Message-ID: <32D02293.1A3B@mind.net> Date: Sun, 5 Jan 1997 21:52:19 +0000 From: "B. Diamond" <mailto:bdiamond@MIND.NET> Subject: Re: pushing development--or pushing the status quo? To: Multiple recipients of list DEVEL-L <mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU>
mailto:EUNSteve@AOL.COM wrote:>
> I made a statement: The Ugly American story is old, tired, and a cliche.
It is only a cliche in your mind Steve, to many people who have suffered the consequences of our "help," the Ugly American is fact--not fiction. >
> It is at best only one of many stories that can be told about what has
> happened.
> And the missionaries brought medicine as well as loin cloths and Jesus, and
> letters and learning as well as hymns.
Yes, they also brought disease, and slavery, and religious persecution--how lucky those natives were!!!
> What those who preach steady state and n growth and change for others without
> changing their own practice do is worse than hypocrisy.
>
> It is the real Western insensitivity and ignorance and refusal to face
> reality that they accuse others of. That you accuse me of.
No, what I'd really like for us to do is learn sustainability from the only people who have ever really achieved it--the world's indigenous cultures. Before we force capitalism down their throats, I'd like them to show us how caring for the good of the community is superior than caring only for the profitablity of the individual. You suggest that the only way to "save" cultures is to destroy them--this is simply ludicrous. It is the same empty capitalist rhetoric we use when dealing with environmental problems in third world countries--"how can they afford to clean up their mess if they don't have a strong economy," at which point we advocate mining, logging, heavy industry etc., which, ta-da! destroy the environment!!!
B. Diamond