Fifty Years on, Part II
It has not all been bad fifty years on from Independence.
There have been notable achievements in health. In the 1950s we had a life expectancy below 60 years, close to a level that the Maya had achieved by the year 900. Today the life expectancy for both men and women is somewhat just over the mid-70. We also have considerably better housing at all levels, even if we have systematically failed to build housing for the less well-off at prices that are affordable. We also, thanks to the external innovations, moved into the modern world with television, the Internet and social media with the consequent ability to access all sorts of information.
The problem is that we have failed to change most of our pre-Independence attitudes or methodologies.
Social media is therefore more useful for gossip than for serious information. We have thousands and thousands of smart phones, but we are better at texting than at creating useful and remunerative apps. Additionally, crime levels, especially among disenfranchised youth, are making a serious dent in possibilities for a further improvement in life expectancy. In spite too of the Errol Barrow revolution in education and the increased number of persons with higher education, we have essentially failed to appreciate the need for change in our teaching methods and in the subjects taught. We have virtually abandoned Latin and Greek, which I consider a good thing, but we have retained the misnomer “Religious Knowledge” while failing to include entrepreneurship or basic engineering in our syllabus.
We have also failed to incorporate Civics, where it would be possible to expose children to the notion that they live in a community or society and should look out for other people. Hence we end up with the Heights and Terraces mentality with everyone using the education they have acquired for themselves. We have also maintained the principle of learning by rote with little or no possibility for critical thinking. Critical thinking has become a sort of heresy, challenging the mediocrity of societal leadership. Intellectuals therefore tend to keep quiet like children who are afraid that their thinking will be dismissed as arcane.
We have also retained some of the biblical and quranic prejudices against anything sexually different from what is considered the religious norm, like homosexuality. Additionally, we have infused religious misogyny into our beliefs about issues like abortion, which happily is not illegal in the society. It is amazing, however, to hear a priest say that a woman who has been raped should bear the child of her abuser. What gives him the right to determine not only what a woman should do with her body but that she should undergo the horror of being raped and then bear the child of the rapist. This is pure misogyny. The good side to this is that Parliament has been working on a bill to prevent sexual harassment.
Where we went wrong is probably within our education system. Everything begins with education, whether it is the education of a parent talking to a child or reading to him or her or the more formal education in institutions like school, training centre or University. Thus with proper education, we do not litter as we now so casually do. We also learn to respect other people as well as ourselves. Perhaps, most importantly, we learn things that will help us earn an honest living, and help us realize that when we are earning an honest living we should not steal on top of that!
Formal education is crucial. If we are to climb out of our present gloom, we must learn 21st century things. We must recognise that there are plumbers, carpenters et al who earn more than some of our myriad lawyers, whose numbers become greater and greater. With the appropriate focus on early childhood education, we could make the right start. First off, we live in a sea of Spanish-speaking countries, and the only English-speaking country which is near bilingual is Belize. Very young children learn languages easily especially through songs. Let us begin language at pre-school, preferably Spanish and Mandarin. Additionally, the syllabus at all later levels must focus more on technical subjects – like Mathematics, Entrepreneurship and the Sciences.
We have, fifty years later, a great opportunity to turn things around. Let us stop glorifying mediocrity and attain excellence. Stop pretending that we are concerned about climate change while dumping fridges in our gullies. Let us make an arrangement with Elon Musk if necessary and import electric cars. Let us listen to our young entrepreneurs – and I do not mean those who import things to resell them – and help them. Let us similarly return to planting kitchen gardens and fruit trees and let us big up agriculture. Whatever happens to us, we will need food. There is hope after fifty years, but we need to convert that hope into reality. This can only be done by thinking differently.