DEVELOPMENT WITHINTHE CONTEXT OF HISTORY

Real development cannot be measured in term of the conventional indicators of national growth such as gross national product and per capita income but in terms of real income distribution and the disposition of surplus, or more specifically, in terms of higher living standards, social security, and access to the best in education and culture for all men – in short, a more human and humane society for all.

In our case as in the case of all the Third World countries, development must mean a leap from a condition of backwardness or what in more contemporary and precise term is called underdevelopment. Therefore, it is imperative that we understand the phenomenon of underdevelopment. The prevailing notion is that the backwardness of nation of the Third World is merely a stage in an evolutionary spiral which will eventually allow them to attain the status of developed nations. This is an unhistorical and therefore unrealistic view, for it assumes that these countries are developing when, actually, they are under developing.

A historical approach

The phenomenon of underdevelopment in the Third World cannot be understood unless it is viewed as a historical product; it is the obverse of the history of the advanced countries. Where we have development on one side, we see underdevelopment on the other. For these are two poverty of the Third World has resulted in the wealth of the advanced nation has been made possible by the impoverishment of the backward nations.