the first step

The first time I started strongly questionning our development stance within the third world came sometime during a trip to South East Asia a couple years ago. We were taking a boat trip up the Mekong River from Northern Thailand to the middle of Laos. I guess we were landing in Luang Prabang. We had just escaped a week of craziness during the Water Festival, at which point my feet has been the victim to a severe gangrine-type bacterial disease. Needless to say that the two day boat "cruise" on the slow boat was somewhat well needed. Anyhow, during the trip upstream, we saw countless of forrest fires, to which the white college kids on the boat had nothing but disappoving conclusions about. What I had learned, however, was that indigenous cultures throughout the region had their own manner in dealing with soil maintenance, and although the fires seemed untamed to the onlooker, they were in fact very much regulated. This was my first account at misinformation, and what we take for granted as true knowledge in the west.

Throughout my university career in international development and economics, there have been numerous times when my common-sense pragmaticism has been left questionned with development projects that seemed irresponsible to me. Furthermore, my conception of truth has continuously been questionned by the media sources that I see as reliable. Thus, this blog journey began as I tried to find what was wrong with the current "free" and democratic system which I claim to be a part of...things will get clearer as we move along throughout the weeks.