A nation is like a person, a person with limited resources but unlimited wants and needs. To fulfill the needs and create a favorable environment for better educational, health and economic conditions, it is necessary that the third world countries, like Nepal, learn from the first world countries and change their societies culturally, politically and demographically.
Societies in third world are stagnant and unchanging; theie social values are spiritual, not grounded in individual self-betterment. Take health as an example; if someone becomes sick in a rural part of Nepal; people believe that it is because of some spiritual force; not because of like viruses and bacteria. These people do not take modern medicines, people do not go to see a health practitioner; they rather go to traditional practitioners and spiritual healers. This is not the case only in Nepal, many of these traditional societies in South Asia believe in the improvement of a situation based on the lessons they get from their grandparents and parents and it is similar in many underdeveloped countries in Africa. I am not saying that older people always have false ideas, but as a bitter truth these people are not educated enough to teach the need as required in this modern world. They lack technological innovation; they simply fear of taking risks. They lack modes of transportation to observe the outer world; they are stuck in a certain periphery. Many people in these societies lack basic knowledge about what is going on around the world, simply because they do not have any means of communication; no radios, no televisions and no newspapers. Even if there were newspapers, they could not read because more than half of the people in these regions can not simply read, and those who can read do not believe in what is on the news because they have been rooted in spiritual beliefs.
Progress starts at one point and moves further, either positively or negatively depending on the political systems and their belief of capitalism, socialism or somewhere in between. Looking at the history of development of the western countries, it is apparent that capitalism was the engine of the development. It is in no way an abrupt result that the European countries five hundred years ago started getting higher yields per acre of crops, got advancement in their weaponry and achieved higher productivity. In fact, these countries, transformed their societies gradually. The governments acknowledged that the market economy would bring people together for a healthy competition; a competition based on the supply and demand. The final results were increased desire, interest and motivation for innovation.
Innovation and technological growth became self sustaining in Europe because they were embedded in the capitalist system. These actors competed among each other securing their share in the market and they struggled to increase their profit. As for example, when steam engine was first invented in Europe, because of the desire for innovation, the Europeans did not simply play with this engine. They tried it in prime movers, locomotives, steam ships, traction engines and road vehicles finally leading to Industrial Revolution. The industrial revolution changed the then economy based on manual labor into an economy based on manufacture and machinery. This concept spread to the Western Europe from Britain and to the North America. But, most of the Middle Eastern, Asian and African countries became reluctant to adopt this invention into their practices and the results are now shown to be into backwardness. Their gross domestic product did not rise because they did not apply these new techniques to increase their productivity. Look at the agricultural practices in developing countries: either manual labor or the animal labor. Some people are not even aware that there exists some sort of machine to plough their fields. They do not know what a hybrid crop is; they do not know how a crop fertilizer would look like other than animal manure.
So the serious problem here is the lack of knowledge. Majority of the people in the third world are living in a cave, a cave without education, without freedom of association, speech and religion, a cave without democracy. These societies are not given a chance for a commitment to science, to free inquiry, to technology, to the spirit of enterprise and competition, to democracy and the rule of law. Many countries are still captive in their traditional societies, a few are preparing for takeoff while some are stranded in the middle, being unable to reach the destination, with a fear that their funding simply can not support them. I agree with the modernists that the third world countries can still achieve the economic growth that western world did century ago. However, they need moral, physical and economic support of the developed countries. These countries should break away from tradition and learn from the rich countries. The developed countries on the other hand should diffuse their technology and innovation to the now developing countries. This does not mean that the developed countries can use the third world as a place for disposing obsolete technology. A sense of responsibility and morality should be tied together with helping hands offered for educational, health, social and overall economic development.
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