Development is a funny thing in a third world country. It is almost like watching a three legged dog run a race. It’s moving forward, certainly, but not smoothly and not without difficulty.
I work and live in a developing area of a developing country. It’s out beyond the cities booming epicenter. It’s actually past any of the ripples of energy created by that epicenter. I jokingly call it Nevernever Land because no one ever comes out here. There is no reason to come out here. It has it’s definite bright points – it’s quiet here and very VERY cheap. Most of my meals are a dollar or less. And we all know I’m a big fan of cheap food and easy living.
The picture you see is looking out the gate of my office complex. The office itself is very new. Downstairs there are several offices areas, a lounge/TV room which is usually filled with the guards that CEDAC hires 24 hours a day. They are actually just young men from the rural areas that make sure no one steals anything and the gate is locked and unlocked at the appropriate times. Upstairs there are numerous meeting rooms and several cavernous rooms that are make shift living quarters for the guards and for yours truly. I got very special treatment and have a bed instead of a lawn chair, a bathroom in my room, and a fridge and gas stove. It’s an ‘industrial’ room but it’s functional, it’s clean and it is, for the next year, home.
Back to that picture. As you can see, the road is a dirt road which is currently under water – thank you monsoon rains! But when it isn’t covered in disgusting garbage and waste water, it’s actually kind of pleasant. It separates us from the main road by just enough to keep the noise and traffic down. The main road is part of that three-legged dog I was telling you about. It has all the keys of a developing area – nice new apartments, two universities (in very nice buildings), a few open-air restaurants, and a scattering of minimarts which I use as grocery stores for lack of a better option (I’m once again thankful for my love of Ramen and Coke and for Laughing Cow cheese being available almost everywhere in the world – that I have been). But this bustling street of green houses and trucks and mopeds has a darker side. At night, ‘karaoke’ places emerge from the shadowed and shuttered gates. Two rows of young women, dressed in something like prom dresses and wearing too much makeup to cover up their obvious disdain for life, sit in uncomfortable plastic chairs and watch as the Lexus and Hummer driving clientele pull up and get out. I don’t get out much at night as it is – just easier to stay home after dark – but when I do take my bike to the local minimarts for a last-minute meal, I inevitably carry a bit of guilt back home with me. After all, the only difference between them and me is that I was blessed enough to be born somewhere else.
Development doesn’t apply to all areas of life – yes, buildings are being raised, jobs are opening up, electricity is almost constant, running water is prevalent – but developing morality, increasing education, and promoting opportunity for all genders and races seems to lag. And that missing leg of development inevitably slows down the entire race. The sex trade is not a pretty part of the development picture – but is a part of the picture and one which must be acknowledged, discussed, and changed – just as poverty, famine, disease and malnutrition are all being changed - if we ever hope to move things forward for the better. After all, the benefits of development should reach beyond the upper classes, the men, and the predominant ethnic groups or it's really no development at all.
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