Human Potential as Development

As I've been delving into the area of sustainable development and poverty reduction over the past couple of weeks, a few themes have emerged.

1. Development projects work best when individuals at the grassroots set out to identify and solve their own problems, not when outside agencies and individuals come in to identify and solve their problems.

2. The most meaningful forms of development projects are those that unlock the capacity of the individual at the grassroots to do exactly that -- to believe in their own potential to address their own problems, and to develop the moral capacity to do so in a just and honest way.

3. Lack of money is usually not the biggest problem. There is lots of money and international aid available. The challenge is spending it in a meaningful way, and again, it goes back to having individuals within communities identify the meaningful ways to address their social and economic problems.

Purpose in life

Mara just shared with me this quotation from the Baha'i writings. I found it very thought provoking. I wondered how our island "nation" fares on the issue of knowledge. The individuals have a strong sense of community, and I feel manifest the idea of enhancing social good more than in most places in the world. Yet there is certainly a lot of untapped potential in this regard. It also got me thinking about the idea of "looking within" in a way to find one's own special talents and gifts and using them to the max.

"The happiness and pride of a nation consist in this, that it should shine out like the sun in the high heaven of knowledge... And the honor and distinction of the individual consist in this, that he among all the world's multitudes should become a source of social good. Is any larger bounty conceivable than this, that an individual, looking within himself, should find that by the confirming grace of God he has become the cause of peace and well-being, of happiness and advantage to his fellow men? No, by the one true God, there is no greater bliss, no more complete delight."

(Abdu'l-Baha, The Secret of Divine Civilization, p. 2)