W H A T IS D E V E L O P M E NT ?
Since the mid sixties, “development”
became the catch-word of United Nations’ economic and social programs. The New York
based world organization proudly launched a “Decade of Development” to satisfy
its Third-world swelling membership. Heads of State and ministers attending
the annual meetings in Manhattan studded their speeches with references to the
“problems of development”. Some even tried to define the question with a few
words. The Pope said that “development” was the new “word”
for “peace” or something along this line.Economists considered
impossible to squeeze all the elements involved in a simple formula; any
understanding of the concept needed at least several paragraphs. I, for one, did not give
up the search for a short phrase…and came off with one .
It was in the spring of 1969.I was accompanying my brother and his ministers to the region of Hamadan in Eastern Iran. Preparing the implementation of its decentralization plans, the government used to spend a few days every now and then in the provinces.The local authorities and representatives of the people would meet with the cabinet members and discuss their affairs.
Decisions were taken on the spot and central
development plans were accordingly modified.
I was glued to the plane’s window, watching the landscape below. Most of the country
seemed to reproduce in all its parts one and the same model: an elevated plateau
surrounded by high mountains. Due to paucity of arable soil,farmers would pass beyond the
easily accessible flat
lands and venture as far as possible on the abrupt slopes. While approaching the Hamadan
region I noticed unusual freshly ploughed fields dotting the terrain among pastures
and cultivated or harvested areas. Their strange shape struck me:instead of the normal
square or rectangle form they were elliptical! From above, they looked like the footsteps
of some giant creature,escaped from the pages of a science-fiction story, sauntering
around aimlessly.
I showed them to the minister of agriculture who was unable to give an
adequate explanation. Suddenly an idea popped in my mind. I asked the minister if he knew
when mechanization had been introduced in the area. He consulted his files and it appeared
that the first tractors had just been sent there. That was it! The answer to the conundrum
. The riddle was solved.For centuries the Iranian peasant had learned, generation after
generation, to skilfully use his plough and draw right angles on the soil. For centuries
he had tilled square and rectangular fields. And now,he just had been taught to drive
tractors. He couldn’t yet trace these geometrical figures with the new machines. He
had to get adapted to them and learn to use efficiently the new tools. This was a
matter of time. Training programmes would certainly follow the introduction of new
technologies… So, I developed in my mind a very short definition of development, a
mathematical formula. I jotted down in my notebook:
“Development is an ellipse between two rectangles”.
And I thought to myself that importing technology is not enough: education is the key to
development.
"What are you writing?” asked the minister of
agriculture. "Nothing important…something I must tell colleagues at the
United Nations!”…
Fereydoun Hoveyda - 1970