Sample writing Philip Skoczkowski
This essay attempts to discuss how the Millennium Development Goals have been progressing
development efforts globally, while looking at emerging development partners, namely China,
perpetuating alternative development practices in Cambodia and Africa. The argument is that despite
changing development paradigms into very hopeful, humanistic driven narratives- there is relatively little
evidence of this taking place. Economical and infrastructural development is proceeding, while social
capital is being left behind. China’s role in Cambodia is a perfect example of how development is being
captured by kleptocratic groups, and immense human potential is being diverted away from fulfilling
actual, human-led, and environmentally accountable development practices. Realist international relations
are disabling global powers to cooperate in meaningful development oriented ways and there is a great
disconnect between institutionalized concepts of development and real, actual development.
Engaging in research on development paradigms has never been more mindboggling, given how
globalized and yet simultaneously fragmentized the contemporary world has become. In the past forty
years humanity has come an almost unimaginable long way in terms of economical and technological
development, however what is being witnessed is its equally unimaginable distribution. It cannot be
stressed enough how progressive human achievements in technology- science have been within this short
time frame. Most developing countries made dramatic yet often underestimated progress in health,
education and basic living stands in recent decades, with many of the poorest countries posting the greatest
gains, yet patterns of achievement vary greatly, and as the 2010 United Nations Human Development
Report (HDR) confirms two central contentions of the report from the outset: “human development is
different from economic growth, and substantial achievements are possible even without fast growth”
(HDR, 2010: 49). After all, the Millennium Development Goals do not even have “increase economical
growth” goal within them. Ironically however, all the goals are depended on the economical factor, and it
seems that it has been quite successfully overshadowing truly developmental efforts. “They [the MDGs]
envelop you in a cloud of soft words and good intentions and moral comfort; they are gentle, there is nothing conflictual in them; they are kind, they offer only good things to the deprived… No wonder it is
the juggernaut of all bandwagons” (Saith, 2006: 1167). Despite the critically acclaimed vagueness of these
goals, determination in addressing them has come with great results. In 1990, an estimated 47% of people
in developing countries were living on less than $1.25 a day. By 2010, this had fallen to 22%, suggesting
the world met the MDG target on extreme poverty five years before the 2015 deadline. This is in part of
China’s dramatic progress, where in 1990 an estimated 60% of China’s population was living in extreme
poverty and by 2005 that number was just 16% and 12% in 2010 (Harris and Provost, 2013). Given such
great achievements, it is therefore one should turn to China in search of seemingly effective development
strategies, and look at what development at large can and arguably should be.
Sample writing Philip Skoczkowski