The Sins Of Our Fathers

 

Am I my brother’s keeper? I’m not. If I don’t even have to be my brother’s keeper, why should I have to live in a constant state of guilt for my forefathers’ sins? Biblically, the sins of the fathers are supposed to pass down to the third and fourth generation. Look around the world today and you’ll find that the shadow cast by past sins or perceived sins is much, much longer than that.

In almost every country, there are people who bear a historical grouse – about oppression, suppression, cruelty against their forefathers. Through generations, this ferments inside till suddenly there’s a venting and all hell breaks loose. Just one little seemingly innocuous incident is enough to be the flashpoint for a blaze of emotions that can very well end in carnage.

The trouble is, there seem to be no answers in sight and maybe the time has come for both sides to sit down and let it go. It’s hard to let go of a cross your forbears bore which has been handed down with the unspoken urge to carry it on. It’s hard to let go of anger that very often you were born with. It’s hard to root out a crutch that makes you feel that all your present problems are due to something that happened generations, maybe even centuries ago.

I read a hub the other day and it touched me because it reflected the angst and pain of a group pf people. We have a similar situation in our country – only it isn’t colour but caste that is the issue. I asked myself if I really wanted to apologize for what my ancestors did and the answer is NO. Or rather, the answer would be No if I were expected to. I might do it if I were moved to but I know that the compassion that maybe I should feel would vanish in a trice if I were MADE to apologise.

Because I wasn’t there. And the person who feels the pain passed down wasn’t there either.

So what is the solution? If there is a solution. Will this impasse just get worse? It will when there are tremors in other areas. The prospect of depression, the prospect of jobs being lost, the prospect of prices rising. In times of trouble, it isn’t Mother Mary who comes to you but the spectres of times gone by, raising their ugly heads. It rarely happens in times of plenty. It almost never happens when a country is threatened from outside – an outside enemy usually makes everyone come together. It happens, like I said, in troubled times within.

The solution as I see it has to be at the grassroots or the community level. If one were to look at our politicians to fulfil this role, you couldn’t be farther from a viable solution. Politicians tend to divide and rule – that’s the way they stay in power. The only way to get people to sit together is to educate and to spread awareness. Here’s where local leaders will have to rise up for the common good.

The ideal way to get there would be a 3-point programme.

- Acknowledge

- Accept

- Address

One has to acknowledge that there were inequalities and acts of oppression and cruelty. One has to then see how that has affected the present. Once you accept it as being the cause of certain effects that are detrimental to the functioning of society and maybe even a country, it is easier to see things objectively. The next step is how to address these ills practically, logically, rationally and unemotionally.

When you don’t HAVE to feel sorry, you’ll find the barriers breaking down and the possibility of bridges being built. You’ll find the walls of political correctness crumbling and a sense of humour coming to the fore. In the old days – well actually not so long ago – comedy meant catharsis. We saw ourselves on stage or onscreen and we laughed. Today, we see any kind of humour against ourselves as personal and we’re quick to take offence. All it does is make the chasms between groups even wider. Laughing at ourselves and at others is the only way to bridge the gap. If only we learned to laugh at ourselves, we will stop feeling so sat upon and spat upon.

It has to be a concerted affair – everywhere, at all levels. The American forthcoming elections have highlighted the latent racial tensions but it’s there alright - the danger beneath. As it is all over the world in different forms. South Africa, India, the UK, Sri Lanka. It’s the same story whether it’s played out by the factions of different creeds, races, colour, caste or class. In most cases, the flames of hatred are kept alive to keep certain people in power. We need to get over this without any political interference. In the age of the Internet when a whole mass of humanity has been powered with connectivity at the click of a mouse and there’s a wave of globalisation sweeping over the world, it’s time we shook off the politics of prejudice, the acid of internalized hatred, the shackles of the past and the fear of the different. It’s a long haul but we can do it if we try and who knows - Lennon’s legendary song might well come to pass. Imagine all the people sharing all the world……..

Medicine, Men Of The Cloth And Mammon

Money was, perhaps, never meant to be a part of religion or of medicine. There was a time when physicians did not have a rate card and men of God lived on charity. Then the greenback serpent entered the idealistic worlds of both and offered them visions of great wealth and power. It was too much to expect them not to succumb. The few who didn’t were left behind and not counted.

Healing – the Body and the Soul

Both professions are supposed to be about healing – while one looks after physical wellness, the other looks after spiritual well being. Time was when these were ‘noble’ professions – when sons were offered to enter the priesthood or were given to study under physicians in order to learn and grow into these professions. Healing was god-like and that meant that you could not be earthly when it came to being compensated. So it was left to the one who was administered to – body or soul – to give what he deemed best.

