this damage can be done in its name. Nevertheless, as I mentioned earlier, this does not imply that development can never be equal to good change but merely that these problems must be rectified before it can.

However, I do not wish to be condemned as a member of the crowd of souls Dante describes who mill around the vestibule of hell, dragging their banner now one way, now another, never willing to set it down and take definite stand n any moral or political question. And so, I will admit that I do not believe it will ever be realistically possible for development to be equal to good change. There will always exist some 'faulty calculations', whether it be like the peasants who lost their liberty and happiness for the economic salvation of the USSR under Stalin, or the women farmers ignored by the WTO,

or the eradication of local beliefs that cannot coexist with the fast moving world of the western universalists, development will always bring with it some bad changes.