Development

Development is a major question in today's world. Its importance is not limited to Third World, or developing countries. On the contrary, development questions touch even the most developed nations, since all of the countries are becoming more closely connected through commerce and other relations.

It is necessary to define development before discussing it, although it is not an easy idea to define. Most people think of development as industrialization and modernization. However, there is still a great deal of discussion about exactly what development includes and how it can be achieved.

Most development theorists focus on three basic kinds of development. First, development of infrastructure is needed. Infrastructure is the facilities and serves necessary for development to begin. It includes airports, roads, telephone systems and so on. Second, there is agriculture modernization, which includes using fertilizers, machines and modern methods as well as improving the transport and distribution of crops. Third, industrialization is seen, as the way to meet the need for manufactured goods, whether these goods are needed in the country itself or produced for export to other countries. It also provides employment.

It is obvious that development includes all of this, but it cannot stop there. The world does not need development for its own sake; it needs development in order to improve the lives of people, the most important part of any country. Therefore, it is my belief, a belief which is shared by many of the more modern development theorists, that human development has to come first. Building factories that make only a few people rich or that produce wasteful products that only the rich people can buy, or that destroy the environment by polluting the air and water is not true development as I see it. True development puts human factors, health care, housing, water supply, diet and so on, before all else.

For me, then a developed country is not one with the most factories, cars or television sets, but one where all people can have good basic medical care and education, a decent place to live and food to eat.