Is Development a Good Thing?

Is development a good thing? This is a question that I and many other volunteers find ourselves asking quite often after a year in Peace Corps. It's the same question my dad brought up during his first few days in Africa when he came to see me recently. He has helped me formulate my thoughts to the answer to this question.

Allow me to shrink the scope of the question down substantially. Is development a good thing for Uganda?

I look around Uganda and I see a lot of good things. I see a thriving culture of business and entrepreneurship. Yes, all the shops are selling the same things. Yes, almost all of it is imported. Yes, innovation is almost non-existent. However, Ugandans still possess a energetic spirit for commerce and free trade.

I see hundreds of square miles of verdant and fruitful landscape. I see almost all Ugandans taking ownership of that land and using it independently to produce their own food each year. If there ever was an economic collapse in Uganda, they would still be able to eat because of how self-sufficent they are.

I see a cash economy. One that functions solely by the exchange of hard currency for valued products (though credit cards are becoming more common in Kampala). When you work, you get cash. If you don't have the cash, you don't buy the item. If you do, you do. Simple as that. This is a stark difference in our credit crazy consumer culture of the United States.

I see a culture of self healing and self dependency when it comes to sickness. Only if you are close to death do you go to the hospital. For the most part, you will recover some other way, somehow. The natural way.

Is this status quo optimal? In my opinion, no. Is it terrible? In my opinion, no. For all its faults at the national level, Uganda is not a bad place to live. The people have food, they have some degree of freedom, they have amazing weather, and they have peace.

Would it be better if Uganda had a thriving manufacturing sector that created jobs? Yes. Would it be better if Ugandan could innovate and come up with Ugandan solutions and come up with marketable solutions? Absolutely.

Would industrialization of its agricultural practices be a good thing? Maybe. Maybe not. Look at what happened to small farmers in the United States during the mass commercialization of agricultural products. There aren't many of them around any more.

Credit cards in Uganda? I don't think the country is ready for them. Nor am I sure they are a good thing in general. But they will come regardless.

Improvements in public health? This is something I think we can all agree on is definitely a good and valuable result of development. I hear so many stories of people suffering and dying of preventable and/or curable ailments.

So I think development is a good thing, overall, with some caveats. Let Uganda develop on its own. Let it develop in its own style. And let it be slow but steady development. Right now, most Ugandans have cell phones but they don't have reliable electricity. That is backwards. Let Uganda first tackle the fundamentals (education, water, jobs, health), then move on to the less substantial peripheral items.

Is development fueled by outside assistance from other countries a good thing? ....in Uganda. At the Kamuge High School level, I think it is, at least I hope so. At the 50,000 foot level, I'm not so sure.