Introduction

The two volumes of this collection of papers - technical reports and studies - represent twentyfive years of my activities in the framework of international cooperation for development. Many other writings from this period - administrative documents or those related to internal procedures and problems either of the organization I worked with or the country's government I worked for - were naturally left aside. I eliminated as well from the collection some writings which do not add anything important to the impression the documents published here may give to the reader about international assistance in the second half of the twentieth century.

I was particularly keen to make available these documents to the public because they complement in a useful way the autobiography I am now writing. In this autobiography, I try to show what were the personal ideals and intentions of someone who sincerely committed himself to contribute to the development of the countries where he worked; thus, the papers figuring in this collection may permit the interested reader to relate various aspects of one or the other of the activities described to the corresponding writings as witnesses of the work carried out in the field. This is essential in order to make it understandable why, after all those years passed in Africa or Asia, a sort of bitter feeling of dissatisfaction pervades my wonderful memories of the people and their lands where I lived, because those ideals and intentions which I wanted enthusiastically pursue could not be realized. The reasons of this feeling of dissatisfaction were, of course, manifold:

- Civilizational differences, which convinced me that our methods and procedures designed to transplant the Western way of development in areas of different cultural backgrounds, cannot succeed at all;

- The sometimes decisive difficulties of inter-cultural communication or, simply, of understanding each other.

- The terrible difficulties anywhere in the world to change centuries-old mentalities, existential patterns and ways of dealing with problems related to improving conditions of life;

- Those forgotten, but basic facts of everyday reality such as climate, availability of water and other natural givens;

- The incredible bureaucratic hindrances on both sides - the management of international cooperation as much as the local, governmental administration; and

- The diverging interests of those implicated in the field of cooperation for development, including some middle-level decision makers, local or foreign.

As mentioned before, these twenty-five years of unforgettable experiences completely changed my world view, though in many respects they only reinforced in me hitherto hidden but truly fundamental convictions, inherited from the past. I realized how important are those feelings of identity which determine people's personality through cultural and civilizational influences, or how decisive are inherited social structures and not verbally formulated affiliations between human groups and individuals. A good example for the understanding of a particular 'lifeworld' is that having lived or traveled in Arab and Muslim lands during years, enabled me only to comprehend and enjoy Arabic music - which reflect the languishing rhythms of desert life.

I have also learned enormously in the course of the work, to which the papers published here are witnesses, at the professional level. It is one thing to learn economics from the best textbooks available in the Western world, or to carry out, for example, market research or promotional campaigns in developed economies, but it is a completely different thing to work in a developmental context. After some experience, one gets to the point at which one starts to doubt even some basic truth, spelled out as such, in economic teaching or activity in circumstances we are accustomed to. Thus, by natural inclination I was never much interested in mathematical aspects of economic theory (without denying their usefulness for some purposes). I was, therefore, not surprised when in Ghana, to give an example, I had to finance from my program's funds, at the Government's request, a forecasting exercise carried out by the World Bank, regarding the evolution in the near future of the relations between the local currency and the mighty dollar. The study was, needless to say, well done, taking into account three, well defined scenarios. However, it became clear after only six months having been passed, that the depreciation of the local currency in respect of the dollar surpassed by far all previsions, well beyond the estimates given in the study.

It is evident that the technical papers collected in these volumes do not constitute an easily readable material for those who did not work in the context of international technical assistance, and even much less for the general public. I am very much aware of this fact and all the more thankful to Flórián Farkas, who is the Editor of MIKES INTERNATIONAL, for his readiness to publish this collection of documents among those impressive volumes of philosophy and literature which generally make up the list of the books brought out by MIKES INTERNATIONAL.