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Date Posted: 16:59:25 03/17/00 Fri
Author: Anonymous
Subject: THE DEVELOPMENT CHARADE: written by a former "do gooder" volunteer

Some people, very well meaning, think that aside from the horrors of
past attempts to impose assimilation on native peoples, blending into
our cash economy is truly the only way they will find hope and move away

from a state of dependency to a more developed state, the only way to
help them move forward. In Augustine's words, "Many Canadians believe
the answer lies in modernization, or the assimilation of our people into

the mainstream of Canadian society".

Do these words sound familiar to you? They propelled my mind about 6
thousand miles southwest, to Papua New Guinea. Isn't this the central
issue of development? "Let's help those people by working with them to
create more economic opportunities, and by teaching them business
skills? Speak about 'working together' -- altogether now..."
In retrospect, I am somewhat ashamed of the fact that I was involved in
the development charade, as a political pawn. Pardon such evident
disrespect, but I came to see it that way. I still believe what you
said about the most important work I could do was in the community,
outside of the office. However, what I mourn is not so much my own
loss, as the loss of integrity and goodness, the loss that is suffered
by people who cannot access systems of power.

And the systems builders come yet, international monetary fools
committing world trade offensives. As you know, for them to gain more
power and control over every kind of resource, which they desire for
profit, they must at least pretend to be concerned about the local
people. Witness this trend in mining programming, where development
people keep setting up new community development programs.

But when I consider what a terrible farce much of the other development
work turns out to be, I wonder if the distance is really so great
between the caring CD programs of mining companies and the NGO kingdoms
that, at heart, breed greed and corruption. In the worst cases of
development agency sponsored organisations, I observed small oligarchies

that lacked sincerity or a true desire to follow the human rights
principles of equity and fairness espoused in their own literature --
and in the mandates and mantras of their funding agencies.

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