Racing for development

On a motorbike, the road was bumby at some areas while I traveled south of the Central River Region, if anything, it was another reminder that the economic theories advanced by the American Economist Rostow could be right when he laid down the five stages that countries have to go through before they can call themselves developed nations.

Correct me, if I'm wrong but judging by what Rostow says, I suspect that we are just taking off on the race to the last stage of development - the age of mass consumption, an era when advanced technologies are developed. On the otherhand, if you go by this assumption, one might not be wrong if you say that we have officially arrived. Of course, for those of us in The Gambia, we have seen the important role played by Information Technology in the socio-economic development of the West African nation. Nurses in rural Gambia are using digital cameras to snap photos of their patients and send it by email to specialist doctors abroad. We are also witnessing what some people call a boom in the mobile industry, especially now that a new GSM company, QCell is promising to bring innovative ICT packages in The Gambia. And yet, Rostow insists that this is the last stage of development, what about the transport industry and the movement of people from the rural areas to the urban centres, these issues were all stated by the economist. So do we have to rely heavily on theories what ever they are?

Over to you....