What is the typical condition of the poor in developing countries? Their work opportunities are so limited that they cannot work their way out of their situation. They are under-employed or totally unemployed. When they do find occasional work, their productivity is extremely low. Some of them have land, but often too little land. Many have no land and no prospect of ever getting any. There is no hope for them in the rural areas, and so they drift into the big cities. But there is no work for them in big cities either - and of course, no housing. All the same, they flock into the cities because their chances of finding some work appear to be greater than in the villages, where such chances are nil. Rural unemployment then produces mass migration into the cities. Rural unemployment becomes urban unemployment.

The problem can be stated quite simply: what can be done to promote economic growth in the small towns and villages which still contain about eighty to ninety per cent of the population? The primary need is work, places, literally millions of workplaces. No one, of course, would suggest that output per worker must be maximised to maximise work opportunities for the unemployed and the under-employed. The poor man's greatest need is the chance to work. Even poorly paid and relatively unproductive work is better than no work at all. It is therefore important that everybody should produce something, rather than a few people should each produce a great deal. And in most developing countries, this can only be achieved by using an appropriate technology.

  When man evolved a conscience, his basic relationship with the other animals began to change. Until then, they were broadly divided into those which ate him when they got the chance, those which he ate when he got the chance and a third group which completed with him for food, or was otherwise a nuisance to him in the business of keeping alive.

  In the primitive situation, man was, therefore, basically against Nature but, as the battle was progressively won, conscience crept in: the awareness of responsibility, and a failure to meet it, produced feelings of guilt. Those who live in cities and need no longer do battle against Nature are nowadays most actively for Nature.

At this time, something like a thousand kinds of animals (vertebrate animals) can be said to be in danger of extinction. A few of them have been reduced to this precarious position by extensive killing but the majority are disappearing only as fast as the particular kind of country they need for existence is itself disappearing: and all this is at the hands of man, as often as not by mistake.

There are three species of turtles whose future survival is manaced by the demand for turtle soup, which would hardly justify the extermination of a giant reptile whose family has existed for 200 million years. Leopards are in jeopardy because of the fashion for their skins. As they get rare, the prices rise and as leopard skin coats become more expensive, the demand increases. No species can long survive the price of #60,000 which a half-grown baby leopard now carries on its skin. And crocodiles, the longest surviving reptiles, are now dwindling alarmingly as a result of the fashion in crocodile skin for ladies ‘handbags and men’s shoes.

  The human population explosion spreads mankind across the land surfaces of the earth at an alarming rate. There will be twice as many of us before most of us are dead. Does this mean no room for wild animals? Of course not. With ingenuity and forethought, a place can be kept for them. To destroy their habitat is as unnecessary as it would be to pull down a great cathedral in order to grow potatoes on the site. A campaign to save what remains is the concern of a new kind of Noah’s Ark- the World Wildlife Fund. It does not believe that all is lost.

  In many places in the world today, the poor are getting poorer while the rich are getting richer, and the programmes of development planning and foreign aid appear to be unable to reverse this trend. Nearly all the developing countries have a modern sector, where the patterns of living and working are similar to those in developed countries. But they also have a non-modern sector, where the pattern of living and working are not only unsatisfactory, but in many cases is even getting worse.

  What is the typical condition of the poor in developing countries? Their work opportunities are so limited that they cannot find occasional workout of their situation. They are under-employed, or totally unemployed. When they do find occasional work their productivity is extremely low. Some of them have land, but often too little land. Many have no land, and no prospect of ever getting any. There is no hope for them in the rural areas, and so they drift into the big cities. But there is no work for them in the big cities either – and of course no housing. All the same, they flock into the cities because their chances of finding work appear to be greater there than in the villages – where chances are nil. Rural unemployment, then, produces mass migration into the cities. Rural unemployment becomes urban unemployment.

  The problem can be stated quite simply: what can be done to promote economic growth in the small towns and villages which still contain about eighty to ninety per cent of the population? The primary need is work places, literally millions of work places. No one, of course, would suggest that output per worker is unimportant. Bu t the primary aim cannot be to maximize output per worker, it must be to maximize wok opportunities for the unemployed and the under-employed. The poor man’s greatest need is the chance to work. Even poorly paid and relatively unproductive work is better than no work at all. It is therefore more important that everybody should produce something, than that a few should each produce a great deal. And in most developing countries, this can only be achieved by using an appropriate intermediate technology.