The Colors of All the Cattle (No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency #19)

by Alexander McCall Smith

“Progress,” said Mr. Polopetsi. “You must tell them you believe in progress.” Mma Ramotswe considered this. She was not sure whether she agreed. Most people would not hesitate to say that they believed in progress, but was all progress necessarily a good thing? The people who wanted to build the Big Fun Hotel would undoubtedly claim that their plans were an example of progress in operation, but if that was so, then it was not the sort of progress that Mma Ramotswe would like to see. Progress was more and better schools, better clinics, less poverty in general; progress was not riding roughshod over people’s wishes, pursuing profit at all costs, building large and noisy hotels in places where people wanted there to be quiet—in places where there were important memories of late people and what they meant to us. That was definitely not progress. “Not all progress is good, Rra,” she said mildly. Mma Potokwane looked thoughtful. “There’s truth in that, Mma. Yes, there is truth in that.”