Progress?

This blog exists to inspire change--to become more in harmony with nature in order to improve the quality of life for this and future generations.

"But the day soon came when the mountains began to leave them. It started with roads. Engineers in sola topis arrived with their sinister instruments and charted their designs on reams of paper. These were to be modern roads, they promised, roads that would hum with the swift passage of modern traffic. Roads, wide and heavy-duty, to replace scenic mountain paths too narrow for the broad vision of nation-builders and World Bank officials.

…Progress was slow at first, so slow that Mr. Kohlah and all the inhabitants of the hills harboured an irrational hope: the work would never be completed, their little haven would remain unscathed... But the road continued to inch upwards, swallowing everything in its path. The sides of their beautiful hills were becoming gashed and scarred...

Then the promised rewards began rolling up the road into the mountains. Lorries big as houses transported goods from the cities and fouled the air with their exhaust. Service stations and eating places sprouted along the routes to provide for the machines and their men. And developers began to build luxury hotels."

Rohinton Mistry, A Fine Balance (1995), selections from pp. 259-61