Bill Gates warned of the "digital divide" between techology "haves" and "have nots." Smithsgate explores the reality of the growing gap between the 1st and 2nd economy.
Development Gateways & The Development Divide between the 1st and 3rd World
The Haves vs the Have nots is a cliche worth exploring.
Here I use South Africa's nascent economically orientated democracy as an example which buckled under the pressures of a globally more prevalent dual economy. A situation that is becoming more ordinary globally.
Terms like "Pro-poor" development, and "Aid-for-trade'" skim the surface of the problem at hand when targeting the majority in need of aid. The problem of getting aid to the poor is exacerbated by the fact that the majority of those in key postions to distribute aid are usually representative of the "haves" and therefore out of sync with current social issues.
The vast majority of those in decision making positions are not representative of those in need of aid and are out of touch with real-world solutions. Sadly, they often, through blatant fire-beating, throw futile misguided money and academic "innovative" intellectual designs at problems that could as easily be solved by less complicated solutions.
Capitalist, industrialist-economist representatives often have personal agendas attached to managing development which almost invariably lead to corruption for personal gain or corruption from the original intended goals or result envisaged. This creates a further trickle-down effect as aid filters down from the top. 'The top -- those selected as local representatives, are often "swayed" into like-minded pro-western thinking with self-serving intent laden ambition.
The Have vs Have nots -paradigm is visible in hotspots like Johannesburg, South Africa and Sao Paulo, Brazil among many others. World-wide examples increase proportionately to population growth, urbanisation and rampant culture changes.
The net effect is moral and social decline leading to a dysfunctional and seemingly irreparable
society filled with crimes of violence often driven by desperation and a new culture of crime.
The development divide between these groups of haves and have nots is also fuelled by the discrepancies between 1st and 3rd World societies internationally.
Migration figures show an estimated 200 million people on the move globally. Although migration is an age old phenomenon, international human rights issues are now being brought into play as discrepant immigration policies play havoc with a significant number of human lives within the global community. One sixth of the global population is estimated to be influenced directly by migration. Indirectly, almost the entire planet is impacted by people on the move.
Focusing attention on the development of international migration as a solution to the developmental divide might hold the key. With greater accessibility to cheaper international transport, people could migrate en masse, a managed and schooled manner of tranplantation for social engineering. Training of new migrants could aid in assimilation and limit culture flashpoints.
However in a Free Market world which is NOT free for the freedom of movement or trade of goods, the wholesale export of people might be a long way off.
However, if the exporting of knowledge is the game at hand in development, then developing countries need to begin focusing on their marketing strategy in order to fully exploit their natural potential. Training of development instructors locally (within developing nations) for financially prosperous and socially uplifting roles within the 1st world may be a way to accomplish a balance in this trade and fulfill the two outlines above.
Within the global village, integration of knowledge and cultural development are one and the same thing
Societies more industrially, technologically and economically advanced, still fear the developing world and yet developed societies still proffer an allurement for those 'outside' of the race. Equilibrium is the globalization goal and dynamic global citizenship and a more advanced psychology towards culture change are tools to train.
