DO WE ONLY KNOW WHAT DEVELOPMENT IS? SAVONS NOUS SEULEMENT CE QU’EST LE DÉVELOPPEMENT ?
English version For many Gabonese, the handful of buildings rising at La Baie des Rois, Cité Émeraude and elsewhere are a sign that the country is developing. Unfortunately, they are mistaken. Development is something else entirely. Dear readers, showcase buildings mostly measure how much capital is concentrated in a few hands, and they represent only a handful of projects, not an improvement in the living conditions of the majority. A glass tower tells us that an investor found money and a plot of land. It says nothing about the mother waiting for water to come out of the tap, the pupil squeezed three to a bench, or the sick person going from pharmacy to pharmacy. Mistaking concrete for progress is like gazing into a shop window at overpriced jewellery you will never be able to afford. Development is measured by what people are able to do with their lives, not by the height of buildings. The economist Amartya Sen defines it as the expansion of real freedoms: the freedom to get me...
