The Development of "Development"

Abstract

Translated by Nancy Lutz3Approaching the end of the twentieth century, the majority of us who have had some schooling are accustomed to see the sun rise over the eastern horizon every morning. And we believe our perceptions, even though the sun has never risen over any horizon whatsoever. Our perceptions are deceived by the rotation of the earth, so that it is as though the sun rises every morning. It is not that we were never aware of this fact. Still, we are not always able to experience, control, or synthesize all the bits of knowledge we possess, including the knowledge which was passed down by Galileo Galilei over three centuries ago.The life-giving force [daya hidup] and the deceptive force [daya tipu] of the earth's rotation are as enormous as the life-giving force and the deceptive force of the words in the language we "inhabit" every day. The difference is that, unlike words, the earth's rotation is not the product of human labor. In the last few decades, the nation of Indone sia has not only felt awakened [dibangunkan] by the rising of the sun, but also by what is CALLED [di-KATA-kan] an awakening-"Pembangunan" ["Development"].4 Like the sun, "Pembangunan" appears to be inevitable.The word "Development" belongs to a cross-nation-state language.5 Together with its equivalents in various languages from other nations and traditions, "Development" can be considered one of the greatest works of mankind in this era. Like the earth's rotation which is important for life on earth, this word offers a life-giving force [daya hidup] and a work-giving force [daya kerja] to millions of human beings in this century. And like the rotation of the earth which we cannot observe clearly as long as we are on the earth, the word "Development" has an extraordinary power to deceive [daya tipu] and is rarely grasped by the consciousness of the millions of human beings in this century who live with it. Due to this miraculous word which was coined by their fellow man, human beings in various comers of the earth feel that they are seeing something real: Develop1The title of the original Indonesian essay is "Pembangunan" dan Pembangunan. The author himself has suggested 'T h e Development of 'Development'" as an appropriate English translation.-Trans. 2This essay is a revision of an earlier draft which has benefitted from criticisms and suggestions given on sep arate occasions by Alton L. Becker, Donald K. Emmerson, and Herbert Feith. I would like to express my thanks to the three of them. 3I would like to thank the author and Amrih Widodo for comments on the first draft of this translation. Nevertheless, I would also like to note that neither the author nor Amrih are in any way responsible for any errors or inadequacies in this final version.-Trans. 4This is one of the most difficult parts of the original text to translate, since a play of words is involved in In donesian: "di-KATA-kan" is both "called" and also "worded" or "languaged" and "Pembangunan" is both the act of "awakening" and "Development."-Author. 5Ivan Illich (Gen...

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