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Development Discourse
November 23, 2005 ( grad )
There's an old joke about a prisoner confused at his first day in, at lunch. Random people stand up, announce a number, and the whole place cracks up. Consulting an older prisoner, it turns out that since they've all heard all the same jokes so many times, they just number them to save the trouble of repeating it all.
Sometimes I get the same feeling, reading development literature. Some central stories of development successes or failures get told over and over again. I imagine a group of development practitioners sitting around a table:
"Sudan famine, '98"
(all) ooooh. Hm. Yeah...
"..But, Brazil!"
(nodding)
"Korea vs. Ghana, 1950-2000!"
(shocked expressions)
"Toilet festivals!"
(more nodding)
...and so on. (that was an argument about elite capture of goods targetted at underprivilidged targets and misinterpretation thereof, and then gov't policies towards development, and then successful grassroots projects, FYI).
I wonder if this is a case of necessary categorization of recurrent problem types in development projects that humans are predisposed to do, or if it's over simplifying the situation. Probably both.
Posted by griffjon at November 23, 2005 11:43 AM
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