*The ideas, thoughts, and opinions expressed are not necessarily of the OAS nor of its member states. The opinions expressed are the responsibility of the authors.
1. Current development models are often based on hyper-industrialized countries. Do you think it is possible to apply to current model to all countries of the world?
No
it's not possible, because each country is heterogeneous and have
different needs, structures, culture, population, resources and the
list goes on. It may be better to group countries based on their
commonality and develop models for these groups then apply them
accordingly.
It is
not possible to apply current development models to all countries of
the world. The reason for this, is that we are already aware of the
numerous errors made by developed countries on their way to
development—a major one being the pollution of the earth's
environment. Small countries who do the same thing may find themselves
damaging future children through excess toxins in the air and water.
It is therefore imperative that alternate models of development be
constructed. Heavy earth-moving equipment, to use the African proverb,
may build a road much faster than manual labor, but it will put many
out of work who have no other skills, and training by itself does not
buy bread. The desired rate of population growth also is not
necessarily the same in developed and developing small countries.
2. When we speak of "sustainable development" we generally refer to the need to balance economic production with nature. In your opinion, what are the economic, political and ethical parameters of such a project?
Economic:
Provide meaningful employment without displacement of peoples and alienation of
lands. Such employment should lead to self employment producing marketable
products; Political: Educate people to believe that the land is their land and
they as citizens of any country have basic rights, that do not include the
buying of votes but a movement to and embracing of full participation in the
government of the country by all its people; and for this to occur, education
becomes both a beneficiary of and a requirement for full political
participation. Ethical parameters must include and awareness of the value of the
eco-system of small countries, educating the people to protect them while
benefiting from them, and providing for community inputs into planned projects
so that large outside corporations cannot come in, gobble up the land and
resources and parcel them out to their supporters while posing as
micro-enterprises. Again here, an educated populace is essential to sustainable
development, and the education must include pride in culture, and its
preservation.
3. In your opinion, is it possible to maintain current energy consumption by substituting non-renewable energy sources with renewable energy?
Yes,
but who will pay for it. The conversion of vehicles is costly. Then
too, the countries with oil resources that are in various stages of
development, like Trinidad and Tobago, Venezuela, Ecuador and Columbia
need to market their oil resources to a world that demands them. With
no demand, their economies would suffer serious setbacks.It
depends on what will be the source of this renewable energy. Will it
be solar, wind, geothermal, water or biomass or a combination? One,
however, must consider that all of these have limiting factors
impacting on them such as cloudy days, quiet days with no wind, dams
constructed for flood control, and the fact that hydroelectricity
production varies as the level in the dam drops. In addition, some
countries are landlocked and may not have large amounts of water.