The first place to start talking about development would be to create a meaning for it first. Development has a very large number of uses in modern english and can be used in many different ways. For the purpose of this book, development is referring to progress in terms of technology, production, and economic or social welfare. Using this definition, development sprouted around the time of the industrial revolution. This would mean it began in western Europe and diffused alone with colniadization. Development continues to occur across the planet in every country, but the scale of this development has changed from place to place. The core world is continuing to develop, but at a much slower rate than countries in Africa, southern Asia, and South America. Countries from these places are developing much quicker because the technology is there for them to use in order to increase production, economic, and social welfare. Today, the major efforts to develop are in the periphery because of the troubling conditions, such as disease and life expectancy, that many people continue to deal with.
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Development has greatly affected how much people consume, how they live, and how wealthy they are. I would say that development affects these things more than any other element. Higher developed regions consume more, have more specialized jobs, and are typically wealthier than less developed regions. In The Blue Sweater, examples of these are very clear when Jacqueline explains the types of people which Duterimbere usually gives loans out to. The types of people who usually accept these loans are barely scraping by and obtaining only enough food to survive. Meeting people like this could really open your eyes up to the opposite conditions of what we experience here in the core. People that are engaged in the act of developing the periphery can change very easily because the people they meet can both teach them lessons and warm their hearts with their immense kindness.
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