In some ways, it’s quite remarkable that one of the key figures of post-development was also the one who called for “deschooling society”. As is obvious from observing humanitarian and philanthropic work is that “development” participates in neocolonialism, despite (or often because of) the best of intentions. MOOCs are closer to development than to postdevelopment. Even cMOOCs.

From Uncharted Play:

Jessica became a co-Founder and Executive Director for KDDC, a 30 megawatt hydropower dam in Nigeria—one of the first to be privatized in the country.

Will sound like a rhetorical question, but still: why is it important to note this? Or, more specifically, who is this important for? People from this project have been heard clinging to their intentions, before this (as Courtney Martin notes, very candid) update. In some ways, the “best intentions” are the very problem to be solved. The project wasn’t something which happened from the ground up. It was based on some people’s best intentions. As Martin also noted, those on the other side of the equation probably didn’t receive the same kind of apology. But they’re the real victims, here. In this kind of work, doing something is often much much worse than doing nothing. This update, while candid, resonates with Negroponte’s attitude:

people really don't want to criticize this, because it is a humanitarian effort, a nonprofit effort and to criticize it is a little bit stupid, actually.

As Tiny Spark is showing, time and time again, humanitarianism is precisely what requires deep and broad critical thinking. Not merely “best intentions”.

Maybe too rarely. Or they’re dismissed too quickly. Or they’re too difficult to fully discuss when much of the scene is taken by modernization theory. This is where post-development’s Ivan Illich meets deschooling’s Ivan Illich.