I don't necessarily agree with
this article, but it did make some strong points commonly brought to bear when asking ourselves what the objective of development ought to be.
My thoughts to Booger #1:
yeah, i read that and thought it brings up some interesting points,
namely - who should be responsible for solving global issues. i do
agree with him development needs to be about local ownership and can be
paternalistic. but to say it is the white/privileged man's complex and
this complex is all about nosing its way into into local politics of
other countries is too simplistic in ways that black power and
post-colonialist literature can be. there are many types of people and
institutions which work in development who are not characterized or
motivated on the basis of race and power plays, but more on ideology.
sure, there are differential power structures, but these camps are
driven not just by economic concerns (and not necessarily of the
self-serving kind) but moral (and different types of moral concerns, at
that!), and they work to correct institutions which fail people and
exacerbate bad conditions locally.
