ENERGY, a good parameter when assessing DEVELOPMENT

Among the ways to measure a country’s development, (if not the best, at least one of the better ones) is it to determine the average amount of energy that each one of its inhabitants consumes.

Anthropologist George Grant tells us: “The degree to which a society has become civilized, regardless of era, peoples, or group thereof, is measured by the amount of energy required to cover its developmental needs.  In furthering that concept, Leslie White, also an anthropologist, adds that a culture’s primary responsibility is to “provide and control energy for the benefit of all women and men in a given society.”

Biologist Howard Odum, one of the pioneers of natural energy systems, affirms that the greatest restriction in the development of a society is the lack of adequate amount of energy. Human creativity inevitably depends on the energy necessary to realize that which had been imagined.

From what these North American scientists have stated, one is able to deduce that countries that do not prioritize their energy potential for their own progress are hindering their integral development.

Energy abundant nations that may be in need of these resources for their own development, but instead elect to export it, are in fact betraying their own people while propelling the economies of the countries they serve.

This posture, to prioritize the development of foreign economies before your own, is characteristic of nations created by a foreign power, who, even after their independence, continue to exhibit permanent colonial traits. To eradicate such mentality requires an extraordinary effort of conscience.

The structural and organizational efforts required to maintain the flow of energy in a nation is the base of a permanent and integral development.  Alleged progress born of the commercialization of abundant natural resources, their inherent potential, and low cost of manual labour, are evidence of temporary development that only serve to relive dramas caused by wasted opportunities.

This ‘colonial trait’ keeps alive the thought, which with an aristocratic gesture, yields to the patron saint of only one faith: MONEY. A faith that scares away the chances for genuine development.
Spanish - English Translation by Renato Riva-Vercellotti