CII to promote brand Vizag

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Further to my post about CII's magnanimous attempts to develop Vizag. Here is a typical "Development" story adapted from Oren Ginsburg's presentation courtesy "Survival International".

Prequel: When I travel - and someone asks me where I am from - and I say "Vizag" - and they say "wow, heard its a great place" - I say "its a lousy place - don't bother visiting". This is a defense mechanism. I am doing my part in reducing influx into Vizag. For God's sake - why can't they leave us alone to enjoy our city? Do your bit - don't go around telling folk from elsewhere that Vizag is great.

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Once upon a time two management gurus decided to "develop" Vizag.

They made their way into Vizag's heartland with their laptops and suits. 
They wanted to do a survey.

After a while they came to a beautiful habitation in Vizag. 
"The people here certainly look like they need help" they whispered to each other.


They took out their laptop and made a long presentation, explaining why they were here. 
The word "sustainable" was mentioned several times. 


The innocent natives were quite perplexed. The management gurus went about their survey.. They attended the meetings and met the local officials


The saw that food was plentiful


The rivers and seas were full of fish


Fruits and vegetables were available to all


They found that the natives had a good life and were already in a sustainable environment For a while they thought of going "native" themselves. 


But they had a job to do. They had to industrialize. Improve trade. Bring in the tourists. Make airports and ports. The clean air disgusted them. They grumbled that these idiots in Vizag were already practicing sustainable lifestyle without knowing it. So they decided to drop "sustainable" and do just the development part.

They gave presentations, they held press conferences, they held seminars.
The natives got drunk but were not interested in the mumbo jumbo gobbledygook.

The management gurus, with a propensity for industry were disappointed.




They had to do something. 


They decided to rope in more stakeholders.

Finally the found some moneybags to invest in Vizag. The industrialists rode roughshod over local objections and got approvals from the cooperative Government quite easily

The natives stopped living off the farm and forest - they became laborers

Little by little, things changed. The old paradise was gone.

Some company and government doles came their way

The management gurus were felicitated

They had dragged the natives from their idyllic life, kicking and screaming, into this modern age

Finally the natives had a taste of development!

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