A GUY'S VIEW: Keep the light on while you eat
A man went to a shop and bought a bag of apples. He bit the first one and realised it was bad, so he threw it away. He took a second and when he bit it he realised that it contained a worm, so he threw it away. An intelligent woman, who was standing nearby, saw what he did and asked him what was he doing. He explained that the apples were bad. She told him, “Stop throwing away the apples. Turn the light off and we can eat all the apples.”
In an age of information, ignorance is a choice. Education is supposed to turn on the light in our lives, but we are constantly being urged, and now bullied, to turn the light off and pretend that all is well, even while we die.
A long time ago a student sat in a tutorial, which was led by Professor Sir Hilary Beckles. Beckles pointed to sources which suggested that the narrative we had heard about Christopher Columbus was not authentic. One mature lady took issue with him. She was a teacher. She resented what she saw as the suggestion that she had been teaching lies to her students for years. To her, it did not matter what the scholarship said. She had been taught a narrative and was teaching that story to others and was very unhappy about having to reconsider her information. The light should have come on for her, but she preferred the darkness.
The entire group was surprised because they thought that a teacher would want to be equipped with the truth of what she was teaching the nation’s children. It seems that some people will forever hold to what they want, regardless of the evidence before them. A job or profession does not change that fact.
Sometimes we forget that ignorance can be a warm, comfortable place. That is probably why we look back and see our childhood as the best part of our lives. That was a time when we had little responsibility for our lives. Others made decisions for us and provided for us.
We simply lived without having to make difficult choices. Some still long for that ease of life.
There are two sides to every story. Thinking people examine the same data and come to different conclusions. That is how scholarship is refined and the best information garnered. The idea that only one side of a story should be told is dangerous and counterproductive. It creates darkness and leads nowhere.
A recent strange outburst in a town hall meeting should have reminded Barbadians that working as a teacher does not qualify one for reason or decorum. All the school bullies are not in the yard.
Observant people learn from every bit of information. One thing we should be learning from recent events here is the state of mind of many of our people, for this may explain why we make some of the decisions that we do. We now know that it is expected that when someone gives you a bag of food, gratitude means that you should stop thinking. A handout is a purchase of your loyalty and your willingness to think for yourself must be surrendered.
In days of yore, parents used to teach their children to eat with their mouths closed. They adapted that to say, “When you got food in yuh mout, shut yuh mout”, meaning when someone is feeding you, do not criticise them.
“Wunna did hungry and hand-to-mout and now want to think for yourselves! De woman feed wunna. When wunna did hungry, de woman feed wunna.” What a terrible thing. We have been taken back to the Queen’s Park days of poverty and handouts. But if you turn off the light, there is nothing wrong with that. You can choose to stand in the darkness and eat.
A deeper issue than what immediately meets the eye may have been revealed here. What may be on display is the mindset of two classes of persons: the givers of largess and the recipients of that largess. We would be selling the givers short if we believe that they are oblivious to how their gifts shape the minds of those to whom they give.
In our context, the giver is looking through a transparent glass and the recipient is looking into a mirror. One has observed and studied the other through the glass, while the other sees only their mirror image, but through the eyes of the giver who controls the light and shapes their mind.
The Father of Independence, whose accomplishments and legacy may soon be wiped out, once asked Barbadians what mirror image they had of themselves. He was asking us to consider what quality of human being we see ourselves as. Is it true that we are only three-fifth of a human? Does status or a job title make you more human?
The image we have of ourselves informs how we see the persons around us. When we have self-respect and self-worth, we can see our neighbours in the same light. And we would not tolerate anyone threatening to take away our right to decide how we care for our bodies or how we govern ourselves.