1 march 2004

politicians that use the race vote don't care 'bout guyanese

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10 march 2004

ignorance and miseducation during the 'educate' phase

build your penitentiaries, we build your schools
brainwash education to make us the fools
hate is your reward for our love
telling us of your god above
we gonna chase those crazy
chase those crazy bunkheads
chase those crazy baldheads out of town
--bob marley, "crazy baldheads"

if inaction is better than incorrect action, then ignorance is preferred to miseducation.

as i approach the point of permanent return to guyana, i am contemplating more and more the practicalities of the movement; the day-to-day realities of problems and workable solutions. i'm trying to develop plans for every possible scenario, then i'll apply the appropriate plan when i'm faced with a difficulty.

when helping someone learn, you've got to first assess how much he or she already knows. in this process it may arise that the person not only lacks knowledge, but also holds on tightly to faulty knowledge. it is difficult to educate others in these circumstances because people tend to fiercely resist corrections. they are not ready to accept that they've been miseducated, whether deliberately or not.

the first step of the movement is education (the second and third being organisation and mobilisation, respectively) and this will be the hardest and longest phase. with this in mind, i'm preparing realistic and convenient approaches for educating guyanese at home, and i'm more perceptive of the ignorance and miseducation of guyanese around me.

my comrade in revolution from over at rageguyana returned to guyana permanently in january and his news is not very encouraging. his reflections are of ignorance and miseducation flourishing in guyana, regardless of age, sex, race or wealth.

he tells me of someone insisting that fair skin makes one appear cleaner, that hinting at one's light-coloured skin is complementary, that it's even a kind of achievement to have fair skin.

he tells me that the people may not be ready for calls of education, organisation and mobilisation. to paraphrase him, the people lack the capacity for involved ideas of freedom fighting, or they've heard it before and are disenchanted. a lot of people see the only solution as migration.

he tells me that the people are addicted to television, and although this can be a powerful medium to transfer knowledge, the programs are garbage: american corporate news, sitcoms, music videos, and the local news that's biased along ppp or pnc party lines; equivalently, along racial lines.

he tells me that young people are more interested in alcohol and partying than in the securing of their freedoms.

he tells me that there are women who believe that men are the smarter sex. (i too have encountered this belief in a woman, a belief that was maintained by her patriarchal religion.)

he even tells me of a gentleman who didn't know that the earth is round.

all that my comrade tells me does not surprise me, but it is deeply disappointing. this feeling then turns to anger as i attribute most of our ignorance and miseducation to the wills of imperialistic "first-world" nations. i'm angry that most things that prevent our growth--true mental growth of the people--were strategically placed in guyana.

and new seeds of incapacitation are being planted every day, by the people that profit from it: governments and the power-hungry politicians, and business owners and corporations. this incapacitation comes disguised as exciting food and beverages, entertaining television and music, essential news, sophisticated and trendy clothing, socially-defining mobile phones,…

miseducation is far harmful than ignorance, and it is easier to instil. thus, it follows that guyanese are more likely to be miseducated that uneducated. miseducation can guarantee retardation, while ignorance leaves room for questioning, insurrection and revolution. it is safer to teach a slave that he or she is three-fifths a human being, than to leave a blank mind that could be filled with ideas of equality and freedom.

miseducation is camouflaged brainwashing.

only the other night, my uncle tried to impress us with his obviously limited and inaccurate knowledge of relations between america and the middle east. he talked about how reagan and bush, sr. were his "boys" and how america and england knows how to handle "them" in the middle east. when someone asked him to explain why england raped african nations of their wealth to build their own, he responded, "because we can."

that "we" stunned me. does my uncle really think that he's now part of this great american-british oppressive coalition? i wondered if he was _deliberately led_ to believe that he was a part. i wondered if his miseducation was designed to make him believe exactly this, that america is the almighty, sanctified caretaker of the world; that america is his friend.

while i sincerely wish that my comrade's experiences and my uncle are just examples of the worst of the worst, i know though that this level of miseducation will most likely be the norm in guyana.

so since miseducation will be more prevalent than ignorance, and because this miseducation will be of a seriously incapacitating degree, i must focus most on preparing to educate people who are mistaken and will not easily let go of what they already believe, as opposed to people who are simply unaware of the truth.

a gentler, individual approach will be necessary. the student--if you will, since we are all students, and teachers, of ourselves and each other--must not be denigrated or attacked for his or her misunderstandings but must be passionately corrected and the faults of specific misconceptions explained thoroughly by the teacher. in other words, the misconceptions must be fully disproved, defused and defeated before the truth is offered. the teacher must deliver explanations with mutually understandable diction and analogies. of course, honesty is fundamental. honesty and righteousness is primary throughout "educate, organise and mobilise."

these few lines are hardly a manual, but their purpose is to give you, the thinking guyanese, something to think about: the movement and our intentions. the complete, inevitable manual for "educate" won't be finished until after i return to guyana where circumstances permit the assembly, testing and perfecting of such a revolutionary guidebook.