When it came to religion, most priests lived by taking a portion of what was offered to the gods. This was their payment for selflessly serving the divine. They were to take only what they needed – not what they wanted – and then leave the rest to be distributed to charity. Physicians were the same. They treated the sick and the suffering and for their care and concern, they were given cash or kind – it wasn’t right for them to ask for anything.

Take the old Levite tradition for example – this tribe was the one from where the Jewish priestly class emerged – they were not given any land in the promised land. Instead all the other eleven tribes had to give them one tenth of what they got. In this way, they were allowed to do God’s work and were supported by the rest of the community.

This is very similar to the Brahmin tradition in India where the priestly class was entrusted with educating the people and running the temples. As they indulged more and more in literary pursuits, they were soon asked to advise the kings about military and other strategies – which they did very well. Very soon, power and money beckoned and the simple life was left behind.

Later, came the Christian priests and the nuns who didn’t or rather, weren’t supposed to call anything on this earth their own. They were here to serve the Lord and humanity at large. From living lives with just the bare necessities however, many of them grew to embrace a life of comfort and even luxury, wielding great power over the people who they were supposed to look after.

Take the case of the physicians or of the healers of the bodies all over the world. There was a time when it meant a life of hard work and a tremendous amount of sacrifice. It was their commitment to the well being of mankind that made them take up that particular profession. Man or beast – physicians were those selfless beings who were at everyone’s beck and call, always smiling, soothing away aches and pains and fevers and helping you get back into the wellness zone.

If we go back further in time, the witch doctors or the Druids were very much the same – their job was to cure or try their best to cure whichever patient came to them – king or pauper. More often than not, they are portrayed as living in little huts away from the main populace of a village and practicing their medicine with herbs, roots and rituals, the knowledge of which was passed down by word of mouth from generation to generation.

Enter Money

Once their eyes started lighting up at the sight of money, it was the beginning of the end. Suddenly, money was the ultimate goal, not the wellbeing of people. Once the focus shifted from the ones they had vowed to look after to themselves, the picture changed and it was the power of money that became important – not the power that their profession gave them over illness or ignorance. A J Cronin’s The Citadel is a perfect example of how money can insidiously compromise a physician’s ethics.

Is there merit in religion and medicine going back to the days of dedication and working for whatever was given? Can we really take the money factor out of what has grown to become among the most paying professions? If only we could take the money out and put the ethics back in, maybe a lot of ills in this world would get ironed out – but then again, maybe that is being too simplistic and hoping for too much. What is relevant however, is that Mammon should not have pride of place in medicine or religion.

A Few Good Spanks…

…never hurt anyone, least of all a child. And I do believe that it is infinitely better than long lectures laced with sarcasm, threats or just plain tortuous length. Now this kind of a viewpoint could be highly unpopular in an age when children’s rights have become such a matter of concern and even one harsh word could be constituted as abuse. Well, if we want to raise a generation of namby-pamby, extremely sensitive, self-centred, thoroughly obnoxious kids, that’s fine. Otherwise maybe it’s time for parents to put their foot down and fight back like they did in New Zealand recently. Fight, not for themselves and their parental rights but for their children’s sake. Maybe we need to get back to the age of spanking – here are a few guidelines that come to mind.

Kids are like pups

They understand cause-effect. They do something they shouldn’t, they get a spank, they learn to try and not do it again. Otherwise they keep getting spanked like they learn. Very much like a rolled up newspaper and a pup. Repetition brings results in both cases. Children are simple and understand simplicity when it comes to correction – so let’s not complicate matters and confuse them.

Before the anger

Spank before you get angry when you spank to correct, not as a release for your frustration. At this point, once is usually enough. Once the tipping point is reached, you are not very often logical to know when to stop – so spank way before you get there. Never, ever slap, pummel, push, pull, shove, yell or abuse. Never. And there is no excuse for any leniency where that rule is concerned.

The bottoms are best

Soft enough to feel the pain so a lesson is learned but there’s no harm caused. Remember that young children have soft bones and you could easily cause damage if you hit them any and everywhere. Never, ever pull his pants down and spank him – you can correct a child without violating his dignity.

Keep in mind that spanking is done with an open hand, never a closed fist so it smarts but does not cause damage or break the skin.

