Abstract

The message of this courageous classic book is that the benefits of development, so long promised over the past sixty years, have not come about for most people. Nor are they going to. State-driven and market-led development models have both failed. Many countries, and their cities in particular, are collapsing into 'ungovernable chaotic entities' under the control of warlords and mafias. Oswaldo de Rivero argues that the 'wealth of nations' agenda must be replaced by a 'survival of nations' agenda. In order to prevent increasing human misery and political disorder, many countries must abandon dreams of development and adopt instead a policy of national survival based on providing basic water, food and energy, and stabilizing their populations. This much-anticipated new edition features both updated statistics and fresh material, including an essential new argument that the present global crisis is not simply economic but a much more profound crisis of 'the California Model': a crisis of our way of life and of our unsustainable global urban civilization.
'Bristling with new ideas, the author provides us with an intelligent way into understanding better the world's present disorders.' Le Monde Diplomatique 'Highly readable, The Development Myth is a useful tool for understanding the enormous problems for survival that will have to be faced by the poverty-stricken, exploding urban populations of the wrongly called "developing countries".' Javier Perez de Cuellar, United Nations 'This provocative and well-written book may stimulate discussion and promote sound survival and development policies.' The Choice

Oswaldo de Rivero is a Diplomat, Ambassador (retired) with the Foreign Service of Peru. He has served in London, Moscow, Geneva and New York; as Peru's Permanent Representative to the World Trade Organization (WTO), to the United Nations Offices in Geneva and New York and on the United Nations Security Council. He graduated from the Peruvian Diplomatic Academy and carried out Postgraduate studies at the Graduate Institute for International Studies, Geneva. He is the author of: "International Development Law and New International Economic Order"; El Mito del Desarrollo; Fondo de Cultura Económica, México, published in English as 'The Myth of Development' by Zedbooks, London, United Kingdom, has been translated into French, Portuguese, Arabic, Japanese and Turkish. Has written numerous essays and articles in Le Monde Diplomatique, The UNESCO Courier, as well as the written press in Geneva and Latin America.