I. Thinking About Power<br > Contradictions in Development<br > Many of the readers of this little book will have been involved in some form<br > of development action here in Britain or as volunteers in the Third World.<br > Probably most of you became active in development because you were aware<br > of the obscene gap in living standards between rich a~d poor countries and<br > wanted to do something about it， wanted to contribute - albeit in a small<br > way - to Third World development. Now， having become involved， do you<br > feel you have contributed to development， either through volunteering or<br > through activities in Britain? Have you come to a view of what causes develop-<br > ment， of how it can best be achieved， and of what your own role can be?<br > Can your theory of development accommodate the following facts?<br > Volunteering: idealism frustrated<br > A volunteer teacher， keen and idealistic， ends up teaching English in an urban，<br > fee-paying secondary school in Cameroun. The fees are so high that only the<br > wall.off can send their children there. The curriculum is extremely academic<br >and unrelated to the development needs of the country. Before volunteering，<br > the volunteer taught in a large comprehensive in a poor part of London. She<br >leaves before the end of her two year term， feeling that she could make more<br >of a contribution teaching under-privileged kids in Inner London than the<br >offspring of the Camerounian upper class.<br > Another volunteer， equally keen and idealistic， ends up teaching more or less<br >everything in a Harambee school in Kenya. He immerses himself in the project，<br >feeling that this is what he came to the Third World for: the school is in a poor<br >rural area， the children are poor and， above all， both children and the commu-<br >nity in general really want education. The school is a self-help project， started<br >by the community. But later， the volunteer begins to have doubts. What is the<br >education for? He realises that it s to enable the students to leave tile village<br >and to get a salaried job in tile city. Tile education he s providing is for the<br >very few who will succeed in this. 1 t s of no relevance for tile majority who fail<br >and who will have to make their lives in the countryside. Tile curriculum con-<br >tains nothing that will help them improve rural life. Agriculture is barely men-<br >tioned， although 95% of the students will have to make their living from it.<br >4<br >