New book proposes fresh look at development
With all the talk about the power of television, computers, and the internet you’d think that the printed word would be a thing of the past. Yet more Belizeans than ever are publishing books. While recent fare has run the gamut from poetry to self help, the latest effort is a serious look at the process of national development. It’s called “The Power of Greed” and for Doctor Mike Rosberg, the reason why many well intentioned projects fail, is that they are working against human nature.
Dr. Michael Rosberg, Author
?It?s a book about development and I use Belize as the case study. And when I talk about greed I?m talking about what somebody?a friend of mine defined as unbridle self-interest, so it?s an attempt to get what you can for yourself without a concern for what that might be doing to somebody else. This is a book that says why would there be behaviours like this, and if they are behaviours like this, how can you go about doing development? It?s a book that looks at doing development in a different way.?
Stewart Krohn
?Are you saying to promote development do you harness that innate greed or do you somehow transform that greed??
Dr. Michael Rosberg
?We have been trying to transform that greed. I?m suggesting that we harness it, that?s exactly right. We have been trying to raise the consciousness of other people, which is to say trying change the minds of grown ups. Perhaps not an acceptable practise, we?ve been rushing out and passing judgement on the activity of other people and suggesting that they are backsliders who are lazy or greedy, too impatient for success, and trying to tell them the way they ought to be, trying to suggest to them the more we get together the happier we?ll be. That may be true, but for some reason it doesn?t work and the book looks at why doesn?t it work and then suggest, if that?s the case, how do you move forward and how do you get people to work together. And it suggests why not start with what motivates people because after all greed is a powerful motivator. People will do a lot to get something for themselves.?
Stewart Krohn
?Tell me who should read this book??
Dr. Michael Rosberg
?Every Belizean should read it who would like to read it, but the people who I think will read it are the people who are involve in the government departments, that are involved in community work whether it?s the social welfare work or the community development work. It?s people in the banks who are doing the development work and the credit unions, it?s people who belong to the N.G.O.?s, the non-governmental organisations and also who belong to the community based organisations, the leadership group especially. If they are beginning to suspect that trying to convince other people to change their ways is not paying off and they are looking for a new way to approach development, then this might be the book they might want to look at; at least to get some new ideas.?
The public is welcomed to the book’s launching tonight at seven-thirty at the Queen’s Room of the Princess Hotel. Published by the University of Alberta Press, “The Power of Greed is distributed by Cubola Productions, which is sponsoring tonight’s event along with SPEAR and Galen University.
