Community Development Studies in Njombe

"It's comin' right for us" IST is here and we're chilling in Njombe. We had fierce but enlightening debates about how to approach secondary projects and work within our communities here in the Southern Highlands of TZ. During the course of the session on grant writing I had some odd epiphanies and heretical thoughts.

So here we are in Africa me an a whole slew of other PCVs and we're working directly or indirectly on lending a hand to the educational, economical, and social development of the peoples here. I must emphasize that we all pretty much share a desire to work toward sustainability and have community change come from within rather than from a know-nothing foreigner. This is why we generally approach our projects as mere facilitators who can help spark the desire to find out what sorts of activities will help a given community raise it's standard of living (warning, heavy philosophical argument approaching).

Of course, first it is critical to identify and even agree on what changes in people's lives actually lead to a "higher" quality of living. For example is it a car, enough food, education, a large family, the right to have several wives and children in and out of wed-lock? These are fundamental questions that anyone anywhere in the world should tackle before beginning the discussion on development.

In my eyes, having the necessities such as food, shelter, and at least bit of a community are sufficient underpinnings for a perfectly happy life--that is unless you've seen how the "other half" (in this case 10%) lives. The thing about it is ignorance really may be bliss. Although I advocate an active, questioning mentality, I have gleaned certain truths from various faiths and spiritual practices that seem to have a much more significant effect on overall happiness than material things. HOWEVER, from a conversation and from the grit on every TZian relationship I've heard about the measure of "good life" among young people in Tanzania is material wealth. Of course the conversations I've had lean to my vocalizing a skeptical nature and reviewing what truly makes for a good life. Is it spiritual happiness or is it the number of offspring you sire/bear? Indeed, Tanzanians are very developed in terms of participation in organized religion and through association, commercial spirituality. Yet most see their lives rife with want. It is neither surprising nor unreasonable for them to feel this way. A Radiolab program on public radio in the last 6 months described a study where three groups of chimpanzees were given different environments (cages) to interact with. On the low end were plain wire cages and chimps who were more isolated from each other. In the middle, more chimps shared a much more safi cage with plant materials to forage for, toys to engage them etc. Finally there was a real Ritzy cage where the chimps could spend time in large groups and they had even more natural and artificial materials to interact with. The study found that the chimps in the meso-developed cage had 30-40% "bushier neurons" compared to chimps on the low end of accommodation. That is to say that the brain cells of the middle-class chimps were highly networked, communicating about and responding to a varied environment. The chimps were more engaged in their surroundings and according to Jad, "more alive." This has raised an interesting question in my mind. First off, were the chimps in the low or middle end accommodations made aware of their brethren enjoying or loathing significantly different circumstances? If they weren't, what would be the effect of adding this component to the experiment? I should mention that the study also found almost no difference in the dendritic arbors of middle-class chimps and upper-class ones. That is, the study suggested that there was a threshold level of material wealth that made the chimps more bright-eyed and "bushy-brained." Beyond that threshold, chimps' brains showed no statistical difference.

As I am increasingly, convinced of my own "need" for many material goods in order to live a happy, productive life. I can understand what the common human tendency and desire leads us to do. We acquire more things, and we feel better for it...up to a point. So where is that point, and if you see other human beings enjoying a much higher material standard, does it actually change the bushiness of your dendritic arbors? If watching people with much more material wealth enjoy what they have makes you actually less content with what you have may it be beyond the happiness threshold or not, then what are we to do as creatures attempting to manage our resources and live "sustainable lives?

Meanwhile, I am living happily in Tanzania, learning cultural nuances and a new method of communication. I do care deeply for the people I've come to know on a personal level, and their welfare has become intertwined with my own. On an emotional level, I am bouncing back and forth between two worlds, that of the haves and have-nots. But a large percentage of the have-nots in my area are quite well fed and clothed by international standards. They are also living beside the owners of land rovers and chai estate proprietors, not to mention teachers who dress in their Sunday best everyday of the week. I am much poorly attired in fact. Nearly every Tanzanian man I've met who is above the age of 25 has a much spiffier cell phone though they haven't a clue how to use it.

The point I'm trying to make is development is happening in Tanzania. And it's happening fast! There was something like 8% economic growth in the last period and it shows no signs of slowing (barring a global recession). But, as a biologist I wonder about the future of humanity on the blue planet. Is development the answer to our resource crunch? Is it good management to bring up the (material) living standard of everyone in the world? According to my emotional-ethical brain it is. But, if we are concerned about the future generations of humankind, then where is our management strategy for the development of Africa? Have I missed the train of big-wigs who purposely engineer policy to slow the development of a people in order to buffer gaia from the ills of man? Slow it to a near standstill...for centuries. That's how it feels living in Africa, except that now the stoppers are coming out and the maji is rolling. Don't misunderstand, I am not a proponent of a colonial-era, parental attitude toward any other culture, but I am interested in the biological-ecological factors that humankind has significant impact on. I also would like us to make it a considerable while longer as a living species. Why? Well, I'm an altruist stupid!

Please, you must comment on this and tell me what your views on this discussion are.