Message-ID: <TCPSMTP_GEN.17927.10819@bbs.colis.com> Date: Sun, 12 Apr 1998 12:33:12 -0400 From: Yvonne Sobers <mailto:asante@COLIS.COM> Subject: Re: Funding for Road-building To: mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU
At 10:06 PM 4/11/98 -0700, Valerie Bruce wrote:>At 03:08 PM 4/11/98 -0400, you wrote:
>Are you absolutely sure they want the road paved? Were they consulted?
Your question assumes a dynamic in which community residents are about to be acted on by a benefactor who has answers for questions that no community person is asking. Is that your experience of this type of development?
>
>A paved road will alter the communities at the end of it quite
>considerably. Some of the changes are not desirable to the local population.
You make strong assumptions about a situation with which you are not familiar. The local population has a vibrant community organization that includes young persons as well as a very vocal 90 year old. I am not in a position to determine what may or may not be desirable to residents of this community. When I met them, they had already
* reflected on the benefits to the community when the road was in good condition, allowing ease of access, improved communication, and social/economic stability * examined their alternatives, trade-offs, social and economic impact of change/no change * made the decision that they considered in their best interest * lobbied their elected representatives at the national and local levels * acquired the available technical information for constructing the road * set aside a weekly work day for the road and attempted temporary smoothing of the road surface * ensured that the road was placed on a list of infrastructural projects to be funded by the World Bank
The community has no telephones and therefore no internet connectivity, or else this request for information would come directly from them.
Yvonne