For 20 months now, I have been selfishly coveting my fellow PCVs for their electricity. I have longed to fall asleep to that familiar hum of a refrigerator. However, now that my PC experience is nearing it's end, the development I've hoped for is finally happening. Electricity is finally coming to my district.
Unfortunately, my definition of development has changed. Is rural electrification actually development? Or is it just rural electrification? Is development only the westernizing of a nation? I once thought that giving aide (whether it be financial, advisory, medical supplies, food rations, etc) to other countries was a positive initiative. Now I'm not so sure.
As I sat around a grog bowl with my favorite talanoa-er, basking in the amber glow of our kerosene lamps, I thought out loud "these days are almost over." The times of sitting around in the near dark, listening to the crickets outside, peeking through the open doorway at the stars shining brightly in the clear night. When the electricity is finally turned on, the radios and televisions will play all night. People will be up until the wee hours washing clothes.
Even the bus ride is different. Instead of a blur of green, I see all the trees have been cut down (and left in unruly heaps) at the mercy of a chainsaw to prepare the way for the utility poles. Some trees housed entire ecosystems, that's how big they were and how long they'd been here. The view of the ocean is spotted with connecting wires which spoil the silhouetted coconut trees against the periwinkle sunrise.
With development comes change. Fijians now have vaccines for tetanus and birth control pills, but some have forgotten how to use their herbal medicines. Fijians now have institutionalized schooling and the teaching responsibilities have fallen from the traditional elders to the young, new teachers, possibly upsetting the role elders play in the lives of the youth. Fijians have electricity, but will soon stop pulling their food from the ground daily because refrigerators make it possible to buy cheese and cold soda from town. This change in lifestyle is happening. I want to throw myself in front of this bus and say "Stop! Not here! Not in my district! We live simply and we're happy." But the wheel has started turning and I cannot stop it just like I cannot stop a Fijian bus from barreling on toward it's destination, wherever that may be.
So what is development? Will electricity help the villagers remember their traditions? Will widening the road cure scabies or help prevent the spread of typhoid? Why do other countries think they know what's best for Fiji? And then give money to bring these plans into action? Why is development always defined so strictly?
I don't have any of these answers, but talking about it helps.
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3 comments:
I've been thinking about this a lot lately as I consider what it means to have enough and what it means to have too much. The more I read and learn and get rid of stuff in my life, the more I realize that happiness in all of its sundry forms really comes from human interaction: primitive, simple, slow.
I think I'm so used to having every need met almost immediately that I have an insatiable appetite for everything to be faster and bigger and more plugged in. I don't know many people who love technology more than I do, but I just can't shake the notion that the more we seek out electronic connections, the more desperate we become to just look other human beings in the eyes.
Wow. All that just to say that I love this conversation that you started and I want to be a part of it. I'm sure you could teach me volumes about what it means to really unplug. Let's learn together!
I know a little bit about this feeling from just the very short trips I've made to Ghana, Zambia and Mongolia. I agree with what you're saying! I think the hardest part is to watch the changes to the environment. That and the lack of socialization with television and the like.
However, as devil's advocate, I have a few thoughts: maybe it's selfish for Americans to NOT help or to deprive them of something so great. I think one has to give Fijians credit for being about to think through this issue themselves (weighing the pluses and minuses). If they want to join the civilizations who operate with electricity, then shouldn't they be able to change and adapt their culture? And, its not just Western cultures that have electricity. Eastern cultures and African cultures have it as well.
Although there are many (mostly cultural) downsides to development, there are many great advantages. With electricity comes an easier, healthier, and more productive way of life. I hope they enjoy it and are able to keep their awesome culture despite the enormous change Everything in moderation.
Ps--thanks for updating the blog! Love it ;)
I'm sorry to hear that development is occurring in that form. Unfortunately your observations are not unique. I am glad you are sharing them because hopefully they will help others who have not made those connections rethink how to "assist" other cultures with "progress", or at least give them another perspective to consider. It's a quandary.
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