Don’t expect instant change

Many children need to be corrected many times before they change. (The pup and the newspaper, remember?) How can you expect a little child to learn instantly? Try and spank the same way every time so he knows you are in control and you mean business. Don’t let the bully in you come out where you take the day’s frustrations out on your little baby. Some children learn very quickly, some take time – this could be genetic, maybe. So if you were a slow learner when it came to correction……

Don’t torture with talk

Lecturing them is like Chinese torture. You start and you’ll be doing it the rest of your life till they’re sick and tired of you. Act, don’t talk should be every parent’s guideline. Look at it this way – if men or women did it to their spouses, they would be branded ‘nags’ or worse, mental abusers. If you need to teach children about right or wrong, good or bad, keep it short. Remember, they learn by example much more than anything else. Of course you can talk to them at length – about the wonders of the universe, the beauty of the world around, about the incredible things to be found in books, about how much you love them. Lectures stunt a child’s mind – inspire them so they are always learning with minds that are ever expanding.

They’re children, not adults

Don’t talk to them like adults, don’t treat them as adults. Children feel secure within the confines of discipline. Set the limits and correct them when they cross it. As they grow, you might want to re-look at those boundaries and limits but when you do, make sure to let them know. In short, don’t deprive them of their childhood and make them grow up too fast. And please don’t ask them to understand you or your problems or your frustrations or what you’re going through. If you need to go to a shrink, do so – don’t burden your child with anything but child-friendly things.

Spanking ’n loving

They go hand in hand – you can’t really love a child and not correct him. You can’t spank a child when there isn’t a lot of hugging, loving and caring otherwise. When you’ve got both in perfect balance – a little bit of spanking and a lot of loving - that’s perfect parenting!

Do you think it’s all right to spank a child to correct him?

Do you think it’s wrong to spank a child?

Norman Rockwell (1894 – 1978) did 322 illustrations for The Saturday Evening Post magazine covers over forty years. This one of a mother spanking her child appeared on the November 25^th edition cover way back in 1933. One wonders what the mother is reading and what she’s thinking about? To spank or not to spank? Does the book say anything about it?

Give Us This Day...

Our daily bread comes to our doorstep in the morning. On a bicycle. The man who brings it is just one of the many vendors sent out by the many small old world bakeries that dot the city we live it. They’ve held on in the face of competition from the big guys and the array of different breads in the supermarkets. We don’t buy from him every day because I get enough for a few days and freeze but I do know people who wait for him every morning so they can have that hot, crusty bread for breakfast.

Maybe the loaves don’t look as symmetrical or as perfect as the ones in the stores but the freshly baked smell is to die for. Even when it comes out of the freezer, all you need to do is thaw it for a bit, slice and toast – and you’re in bread heaven! There’s a choice – small loaves that are soft and melt-in-the-mouth, crusty loves that are soft on the inside, puff pastry squares that are delicious with tea, flat breads that have such a wonderful flavour, buns with sesame seeds scattered on top and they taste divine with a dab of butter.

The thing is, how long will our bread man survive? Will the younger generation continue to buy from him? Or will he fade into a ‘the way things were’ memory? Will high-rise gated societies and huge supermarkets take away his livelihood? Whose responsibility is it to see that not only does he survive but keeps doing better? It just has to be our responsibility. I’ve realised that electing leaders and expecting them to do anything for anyone just doesn’t work anymore. Politicians are a number-crunching breed apart whose only worry is where the votes come from and how to get them. Not for them the headache of seeing that our taxes go to help the unfortunate ones amongst us. So that leaves us. And if we pull together, we can be a force to reckon with.

Why promote the small businesses around you? Because in the long run, it means you are shaping your surroundings to become better. By supporting people like the bread man and helping him earn his livelihood, it means his family eats better, his children get educated and they have enough to stay healthy and happy. Without that, what does a man do to feed his hungry family? Can you blame a man turning to crime?

When the oft-used phrase Think Global, Act Local was used in a business context, it meant that multinational giants were putting down roots at the local level to improve their bottom line. What we need is an upturning of that system. What we need are local roots that need to be nourished so we need to think local first. We need to become more aware, we need to spread the word and if need be, we need to make it fashionable to buy local produce and to encourage the small people in business around us. If we need things around us to change, we cannot wait for a faceless government to do it for us. We need to do it ourselves. So it empowers us as much as it does the ones at the grassroots levels around us. When we empower the microcosm, the macrocosm will automatically get better. Our positive actions with a local focus will only help us act better in a global sense.

For me, I’d be happy to continue seeing that smile on the face of my bread man and the many like him.

