Message-ID: <Pine.SUN.3.91.970101103127.550D-100000@dante> Date: Wed, 1 Jan 1997 10:50:02 -0700 From: JC WANDEMBERG <mailto:juwandem@NMSU.EDU> Subject: pushing development? To: Multiple recipients of list DEVEL-L <mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU>
On Tue, 31 Dec 1996 mailto:EUNSteve@aol.com wrote:snip> > The first narrative is the story of the destruction of authentic indigenous
> cultures by rapacious Western capitalist cultures--principally the US--in
> search of raw materials and/or markets, plundering the South and leaving
> cultural debris in its wake.
snip> > The second is the story your research documents: USAID and similar unilateral
> and multilateral external agencies ignorant of the need for development
snip..How can you say "the story your research documents" when you haven't even seen my research? Do you know what the acronym PAC stands for in the Andean countries? in case you don't stands for Planeamiento Andino Comunitario and was derived from the PRA (Participatory Rural Appraisal) method designed by the WRI. Unfortunately, even these participatory methods ahve not addressed the root of the problem, namely, the organizational structure of the development effort which still remains, as Fred and Merrelyn Emery would put it, DP1 (bureaucratic).
> ("Liberation" theology is the religious version of this narrative, and such
> agencies as The World Council of Churches have told this story many times.)
What????? the "liberation" theology from my perspective is nothing but putting our bellies before our souls.
> Are these stories really true? Has , for example, USAID or CIDA or World Bank
> really been doing things this way in, say, the last 25 years?
There is plenty of literature (Witcherman, 1995, IRIS, 1994, etc, etc) documenting the real fiasco of these institutions' "help".
> And is there real evidence that grass roots development by indigenous, as,
> say, in Tanzania, really brings genuine development?
Take a look for instance at the KASHA project in Botswana, or the hundreds of projects followed by COMUNIDEC along the Andes.
> Isn't there some evidence that the "liberatory" and indigenous development
> movements have brought hardship and death as often as development?
Perhaps only as a consequence given by the environmental affordances, but not as a purposeful objective of systems effectivities.
> The little searching that I've done does not reveal a picture in
> black and white, with indigenous development a story of virtue and success,
> and external aid a story of exploitation and failure.
> Dr. Steve Eskow, President
Clearly, IMHO, you ought to do a 'little' more researching before making up your mind about such a complex issue.
Best regards,
************************************************************ |J.C. Wandemberg |
|Ph.D Graduate Researcher |
| |
| |
|INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR NATURAL, ENVIRONMENTAL |
|& CULTURAL RESOURCES MANAGEMENT (IIRM) |
|College of Agriculture & Home Economics (NMSU) |
|Box 30003, Dept. 3169, Las Cruces, NM 88003-003 USA |
|URL:http://www.nmsu.edu/~iirm E-Mail:mailto:juwandem@nmsu.edu |
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