I. Thinking About Power
Contradictions in Development
Many of the readers of this little book will have been involved in some form
of development action here in Britain or as volunteers in the Third World.
Probably most of you became active in development because you were aware
of the obscene gap in living standards between rich a~d poor countries and
wanted to do something about it， wanted to contribute - albeit in a small
way - to Third World development. Now， having become involved， do you
feel you have contributed to development， either through volunteering or
through activities in Britain? Have you come to a view of what causes develop-
ment， of how it can best be achieved， and of what your own role can be?
Can your theory of development accommodate the following facts?
Volunteering: idealism frustrated
A volunteer teacher， keen and idealistic， ends up teaching English in an urban，
fee-paying secondary school in Cameroun. The fees are so high that only the
wall.off can send their children there. The curriculum is extremely academic
and unrelated to the development needs of the country. Before volunteering，
the volunteer taught in a large comprehensive in a poor part of London. She
leaves before the end of her two year term， feeling that she could make more
of a contribution teaching under-privileged kids in Inner London than the
offspring of the Camerounian upper class.
Another volunteer， equally keen and idealistic， ends up teaching more or less
everything in a Harambee school in Kenya. He immerses himself in the project，
feeling that this is what he came to the Third World for: the school is in a poor
rural area， the children are poor and， above all， both children and the commu-
nity in general really want education. The school is a self-help project， started
by the community. But later， the volunteer begins to have doubts. What is the
education for? He realises that it s to enable the students to leave tile village
and to get a salaried job in tile city. Tile education he s providing is for the
very few who will succeed in this. 1 t s of no relevance for tile majority who fail
and who will have to make their lives in the countryside. Tile curriculum con-
tains nothing that will help them improve rural life. Agriculture is barely men-
tioned， although 95% of the students will have to make their living from it.
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