"What is the worth of family bonds that mitigate poverty and insulate individuals from loneliness? What is the value of diverse intuitions about the cosmos, the realms of the spirit, the meaning and practice of faith? What is the economic measure of a ritual practice that results in the protection of a river or a forest?"
-Wade Davis, The Light at the Edge of the World
The idea of tradition gets trampled like a leaf under the foot of an elephant in the modern discourse of development. China is seen as the model for the rest of the world; the lifting of 600 million out of poverty in 30 years, surely a remarkable feat, deserving of emulation and praise; however, one might ask, what is the price that has been paid by the Chinese people in their drive for economic prosperity? What has been the cost to family bonds, to the traditional culture and languages that have held this most ancient of cultures together over the many centuries? What has been the cost to the thousand year old traditions of the Tibetans, no longer able to practice traditional culture and religion in the land of their birth? What is the cost of the relentless drive for development, for material prosperity? Can we tell a hunter in the highlands of Papua New Guinea, sustained by the land, nourished by family, that he is impoverished? Is he any poorer than a banker working 80 hour weeks for money he cannot every possibly spend?
-Wade Davis, The Light at the Edge of the World
The idea of tradition gets trampled like a leaf under the foot of an elephant in the modern discourse of development. China is seen as the model for the rest of the world; the lifting of 600 million out of poverty in 30 years, surely a remarkable feat, deserving of emulation and praise; however, one might ask, what is the price that has been paid by the Chinese people in their drive for economic prosperity? What has been the cost to family bonds, to the traditional culture and languages that have held this most ancient of cultures together over the many centuries? What has been the cost to the thousand year old traditions of the Tibetans, no longer able to practice traditional culture and religion in the land of their birth? What is the cost of the relentless drive for development, for material prosperity? Can we tell a hunter in the highlands of Papua New Guinea, sustained by the land, nourished by family, that he is impoverished? Is he any poorer than a banker working 80 hour weeks for money he cannot every possibly spend?
