Ever since the end of WWII, when the term “underdevelopment” became a buzzword, the distinction has been made between “development” and “growth”. The latter was a mechanistic number derived from statistics like GDP, and per capita income, and such like, while the former looked more specifically at the lived experience of people. It became a cliché to point out that, ultimately, “development” is what our activities ought to be about!!
But a while after independence, when we could “do our own thing”, we discovered the harsh reality that while you could have growth without development, you can’t have development without growth!! At the time of our independence, most of us saw “development” as trying to live like the departed Brits as far as food clothes and housing were concerned. So, we on the coast kept on importing scads of imported canned food, even though we could’ve cultivated local foods with more nutrients. Even Burnham, who preached the buy local mantra, died craving imported condensed milk!! Our Amerindians, however, ate more local foods than coastlanders did.
On clothes, we coastlanders also imitated the Brits, with our most “sophisticated” middle and upper classes donning the oppressively hot “suit and tie” to signal their status. Our Amerindians kept it more traditionally simple. On housing, we insisted on “high house”, “polish floor”; and, to signal high status, “inside flush toilet”!! Your Eyewitness remembers that, in the rural areas, it was all pit latrines – after letting it all hang out over open canals in the logies!!
For our Amerindians, one researcher wrote in 1966 that villages were increasing being transformed with enclosed houses becoming more popular than the predominant open huts. On defecation, they noted, “In the past, defecation would seem to have been anywhere in the vicinity of the settlement – an ideal situation for the spread of intestinal parasites. In recent years, however, some attempts have been made by the missions and school teachers to establish nearby dry latrines (where soil conditions permitted). So far, this has not been altogether successful, and perhaps, as in so many other ways, this reflects the Amerindian’s reluctance to acquiesce in anything which is rather thrust upon him -albeit for his benefit.”
The point is that development for years was constrained by our meagre resources, and it continued painfully slow. Only recently did most coastal communities acquire running water and flush toilets. So, when a newly-elected AFC leader reported a hinterland school having a pit toilet, and an MoE report showed there were 70 other such schools there, most coastlanders sympathised about the continued historical lag in Amerindian development even as our economy was growing rapidly the last five year.
But your Eyewitness wonders whether the Toshaos, who meet annually to compile their development needs to Govt, had identified changing pit latrines to flush toilets.
…and Haiti
It’s very painful to your Eyewitness that the situation in Haiti continues spiralling downwards, even after the first contingent of 400 Kenyan police had landed – along with 24 Jamaican police. These are less than a quarter promised, but the funds disbursed have been even more meagre – US$63 million paid into the UN’s dedicated trust fund, that needs ten times that amount.
Most of all, your Eyewitness is disappointed with the reaction of Caricom, and expected much more, since Haiti is a member state. What is there about our Caribbean “Community” that we cannot be our brother’s helper??
There were some in Guyana a while back who were virtually signalling from the top of the Stabroek Market Clock how much they cared for Haitians. Where are they now?
While it’s the Haitian people who’ll eventually have to save themselves, they at least need a respite from the gangs who’re holding Port au Prince and its environs hostage in order to elect a new government of their own.
Let’s help, shall we?
…and cricket
With all the talk about oil revenues bringing growth and development, the capture of the CPL Trophy last year by our Warriors did more than anything else to bring us together as a people!!
Go, Warriors! All the way again!!
