Development on the Brain

So I've talked about this development book I'm reading a couple times now. Here is a quote that I seem to keep coming back to:

"The most daunting challenges in 21st-century development have less to do with the 'development' that we rich countries transfer to the Third World than with changes we make in our own unsustainable, high-consumption lifestyles. We must call into question our very notions of what constitutes progress."*

Interesting, eh? Maybe the way we can best bring about any sort of positive, lasting change is not to send money or go ourselves or help to bring countries up to our levels of Western development, but to live in a different structure ourselves.

For example, the sanitation project I recently mentioned. One of the battles MCC has to fight is the notion that flush toilets are "proper" toilets. In reality, they are ineffective and wasteful. It might take the issue away from one household, but it simply moves it to another, or downstream. Even in the US this is true, although we have created the infrastructure to deal with it as effectively as possible. A realistic, affordable, and very efficient solution for the people we work with here in Viet Nam is a dry latrine, where fertilizer is created through a composting-like process. This not only deals with the waste but also provides a resource for their farms, lessening the chemicals used and the money spent. But because flush toilets are more "modern" and are "proper" people aren't as likely to want to install a dry latrine. Which is only making the sanitation in the communities worse, even after they've spent money to "update" their plumbing, build new canals and put a lot of time and money into a new structure.

Can you imagine trying to convince people in the States that their flush toilet is harmful to the communities sanitation and resources? Do you think anyone would listen, at all? Even though many people do need fertilizer, if only for the grass and flowers. Even though we are already talking about water shortages and limited resources. Even though we're advocating for these innovative technologies around the world. It seems like the opposite of progress, doesn't it? To go from a flush toilet to a system that requires work from the individual. Isn't that the convenience of development, that we no longer have to deal with all the annoying facts of life, instead it is taken care of for us by something else.

Now, I'm not really advocating for a revolution in plumbing techniques. I can't imagine my parents going through the house and re-modelling all the bathrooms to get rid of the flush plumbing. But what I am thinking about (and therefore writing about) is how our Western structures and notions of progress negatively impact the chances for global development, and the consequences we will face eventually because of it. Resources are not infinite. We all know that. There are many problems we must face about our way of life, why not do it sooner rather than later? Why not be learning with the developing nations?

If nothing else, I hope that is what I'm beginning to do here. Learning with people. Learning about people. Learning from people. I like to think that it will shape how I live when I return to the States. I guess we'll see about that one.

*The book is Development to a Different Drummer, written by Yoder, Redekop and Jantzi and published in 2004. The quote comes from page 165.