Word: backwards
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Previous to last summer, even I might have been misled by such statements as appeared in the article on Syria [TIME, June 18]: "Few countries in the world are more backward than Syria." However, having now seen with my own eyes conditions and the true situation, I must register my definite protest against such an irresponsible, unfactual statement . . . Everywhere were evidences of economic projects; new, modern industrial plants . . . irrigation projects; significant agricultural development, acres and acres of land being given over to growing cotton, tobacco and other crops which are making their impact upon a world market...
...perfect illustration last week of just what, in practice, is involved in being a "good angel" to backward people (see above). Few countries in the world are more backward than Syria. Her people work the land with wooden plows as they did centuries ago; crops in even the best years barely provide subsistence living. Most peasants are sharecroppers, chronically in debt to moneylenders. Yet, potentially, Syria is a rich land, well able to support twice her present population. Proper irrigation would double her arable land. U.N. experts have drawn up plans for a pilot irrigation project: with $15 million Syria...
Lesson for the U.S.: it is not enough to offer aid to backward peoples; the U.S. must also persuade their rulers to use the assistance for their countries' true benefit or find men who will cooperate with the U.S. That is a very difficult job, at which the U.S. so far has been notably unsuccessful; but unless it is done, and done well, U.S. plans for help to backward lands will be doomed to failure...
...more than most other religions, to avoid the troubling conflict between body and spirit, temporal power and divine aim. To millions of Moslems, to kill for the greater glory of the true faith is right and blessed. Together with a new consciousness on the part of Asia's "backward" peoples that poverty is not a law of nature but a condition that can and should be abolished, Mohammedanism can be formidable...
With immense, if often misdirected energy, the new Shah tried to modernize an extraordinarily backward country (paper money was not introduced until 1931). But Mossadeq, opposed to his strong-arm methods, fought him at every turn...