The Road Not Built: Redefining Progress At Home and Abroad In an
increasingly vulnerable world, we're searching for rooted
communities—and what we can learn from them. Read more at our
blog, Finding Rootedness. Most Americans love roads: Ours is a
country of roads with a network of highways that rivals any
other. So too does the U.S. government love roads. When the
Obama administration passed its epic $787 billion stimulus plan
just weeks after taking office, where did much of the money go?
Into fixing and upgrading our highways. When U.S. aid agencies
look to poorer nations, they too love to fund the building of
roads that can deliver crops to markets and ports and bring
“progress” to remote areas. After all, who could be against a
road? In our stay in Trinidad and Tobago, the two-island nation
off the coast of Venezuela, we discover that more people than we
expected are opposed to a particular road. Their reasons turn
the prevailing view of progress on its head and add to our
understanding of “rooted” commu