ABSTRACT
Rene Maheu, the Director-General of UNESCO defines an under-developed community as one not governed by science and technology. ‘In other words, that a country is developed to the degree that its science and technology have ceased to be a magic potion imported from abroad and have become a living, integrated part of its culture.’ 1 This is basically what development is all about, together with a social system that ensures social justice and an equitable distribution of wealth. Nothing is more indicative of backwardness than the attitude of the ruling powers and dominant elites of the developing societies towards scientific research. For example, in 1960, India, Pakistan, and the Philippines each spent 0*1 percent of their GNP on research and development; the United Kingdom, France, and West Germany spent 2–7, 2*1, and 1*6 percent respectively. Thus the United Kingdom alone spent nine times as much of its GNP on research as India, Pakistan, and the Philippines put together. The prime ministers of the developing societies consider science policy and research a much less important national problem than do their opposite numbers in the advanced countries. ‘Under-developed countries’, observed one writer, ‘are pre-research cultures lacking the institutional and motivational elements. Hence, they are basically alien or hostile to almost every aspect of research and the utilisation of its results. The embryonic science developing in this environment will show in every one of its cells, that under-developed countries have underdeveloped decision-makers on science, underdeveloped research councils and science advisers, underdeveloped administrators of science and underdeveloped scientists. It is not that scientists in underdeveloped countries are technically untrained or technically incompetent; it is rather that, being a part of their national culture, they will themselves lack, or will not be able to impose or recreate in their society and culture, so alien to science, those fundamental orientations (if they have them) which are necessary for really productive research.’ 2
