Culture Caught in the Crossfires of ‘Development’

Tuesday, February 7, 2017
by Christina Pope

Ali Anwar, Daniel Dorsk, Maggie (Muzhi) Chang, Hailey Briggs
By: Ali Anwar, Daniel Dorsk, Maggie (Muzhi) Chang, Hailey Briggs

Culture is a mold that connects the beliefs, traditions, and values that govern society. People become accustomed to these norms as a way of life. Once one is taken away from this culture, challenges erupt as livelihood is threatened. The Nicobar Islands is no exception to the effects of a threatened culture. A remote island completely isolated from the modern world. A world where ancient traditions are still of common practice, where livelihood is highly dependent on the resources of the ecosystem, and where culture is the very foundation of society. An inspiring documentary, Aftermath—The Second Flood (2014) features scientist Simron Singh and journalist Denis Giles and their travels to the Nicobar Islands before and after the devastating 2004 tsunami. The tsunami measured at 20 meters waves killing 2000 people, destroying the homes of many, and leading to a new wave of non-governmental organizations that created more problems than solutions.

Simron Singh is a Human Ecologist. His research involves the studies of material and energy flows in the economy with particular interest to the sub-national scale and small islands. He has received significant recognition for his work in the Nicobar Islands by media and the development community.

Denis Giles is a journalist, activist, and the editor of the Andaman Chronicle. He works as a spokesperson for the Jarawa tribe of the Andaman Islands.

Simron Singh and Denis Giles travelled to the Nicobar Islands before the events of the tsunami. They experienced the unique way of life of the Nicobarese people being introduced to ancient festivals, different living conditions, and overall, life outside of the modern world. In 2004, the Nicobar Islands was struck by a tsunami destroying the islands completely. Shortly after the events of the tsunami Simron Singh was informed that hundreds of NGOs came to the Nicobar Islands to provide aid. These NGOs provided an overwhelming amount of aid relief that failed to re-establish the livelihood and the way of life for the Nicobarese people. This created questions to whether the NGO’s goal was to restore the livelihoods of the Nicobarese people or to use the victims of the disaster to reproduce themselves. Slowly, a new generation of young Nicobarese emerged and spoke in concern of gaining back their culture, pride, and so, were self-determined to create their own NGO and looked for support from people around the world to restore their island.

Nicobar Islands

Aftermath - the Second Flood presents a powerful reminder of the importance of understanding culture and context in practicing development, particularly while disbursing disaster aid. The most striking example of context disconnect is presented when one Nicobarese man describes how relief workers gave them blankets when the average high of Port Blair, the Capital of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands at the end of December is above 30oC with lows around 20oC (Accuweather, 2016). Clearly blankets are not of use in this context. The Nicobarese people asked for tools to restore their way of life (i.e. carpentry tools to rebuild houses), however they received everything expect what they asked for. The government gave them money as compensation, despite the fact that the Nicobarese lived a life without every using currency. The introduction of money also brought in a consumerist mindset, the Nicobarese began wanting cell phones, motorbikes, Coca-Cola and other items they did not previously desire. Many people interviewed in the film also complained that after being given money, many people became selfish and forgot how to work hard. Ultimately, the damage to their culture from the introduced consumerist mindset became a hindrance to the Nicobarese’ ability to achieve development for themselves

The film presented the Nicobarese point of view, with first hand accounts from the natives and candid footage of them in their day-to-day lives. One shortcoming is that it did not touch upon the point of view of Nicobarese women and so it lacked representation. In general the documentary featured mostly men, with a few exceptions when following the events that occurred in Europe. While mass culture: common ideas developed from the same media exposure (The Free Dictionary, 2017) had a bit of a negative connotation in class, the film demonstrated the ability of the media to also be a form of empowerment for people. The local Nicobarese paper written mostly by the locals for the locals was important in having their voices heard.

The documentary brings to light the question of “who actually needs development”? The Nicobarese were quite happy before the tsunami, living without money, and many material things like cell phones. When moved away from their island, they ended up going back to continue their way of life pre-tsunami.

Costa Rica

Historically the importance of culture has been largely ignored in the context of development. The dominant development theory for the 20th century, modernization theory, gives no value to traditional cultures, and instead puts emphasis on all cultures transitioning to western culture. Although in more recent years, development actors have begun to value different cultures more seriously, the idea that all cultures need to transition to a similar value system as western culture is still highly prevalent and causes major problems in the development of many countries. Far too often development is thought about in terms of GDP growth and is far too focused on the economic side of things. Although a high GDP is generally a good indicator, development should instead focus primarily on providing equality, happiness, freedom, and sustainable living strategies in terms of agriculture and the environment which do not necessarily require a large economy. For example, Costa Rica currently ranks as the 14th happiest country in the world, but only has the 79th highest GDP per capita (World happiness index, 2016; International monetary fund, 2016).

The anthropological view of culture describes it as including knowledge, art, belief, morals law, and customs. Culture can also refer to mass culture, as previously mentioned as well as popular culture-an accumulation of products consumed by non-elites Culture usually has practices and ideas that allow its people to survive in their environment. Therefore when carrying out development practices it is imperative that culture is respected and upheld as the ideas for how to best live are already present. Different cultures can learn sustainable development practices from us, but we must learn from them as well for successful development to occur.

At first glance the aid and assistance provided by non-governmental organizations to countries in a time of disaster may seem completely beneficial and lacking of any consequences, but as demonstrated through class discussion, this topic is more complex. The issue presented on this topic, as seen in Aftermath - The Second Flood, was that the aid given in attempt to help the people of the Nicobar Islands had arguably caused more damage than it did good, by altering and westernizing the island’s rich culture. This issue may occur as a result of the demand for visible short-term results when the most beneficial assistance for the island involves more long-term goals, where research and local opinions are required. To conclude, relief provided by NGOs, and development as a whole may cause considerable transformation and devastation to an area by not considering its culture.


References:

Accuweather. (2016). “Port Blair, India Local Weather”. Retrieved from Accuweather.

[Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Photograph] Retrieved from Planet Den.

Arash T. Riahi, Raphael & Barth, Raphael. (2014). Aftermath-The Second Flood. Austria: Golden Girls Filmprodukion

[Costa Rica, Photograph]. Retrieved from Air Transat

Giles, Denis. DENIS GILES. India Today In. Retrieved from India Today

Hrala, J. (2016, March 17). The World Happiness Index 2016 Just Ranked the Happiest Countries on Earth. Retrieved from Science Alert

Nayak, P. K. (2017). “Culture and Development” [Powerpoint Slides]. Retrieved from http://learn.uwaterloo.ca

School of Environment, Enterprise and Development (SEED). (2014). Researcher's documentary on disaster and development premiers in Vienna. University of Waterloo: SEED. Retrieved from SEED.

Singh, Simron. SIMRON SINGH University of Waterloo: SEED. Retrieved from SEED.

The Free Dictionary. (2017). “Mass Culture”. Retrieved From http://www.thefreedictionary.com/ mass+culture