Thursday, December 29, 2011

Carcinogenic Development


I remember hearing a talk in college given by an indigenous leader whose name escapes me. He spoke about the arrogance of North American academics, missionaries, and scientists believing in the materialist Western world view as being both the apex of human intellectual development and the shining path to human prosperity.  With a missionary zeal, North Americans promote their way of life through medical missions, education, and military intervention.

            It is rather obvious that if someone is going to “sell” a way of life, then it should be healthy, sustainable, viable, and optimal.  Before one asks an indigenous culture that has successfully sustained large populations for centuries to ditch their world view, agricultural technologies, and diet for the American McLifestyle, one had better first ask some introspective questions.  One, does this indigenous population have an army ready to obtain the petroleum necessary for everything from pesticides to tableware to throw pillows?  Is this a sustainable way of life, both ecologically and socially, and does the system require too many “have nots” to incentivize success?  Does the work ethic lead to dysfunctional families, neglected children, and abandoned elders?  Is the medicine more damaging than then the illness?

            An issue that frequently confuses the matter is a rather colonial view of either negating all traditional knowledge as being “unscientific” or imagining there is a perfect past.

            What we endeavor to accomplish as the Highland Support Project is an honest examination of indigenous knowledge and practices to find those which provide a promise for better lives for all of humanity.  It is a tricky balance between over romanticizing an idealized path and becoming a Luddite who instinctively resists good ideas.  This is where reflection, reason, and aesthetic play a significant role in the process of program design and development.  We do believe that there is a role for ingenuity, inquisitiveness, and tinkering in the process of observation, quantification, and validation.

Over the years I’ve had interesting conversations with fellows in academia who bemoan the current state of affairs in which they are only able to obtain funding for research that they do not believe in and have to self-censor their public statements and writing in order to keep from alienating their university’s funding sources.  It can be tempting to compare your progress in relation to other entities that use development strategies that prove to be more lucrative.  Therefore, we return to that cardinal principle of economic development- small is beautiful.  Do not compromise beauty for growth.

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