Progress and Tradition (English) Experience in Indigenous Community in Bluefields
The other day, I went to the caribbean side of Nicaragua to observe an indigenous community called "Cayo Rama" :http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cayo_Rama
This is an indigenous island and registered as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.
I interviewed the community leader of this island.
What I thought from this interview is "Progress and Tradition", as is always discussed and argued in the world of development.
This small island is said to be one of the most poor communities in the country.
They are "poor".
But as one can observe from the picture above, they are surrounded by beautiful nature and natural resource.
In the island, there were lots of pigs and chickens to consume.
Because it rains a lot there, agricultural products easily grow up.
In the sea around the island, they can fish. (Their main income comes from fishery.)
But at the same time, they are in need of public service such as electricity, public health such as vaccination, hospital and community health center, school system and clean water.
Recently, Nicaraguan government decided to construct a canal to connect the Pacific ocean and Caribbean sea: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicaragua_Canal
The problem is that the canal might destruct the nature and ecosystem of the indigenous area, such as this island Cayo Rama.
Since their main industry is fishery, the change of ecosystem could be critical for their life.
But at the same time, the economic benefit brought by the canal could ameliorate their life too.
The group leader said "We want to maintain our traditional lifestyle and culture, but at the same time, we want to develop our community."
Sometimes, when we treat this kind of problem, we fall into the trap of "Yes or No" generalization , or simplification.
This includes arguments such as "Whether we should impose westernized system and values on indigenous community or not", "Whether economic development destructs local culture or not" or "Whether our development work is our self complacent or not."
But when I actually entered this community and talk to them, I realize that the problem is always "case by case."
Sometimes, they need economic development to overcome serious problems that they have even at the cost of their traditional life.
Sometimes, they want to preserve their natural lifestyle no seeking for economic development.
And sometimes, they can find out a way to achieve both modernization and the preservation of traditional lifestyle.
Applying general theory could be misleading because every country, community and region have their own characteristics and opinions that they want to value.
More complicatedly, even in one community, there are different opinions of different people.
There are people in favor of traditional lifestyle and there are people who want to develop their living standard.
Therefore, when we think about this theme, it is important to think about each case respectively. We cannot apply an armchair theory to every case. Actual work on site gives me a lot of new perspectives and ideas.
Both aspiration for progress and respect for tradition are the nature of human beings.
We do not have to choose only one of them.
How to balance them so that we can be satisfied from that choice is important.
