Stop! Collaborate and Listen

For my blog project, I wanted to focus my blog on the interactions between large corporations, or governments and the local populations and implications these interactions held in regards to the environment.
The big shots who are usually creating projects to further “development,” or create stronger bureaucratic presence were it is seen to be lacking are rarely those who are affected by these orders. The local people, whose voices and opinions are generally overlooked are then left dealing with the repercussions of decisions made by those who are usually working in an effort to fix things that may not be broken. Mind you, what exactly is development and why are so many people itching to further it along? The Free Dictionary defines development as: The act of developing or the state of being developed, as: (a) The application of techniques or technology to the production of new goods or services. and (b) The business of constructing buildings or otherwise altering land for new uses.

While the idea of development is admirable, the way many organizations go about putting it into action are less desirable. These people who focus their efforts towards countries considered to be “underdeveloped” are oftentimes outsiders from global organizations with a million different ideas as to how to implement more development and generally have an academic understanding of how things are valued within a respective country or region.

Another issue that needs to be considered is the usual absence of politics, or so that’s usually the goal. Many outside organizations aiming to increase development in certain areas usually tend to advertise the fact that they are not tied to any political organization, as politics are usually a tricky subject no matter where you reside. Many people often find though, that with the absence of political influence, you can often times still find instances of political influence.

I found several articles that we read this past week regarding issues of development and the integration of, or attempts to alleviate, the influence of politics very interesting. First there is the issues that occurred in Lesotho. Lesotho became a hot spot for the integration of development because on paper, the country had been portrayed as a collection of peoples who scratched about the dry earth, in desperate need of assistance from those who could provide it. However, the true status of the country was quite different. Many men were working in mines located in the neighboring country of South Africa, and there was no desperate need for new changes to be incorporated. The outside-initiated development project for Thaba-Tseka failed for several reasons, all attributed to the fact that the locals perspective was not taken into consideration in the carrying out of the project. The project proposed that farmers should incorporate crops in addition to the maize that was currently being grown, but this suggestion did not pan out because for the people of Lesotho, maize was a staple food in their diet, therefore there was a need for large amounts of maize and the earth was not abundantly fertile which limited the types of crops that could be farmed. In another attempt to create economic growth, the project suggested that people with livestock sell of their unhealthy animals and purchase “approved” animals that were to be grazed in a designated “progressive farming pasture.” Many locals say this as ridiculous because they would see a loss of potentially half of their livestock, lose money in the process of buying newer livestock, and be limited to pastures outlined by the project. If the outsiders who hoped to carry out the development project had taken into consideration ideals valued by the local, native people of Lesotho, they could have been progressive in areas that the locals deemed necessary.

This sort of outside influence is not just isolated to Africa, another instance can be seen in Honduras, with the serious issue of deforestation as a result of the country trying to capitalize on the need to cheaper beef with a sharp rise in the cattle industry. Honduras was sitting in billions of dollars of debt and the government saw an opportunity to increase the export economy with the increase of cattle herding. While this solution may have worked out on paper, the unacknowledged, or possibly unforeseen environmental effects have proven to be extremely damaging. Because more and more people were trying to get their hands on a piece of the metaphorical pie that was the cattle industry, there were huge clearings of tropical rainforest and vegetation that were cleared to accommodate the mass of cattle and farmers wanting to settle in the area. While the cattle industry may be slowing chipping away at the nation’s debt, the environmental damage that it has caused is irreversible. Within a generation, there may not be any tropical forest left in Honduras. Of course, this is not an issue that many government ministries are concerned with, but it very well should be.

When the people on top think they can create monumental change without considering who and what their decisions might affect, we can see disastrous consequences. Collaboration is key when it comes to finding solutions that benefit all parties involved, and when large organizations with more power than they know what to do with realize this, we can start making some real headway on issues at hand.