Development within third world countries
Development, a planned process of change brought to the third world by an outside source, is mainly focused on industrialization and the implantation of new technology. Development practices that are used are now seemingly becoming the instrument to organize the underdeveloped post-colonial societies. Essentially we are devaluing all non-western cultures, and trying to insert them into our own culture. We criticize these governmental programs for disregarding pre-existing communities and hierarchies as well as destroying the environment. The developing agencies are typically irrelevant to the need of the existing communities, and are only detrimental to them. Throughout this paper, I will analyze some reasons that developing agencies are essentially a problem in accord with some of the cases that Gardner brings up in her book, and talk about the Guarani in Brazil. Women play a vital role in their societies in the Third World; however, due to some of the many projects by developers these roles are greatly lessened and misunderstood. This is usually due to the pre-existing gender relations and the assumptions of the planners (Gardner, 64). These assumptions lead the planners to believe that women are merely domestic, and n
The developers have cleared this land for themselves feeling they can get more out of it; however, the Guarani still can reap many profits from the forest. Indigenous harvesting of commercial goods like yerba and rubber can offer greater returns than rubber plantations or even cattle ranches that the developers have sought. The timber in the forest is also one of the main suppliers and goods for the future. Although the developers continue to push deeper into the forest, the Guarani can supply much more if they were given a chance to work the land like they had in the past. The Guarani of Brazil occupy and live deep in the forest; however, they differ from other forest dwellers in that they have been in contact with Western culture since the early Spanish conquistadors. From that time until about ten years ago, the relationship was going fairly well. Lately developers have threatened the Guarani way of life by moving deeper into the forests and clearing out land for cattle ranching and mono-crop agriculture. The new crops of tobacco, cotton, and soybean are also being produced. The forest is slowly being lost over time. As the forests are being cleared out, the Guarani are moving into smaller and smaller reservations. The forests are falling apart, and the Guarani that tended to its care in the past cannot do so anymore. With this in mind, it is clear how developers are destroying the Guarani way of life. The Guarani are an example of people that have mixed with the Western culture and are still together. Even as they are pushed out further from their home, the Guarani hold themselves collectively and try to keep themselves a group. The harvesting of yerba is one way of keeping a profit among them. However, their lack of knowledge of western society hurts them as they try to deal with the developers. The fact is that developers must slow their uses of taking over, because we can see that the Guarani were and are better without them getting involved.
Some common words found in the essay are:
Guarani Brazil, Third World, , Brazil Women, third world, guarani life, developers developers, development projects, western knowledge, guarani brazil, western culture, developing agencies, development agency, forest main,
Approximate Word count = 1337
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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