"The development set"

This poem was published in 1976. It could have been written in 2006. (I found it at wronging rights; they found it at Owen abroad.)

The Development Set
by Ross Coggins

Excuse me, friends, I must catch my jet
I’m off to join the Development Set;
My bags are packed, and I’ve had all my shots
I have traveller’s checks and pills for the trots!

The Development Set is bright and noble
Our thoughts are deep and our vision global;
Although we move with the better classes
Our thoughts are always with the masses.

In Sheraton Hotels in scattered nations
We damn multi-national corporations;
injustice seems easy to protest
In such seething hotbeds of social rest.

We discuss malnutrition over steaks
And plan hunger talks during coffee breaks.
Whether Asian floods or African drought,
We face each issue with open mouth.

We bring in consultants whose circumlocution
Raises difficulties for every solution –
Thus guaranteeing continued good eating
By showing the need for another meeting.

The language of the Development Set
Stretches the English alphabet;
We use swell words like “epigenetic”
“Micro”, “macro”, and “logarithmetic”

It pleasures us to be esoteric –
It’s so intellectually atmospheric!
And although establishments may be unmoved,
Our vocabularies are much improved.

When the talk gets deep and you’re feeling numb,
You can keep your shame to a minimum:
To show that you, too, are intelligent
Smugly ask, “Is it really development?”

Or say, “That’s fine in practice, but don’t you see:
It doesn’t work out in theory!”
A few may find this incomprehensible,
But most will admire you as deep and sensible.

Development set homes are extremely chic,
Full of carvings, curios, and draped with batik.
Eye-level photographs subtly assure
That your host is at home with the great and the poor.

Enough of these verses - on with the mission!
Our task is as broad as the human condition!
Just pray god the biblical promise is true:
The poor ye shall always have with you.

“Adult Education and Development” September 1976

But now we have participatory, inclusive and community-based development, you say. Problem solved!

In fact, these labels can be as harmful as the ones of yore. (I discussed this in a shortened version of my undergraduate thesis.)

Why am I in development, you ask? For the batiks, of course! And the warm fuzzy feeling too.

Alright, to be serious (the poem is as serious as it is funny), it's essential that development workers come to terms, or at least grapple, with these issues. The assumption that doing something is better than doing nothing is bogus. Development – like colonialism and evangalism before it – quite often does more harm than good.

In the midst of my first on-the-ground development experience (working with UNHCR last year was more bureaucratic), I am encountering some of these ethical issues for the first time. There's no easy answer.