Underdevelopment and overdevelopment

I have now been four weeks in Nicaragua, and the street scenes have become normal. I am accustomed to habits such as scanning for deep holes in the sidewalk, walking on the shady side of the street, and catching glimpses into houses with front rooms full of gorgeous wooden rockers or plastic lawn chairs, in front of the TV.

I am currently on the island of Ometepe in Lake Nicaragua. It is unseasonably windy, so the waves are crashing on the shore, mimicking the sounds of the sea. The past two nights have been spent in a small town of Altagracia, with a central square, small shops and a large cemetary, and a small museum of pre-Colombian culture (including large stone statues and a wonderful small pot with eel-inspired handles). The town is on a flat area at the base of a volcano, and banana plantations surround the town. Between banana, fish, and tourism, local residents seem economically comfortable. They pedal on paved roads on sturdy mountain bikes with 20 kg of beans slung over the handlebars in a bag. Even the babies tucked onto bike frames seem to be more comfortable in the wooden baby bike seats that are the norm in Altagracia. School started again yesterday, and the neatly dressed older children greeted passersby as they cycled to school, clutching a notebook in one hand. (Notebooks cost 6 cordova in this town. An ice cream sandwich costs 10 cord, and a beer upwards of 20.) In the town, there is internet, mobile phones aplenty, TV and DVDs, a dentist, and also an annual festival in honour of the harvest.

These observations made me ask what the objective is of development. We tend to think it means clean, past-paced, cities full of people in suits rushing through the streets and their lives to spend hours doing something in front of a computer screen. But, frankly, the world can´t support so many consumers who are producing nothing to fulfill even their own basic needs. Add to this that the mental image of the well-dressed, fit person in a quality suit, ignores the reality that development puts most workers in a hot, loud, echoing, or dull industrial environment.

Why would we suggest that this industrial workplace is preferable to  the man cutting his bananas and then balancing his machete in the perfect place under his bike saddle, and his bananas on top of his firewood on the carrier, for a trip home? Do we even need surfaced roads if the buses can lurch from stone to stone on the unpaved roads, while the bicycles nip nimbly past on the smoothest sections?

If development means basic needs being met and some leeway in the wallet for chocolate or beer, if it means having affordable access to education and medical care, plus the opportunity to be connected to the world in communication and information, then Altagracia is developed. If these are the criteria, one could argue that the US, where so do not have access to medical and dental care, has not reached the same standard as this town in Nicaragua. If development means being able to find a path to any kind of job which suits one´s talents, most societies in the world fall short in some way.  Good secondary schools and university training is not accessible to many in the US, and many university goers in Europe choose the career which has job vacancies rather than following their personal dreams. Again, the world needs farmers and toilet cleaners, people to sell water too hot and tired walkers or commuters, bus drivers and bicycle mechanics, not only professions we see (or, saw) as prestigious such as law or banking. Development should aim at a society in which people participate with the fullness of their capacity.