THREE Bs IN THE VILLAGE: MODERNITY IS COMING

We drove on the motor cycle along cattle tracks and across barren fields. From the back seat I had a view at distant rock formations. Large blocks of stone wobbled on other rocks as if they could fall off any minute. Flocks of goats were herded by boys holding their long sticks up in the air.

We passed a Hindu caste village with its rectangular pattern of alleys, the clay houses built close together to keep the sun away. The whole village was covered with dust, just like the few people that slowly walked around in their old clothes. We seemed to drive right into the eighteenth century.

It was on my request. A Dutch donor agency had sent me to evaluate a development organization that worked in hundreds of villages. I had been toured around in the city and some prosperous villages nearby. Then I had insisted to also see a remote village for comparative reasons. Now we were on our way to the selected place.

We reached there by eight in the evening. It was pitch-dark. The organization had informed their local representative. He would wait for us in their small building at the edge of the village that was used for group meetings. Normally, when a foreigner is announced, the village prepares a reception ceremony while expecting to get a prolonged impression of the visitor on the spot and perhaps some benefits in the future. So, both my Indian counterpart and I were surprised to find nobody at all in or near that building.

After a while we started to walk into the village. We took one dark alley after the other but nowhere anyone was seen. Finally we spied a blue light above the roofs that wavered on and off from time to time. Aiming at the light we arrived at the central square. Hundreds of people were squatting on the ground, male and female, young and old, while looking up at a television screen placed high on a wall. They had completely forgotten the visitor and the possible benefits that might be derived from a foreign donor.

Instead they watched an American TV program, one of the Three Bs, their favourite foreign programs: The Bold and the Beautiful, Baywatch and Beverly Hills 90210. I needed a prolonged impression of the scene to digest the situation in full.

THE NEED OF SOCIAL DIAGNOSIS

What does the doctor do before starting medical treatments? Right, performing diagnoses. And what does the doctor do before performing diagnoses? Right, doing a full length medical study. And what does the doctor do after a full length medical study? Right, keeping track of the new medical literature.

Now, what does the politician, or the manager, or the development worker do? Right, start interfering in a social system, big or small, without a diagnosis of that a social system, big or small, without having done a full length study to understand social systems, and without keeping track of new literature on social systems.

ECONOMIC ALTERNATIVES: SUFFICIENT OR MORE

Is there a workable alternative to economic growth and technological growth that benefits the West most and leads to ecological disaster? In the past there was, yes, but past is past. In the present, alternatives are hard to imagine, or it would have to be that humanity slows down the pace within the given ideology of economic and technological growth.

To give an example of real or perceived alternatives and the conflicts involved a century ago ~ it was in the period of 1900-1910 that agronomist Alexander Chayanov, supported by a large number of other agronomists, extensively showed how peasants stopped working in a certain year when they had reached a certain subsistence level. Not only did they live in villages that had a lot of equality, ‘mirs’ in Russian, and would not break away from such a tradition, they just felt no urgent need to work any harder or longer when a certain subsistence level was realized. It was the society of ‘the sufficient.’

Politician Wladimir Lenin, on the other hand, said that more and more Russian peasants went on improving their situation, certainly now that markets provided them with more opportunities. Such ambitious peasants were called 'kulaks'.

Lenin and his followers were convinced that the kulak motivation of ‘more’ would be a disaster for the Russian countryside. He may have been right or wrong, but he translated his ideas into action. He grew impatient and started his violent revolution against kulaks and extending markets in 1917 and founded the USSR. In Lenin’s words it was a revolution against capitalism or, in present-day terms, against economic growth and technological growth. Well, we know the final result of the Soviet experiment.

The original alternative of capitalism and Soviet communism was the peasant society of ‘the sufficient.’ It had been workable for a long time. Actually, it seems than between the years 0 AD and 1800 AD hardly any economic growth took place. But after that, economic growth and technological growth took off and, so far, mostly to the benefit of the West.

Traditional Russian village

WESTERN JUSTIFICATIONS

If westerners expect peaceful Muslims to incidentally apologize for incidental Muslim terrorist attacks, peaceful westerners may systematically apologize for systematic western violent oppression and economic exploitation of other parts in the world.

However, if we not only want westerners to apologize for western crime and exploitation elsewhere but actually contribute to the reduction of that crime and exploitation, we may start seeing through the misleading terminology common in the West that conceals and morally justifies such crime and exploitation.

Terms such as ‘weak states’, ‘imperfect markets’, ‘failing institutions’, ‘marginal costs’, ‘corruption’, ‘economic growth’, ‘liberation’, ‘free press’, ‘free elections’, and ‘freedom of speech’, ‘rogue states’, ‘terrorist organizations’ and ‘development banks’ conceal western ethnocentrism and self-interest if you don’t see it and reveal western ethnocentrism and self-interest if you see it.

DUTCH POLICE

Peter van der Werff: DUTCH POLICE: Each neighborhood has a special police officer here. We had Anja Schijver, for many years. As the representative or coordinator of our Katt...

DUTCH POLICE

Each neighborhood has a special police officer here. We had Anja Schijver, for many years. As the representative or coordinator of our Kattenlaan neighborhood, I had much contact with her, about security issues, nuisances, traffic regulations and public space management. I found her to the point, wise and friendly. I was really fond of her.

Only once, Anja went against me, albeit in such a kind way that I fell for her charm. We had a neighborhood meeting with about 25 people, including Anja and people of the local government, about a number of irritations created by the manager of the tennis park that he kept ignoring for over two years, although he had not even a legal permission for the exploitation. When at the meeting he again refused to take us seriously, I lost my patience and got really angry at him.

After the meeting Anja said to me not to shout so much anymore. I said: ‘Yes, I understand. The police has to de-escalate in situations of tension.’ She smiled and turned her head off, as if to say: ‘Well, yes, I understand your anger.’

Anyway, my anger did work; sometimes another approach can be of help. To our great relief that tennis park manager packed his bags and left the neighborhood. Anja was silently happy with us. The tennis park got a manager who understands what to do and not to do without any suggestions or requests from our side.

Anja is now moving to another neighborhood in Amsterdam. Farewell, Anja!