Date: Wed, 29 Dec 1999 13:59:36 EST
From: BDeshinoor@aol.comSubject: Economic Development: A Race Against Time?
*************** A Shetubondhon Exclusive *****************
Greetings to my fellow Shetubondhon subscribers. I appreciate your feedback on my following article.
Economic Development: A Race Against Time?
To most countries in Asia, Africa, and south and Central America,
economic development is just that, a race against time. It seems that
problems never go away; chronic economic anxiety is ever present. The
powerful force of scarcity warps everything in its path, belittling honor,
courage, and sacred norms. Everything and everyone becomes its victim. As a
consequence, for a large segment of population, fatalism replaces effort,
plan and logic. Most countries in these three continents, having tried all
kinds of remedies to underdevelopment, contain population groups over and
again subdivided by policies gone awry.
Every generation, over the past century, has produced countries that have
climbed out of poverty and despair. Thus, there have been winners. Indeed,
the competition among nations is stiff. In that sense, economic development
is truly a race against time. However, inter-country competition aside, from
a long runs perspective, economic development is not a rat race. Economic
development is an achievable agenda for all nations. There is logic to the
madness. When unlocked in proper sequence, the mad drive for economic
development becomes the only sane alternative. Therein lies the hope that
all is not lost, and that sarcasm, a sense of futility, and fatalism must not
get the upper hand.
Consider Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea. Japan, starting with Meiji
Restoration of 1876, was ready to fight a world war by 1936. That may not
have been a laudable and logical objective. After all, in its bid to be rid
of the fear of domination by European nations, it forgot a similar and more
earnest desire among fellow Asian nations already under foreign domination.
Japan, in effect became like the post-monarchy France, extinguishing the
hopes of the ordinary Europeans, under the rampaging policy of Napoleon.
Also, Japan has achieved more with trade than it could have hoped to achieve
by direct subjugation of neighboring countries. However, ignoring this
commentary, for countries aspiring to economically developed nationhood, the
point to remember is that Japan achieved all this in merely sixty years. The
story gets even rosier when we consider the other two countries in my list:
Taiwan and South Korea.
Commencing in early or mid-1950, these two countries achieved enviable
economic status by early or mid-1980. That is merely thirty years, one
generation in family time. These countries, including Japan, sorted their
political processes to give a measure of stability, articulated national
ambition through a meaningful set of agenda, and achieved an understanding of
the market economy much greater than other countries in similar situations.
Thus, economic development is not really a race against time.
Increasingly, the time span involved in achieving economic development has
shrunk. While countries today, like Bangladesh, witness problems that Japan,
Taiwan, or South Korea did not face when they set their course, the pace of
transfer of knowledge and economic integration now may offset those negatives
and still allow for economic development in a record time. Moral: Do not
give up on economic development yet.