"In reality, development for the vast majority of the peoples of the world has been
a process in which the individual is torn from their past, propelled into an uncertain future, only to secure a place on the bottom rung of an economic ladder that goes nowhere."
-Wade Davis
Research into both the areas of International Development and Cultural Preservation, one comes to a crossroads, where a pivotal question begs to be answered:
Does "development" have an ultimate, objective aim in the modern world?
And a larger question: how do we balance the human right for an education, for
clean water, for life saving medicine, the chance for opportunity, with
the integrity of tradition, the power of myth?
Wade Davis places the burden of proof on the West..."Schooling has not changed the people for the better. This is the pain in my heart. Those educated want nothing to do with their animals. They just want to leave. Education should not be a reason to go away. It's an obligation to come back."
If it is a reason to come back, if it does, as Roy Williams says, "Compartmentalize Reality," what use is a modern education to traditional societies if the young people are, in fact, not coming back? Is it our right to deny the chance to not come back? Does this equate to progress and opportunity?
Davis adds that tradition is "ultimately what will save them."
How can we enmesh educational progress with traditional values? How can the worth of a traditional culture be defined, preserved, honored, without the inevitable watering-down influences of the West? What is true definition of progress? Who decides what is progress?
