Understanding Development In Its True Sense

WHAT IS DEVELOPMENT?

For the past few weeks I have been continuously striving and struggling to find out the true meaning of this one word "Development". What development actually is? What does it look like?

Hence, I have come to this point that "Development" is subjective. Sometimes what you consider is development may not be development for me and for someone else.

Later in this regard I found a very influential article written by a German Scholar in which she has described clearly what "Development" actually is. There she has described Development on the country level under the concept of "Development Support Communication". Although, in that article the meaning of "development" was not discussed openly from every angle, as it was limited to the country level but this is what I was searching for and I found my answer to a question that was continuously crashing inside my mind from the past few weeks.

So, development in the "development support communication" means "social change". In other words; communication that is practiced to bring social change is called development. That's all it is!

Further in that article the countries around the world were categorized into three terms (Developed Countries, Developing Countries & Underdeveloped Countries).

By knowing their GDP, HDI & GNI we can know that either this country falls in the category of developed countries or underdeveloped countries. For example if a country has access to the internet and technology, they have high standards of living, education and hospitals are good and the GDP is high then obviously that country is a developed country. Countries like the USA and Scandinavian countries like Norway, Sweden and Denmark etc. are the best examples of Developed countries. On the other hand developing countries are countries with less GDP, HDI & GNI than the Developed countries. These countries have hospitals and educational institutions but are not in perfect form. These countries are trying to improve their infrastructure and economy. Asian countries like China, India, Brazil, Malaysia and Mexico are the best examples of developing countries. The category known as "underdeveloped" countries are the countries which are least developed. They have the lowest standards of living. Their social structure is not fully developed, they have the worst economic system. African countries like; Liberia, Nigeria, Gambia, Sudan and Uganda are the best examples of underdeveloped countries.

I gained a lot of information after reading that article but it did not satisfy my thoughts and one more question hit my mind with force. The question was “How can a country become a developed country? What's the procedure and what are the key things that can transform a country into a "Developed country?"

Although, after thinking constantly for hours and hours I developed my own point of view regarding "how a country can become a developed country".

I think that, when Power and Knowledge works together in a country then that country can transform into a Developed country. Here, I would like to mention an interview of a Politician that I watched in this regard. That politician was illiterate yet he became the Finance Minister of the country and a considerable improvement was seen in the economy during his reign when he was Finance Minister for that country. So, when the reporter asked him to tell us how you made it possible, how come a politician who is totally uneducated can bring so much improvement in the economy of our country? He blushed with a slight smile and said; in the first four months, I was very worried about how to improve it, but I had no idea. Then suddenly an idea came to my mind that why not hire some professors from the best universities of the country who have excellent knowledge about this field and are PHD Scholars. I left the same month and visited about eight universities and hired two or three professors from each university. I gathered around 22 professors and formed a cabinet of them. These were the professors who were holding PHD's in Economics and BBA. We used to hold daily meetings in which the same discussion took place every day on how to improve the economy. We used to see things from every angle, and discuss new ideas regarding economic improvement and that is the only reason you can see a considerable improvement in the country's economy.

After watching his interview I felt that my thoughts are supported by whatever he has mentioned in his interview. This is how power and knowledge can work together in a country to transform that country from underdeveloped into a developed country.

From this interview I learned one more thing that it is not the problem that our ministers are less educated or uneducated that's why our country is going through political and economic crisis. The problem is that they don't have ideas, they think that if I am a minister, then everything is my responsibility and I will take care of everything, while this is not the case at all.

How good it would be if our health minister hires some doctors in his field who are well versed in human diseases and ask them to suggest what we can do to protect the people of the country from various diseases. How good it would be if our finance minister also hires expert professors of economics and consult them on what can be done to improve the country's economy. But unfortunately, our leaders are not utilizing their power to the fullest. The day they understand what power actually is and how it can work together with knowledge/wisdom will be the beginning of true development.

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UNDERSTANDING DEVELOPMENT

BY: SYED AZAM ALI SHAH