Rethinking human development

Published: 12 Feb 2010

Humanity has built its social and physical infrastructure on the basis that the Earth’s environment is more or less static. We humans expect to experience all of our lives in a relatively stable earthly environment. We assume that there will be no major disruptions or permanent long-term changes. We build cities, monstrous buildings, roads and superhighways, airports and seaports and establish national boundaries as though the environment will continue to be the same forever. However, historical evidence indicates otherwise. The Earth’s environment has never being static—it has been changing continuously since the beginning, whenever that was. There have been periods of rapid and catastrophic change and periods of slow change.

Yet, our humanity continues to build social and economic systems on the basis of permanence, ignoring the harsh reality that our landforms, lakes and oceans have not always existed as they appear today. We need to begin to teach our understanding of the Earth and the universe in a more fundamental and dynamic way. We need to move away from the static approach. We need to have a better understanding of the change process. We need to let go of our arrogance and our sense of “domi- nion” over our ever-changing Earth. Humans must recognise that there is a delicate balance of forces that allows us to coexist with the rest of nature. Our existence demands that we recognise and help protect this delicate balance. The Earth is resilient and will survive and thrive in the changing balance of forces with or without human beings. It is humanity that is endangered. It is humanity that has to adapt. As human beings we need to be thankful for the narrow environmental niche that allows us to survive in a world environment that has the capacity to morph into uninhabitable extremes. Humanity’s survival will depend on how well we can adapt to this forever-changing global environment. We would need to evolve improved social systems to accommodate those who find themselves displaced or are in uninha- bitable areas—whether due to drought, flooding, hurricanes, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, temperature extremes, rising sea-levels, air pollution, pests, diseases, economic crises, religious persecutions and war. We need to change our concept of nationality, national land and sea boundaries, and ownership of the Earth’s resources. We need to recognise that as human beings we have a divine responsibility to work in the interest of one another. The greatest threat to our continuing human existence is social and moral and not technological. Our social systems have come a long way, but we still have a long way to go in the quest for a more sustainable approach to human development. This social challenge is well illustrated by our struggling response to Haiti following the 7.0-magnitude earthquake of January 12, in which almost a quarter of a million people perished and more than a million are homeless. Haiti was already a social and economic disaster long before the earthquake, with a population of almost ten million, of which 80 per cent lived in absolute poverty. Haiti has an illiteracy rate of over 90 per cent and only about ten per cent of its population has a working knowledge of its official language, French. Haiti is the only country in the world that I have visited and left feeling heavy, depressed and with a sense of helplessness. The rest of humanity needs to see Haitians as their brothers and sisters who are shipwrecked on a resource-poor bit of the Earth that is increasingly becoming more and more incapable of sustaining its ten million starving and hungry inhabitants. Strong language—but, unfortunately, that is the reality. We have to do much more than say sorry. It is my hope that out of the disaster of the earthquake will emerge a greater understanding of the bigger survival challenge confronting the Haitian people. As disastrous as human-induced climate change might be, it is perhaps this change that will awaken humans to the folly of our current development path. Interestingly, almost all the economists that I know readily acknowledge that our celebrated economic systems are not sustainable. Yet, in the interest of short-term benefits, we energetically continue along a destructive path, like drunken moths happily flying into the flames, leaving future generations of humanity to clean up the mess. The consequences of climate change could awaken humanity to their commonality and to their common spiritual journey. It could help human beings to step out of their tribal, racial, national and religious cages and to better recognise and embrace others in a true brotherhood of humanity. However, even with the pressure of climate change, this coming together of humanity will not be accomplished easily. There could be an extended period of great turmoil as people scramble to survive within our current dysfunctional social and economic systems. There could be a mad scramble for and hoarding of essential but scarce resources. There could be social uprisings as economic systems collapse, leading to a desire to mass migrate as people seek to escape the suffering. But migrate to where? This period could be seen as a disruptive transition on a global scale. There are those who will say that the global economic recession of 2008/09 marks the beginning of this period. There is now talk of a second global economic recession. Time will tell. I see the global disruptive transition as a positive development as humanity transitions to a more sustainable social and economic system. Great leadership will be required to lead and to unite humanity across its numerous cages during this disruptive period—leadership that is Christ-like or at the human level, Gandhi-like or Mandela-like. Humanity is slowly becoming more mutually interdependent. We are slowly, albeit very slowly, accepting that we need each other for our own mutual advancement. Countries are gradually discovering that they cannot exist in isolation, in the same way that individual human beings cannot exist alone. For example, Americans are now awakening to the reality that their prosperity is increasingly dependent on other countries for the supply of cheap energy, cheap food, cheap labour, skills, raw materials and manufactured products of all kinds. And, many are unhappy—some would like to bring back the old America. Our mutual interdependency is a growing reality, whether or not the people within a country wants it or accepts it. To break the dependency is to risk economic and social collapse. We need to open our eyes and to see the obvious—the ultimate unification of our humanity is essential for our long-term survival. The earlier we understand that we can bring more love and understanding into the world the better. A better system of global governance is increasingly becoming more obvious—the United Nations and its associated institutions are rapidly becoming irrelevant and may soon become obsolete. It is time for humans to put more focus on the development of people without losing our sensitivity to the environment. Our greedy excesses are adversely affecting the environment and putting our humanity at risk. Our future is tied to our ability to become more responsible to each other and to the environment that sustains us. We can only save humanity through the further development of the human being. We can only save our environment through the further development of the human being. And human development is ultimately about moral progress. We should be teaching more about our human development to better understand how to deal with our present and future environmental challenges than we now do. Unfortunately, issues around human development are diffused and dissipated across cultures, nations, religions and philosophies. We have a way of looking for our future in the past. In fact we become mired in our past. We need to let go of what we think we know and open ourselves to a new and unexplored future. We are challenged to deal with the human development issue if we are to successfully pilot our way through the coming challenges. Human beings are challenged to express more of our innate morality. I live in hope. THEO FERGUSON Leadership educator Source: http://guardian.co.tt/commentary/letters/2010/02/12/rethinking-human-development