Why the majority MUST matter

For too long, democratic governments all over the world have followed a policy of minority appeasement and one wonders when a volcanic upsurge of reactions will happen. For too long, minorities have been seen as vote banks that can swing the results in favour of a particular party or candidate. For too long, the vast majority in most so-called democracies have remained a silent mass, mere mute spectators.

How long will this go on, is the question. Like an ocean that is usually calm, all it could take is one little shift way below the surface to cause a tsunami. And not taking into account the majority viewpoint is a tsunami waiting to happen. The burning question is, why do politicians do what they do and ignore the many to pamper the few?  The answer probably is that their priorities are short term. After all, winning an election is much more important than long term plans for the general good. If winning means divisive politics, so be it. Any problem that arises after that can be dealt with on a need-to basis. Or so they firmly believe. Sufficient unto the day is the success thereof.

The majority versus the minority can exist simultaneously on various levels in most countries. It could be a division along lines of religion, colour, class or castes, race or even age or gender. When it comes to the majority having to matter, the argument would be, wouldn’t that make it a totalitarian state? The thing is, in a totalitarian state, it doesn’t really matter. There are certain rules set and they must be followed, whether the original community is the majority or not. However, in a democracy, that isn’t the case. Elected representatives come into power because of the majority vote and they stay in power too often because of divisive policies that involve the minorities.

Religion is perhaps one of the greatest dividing factors. When minorities are indulged and the majority is made to feel their religious sentiments have been disregarded, there’s a simmering underbelly of tension that grows unseen. And then, one day, a little spark sets off a flagrant fire. Too often, self-styled leaders of the minority take advantage of politicians’ largesse and try and squeeze as many favours out of them. In the long run, this can only be to the detriment of the large number of the minority community which doesn’t really want to get into a conflict with anyone, least of all those who form the majority. It gets worse when the simmering resentment becomes apparent in slights, in nuances of speech, in a word or a look. This has the effect of the minorities bunching together for safety and the lines are drawn more sharply.

Why does it make sense to ensure that the majority’s rights are protected? Because then a government could be in for the long run. Too often, governments in power in democratic countries are voted out rather than voted in. If a party wants to be in there for the long haul, it might want to think about majority politics. When you keep the majority happy, you’ll find a more benevolent attitude towards the minorities and that augurs well for peace and prosperity.

When you break it down, it’s all about human nature. Let the larger group feel that they are being looked after and they will in turn be more tolerant of the smaller group. When the smaller group flexes its muscles, you can be sure there will be retaliation some day. Now a flexing of the muscles need not be a mere show of strength. It could be manifested in so many ways. By asking for special exemptions, for reservations, for tax deductions.

In most democracies, there has tended to be a kind of apathy when it comes to the majority and maybe this is why governments have gotten away with what they have. Flashing smiles, false promises and a great big ‘Pretty Please’ usually work with the ones who bestir themselves to go and cast their vote. It’s only when the majority wakes up and realises that while it is paying to keep the wheels of the country turning, it is being taken for granted and very often ignored, that the first rumblings begin. Astute politicians will hear and take note – unfortunately, most are too busy enjoying their new-found power to bother. All it takes is time for the rumblings to grow to a full-fledged revolution. Then, a ‘let them eat cake’ attitude will only fan the flames.

It’s time to think about what democracy is all about. It is of the people, for the people, by the people – the people who are in the majority. It’s time to realise they matter. They must matter before it’s too late.

Education vs. Learning

When so many of us agree that education is the key to freeing the mind, to solving most of the world’s problems, to making people from all corners of the globe come together, we also mean education in the traditional, conventional sense, maybe because we’ve never thought of anything different. Education for us means a teacher, a school, a set syllabus. perhaps time frames within which certain bits of knowledge or information need to be imbibed, digested and then displayed so we can be tested on our understanding. Maybe it’s time to change our way of thinking. In a world that is changing so fast, should our old ideas about education be the only way there is? Yes, there have been changes through the years in the way education has been structured and perceived but it was all done within a certain framework. Is it time to think out of the box? Sugata Mitra seems to think so and to prove his point, he’s been experimenting with new ideas over the last eleven years all over the world.

What seems to be emerging is that children have an innate sense of learning and that need not be within the narrow functions of education. Maybe what we need to do now is to give them the tools and the opportunities and set their minds free to learn what can be learned in the way that they want to learn it. It means leaving them to go out into the unknown and helping them explore and go forward to conquer new ideas and frontiers and even forge new paths to get to their goals. Pretty much like a guided tour as against a voyage of discovery. Maybe one would learn a lot more facts the first way but a lot more experience in the other.

Experiments like these amaze us who have been educated in the conventional way because it defies all logic – or rather, logic as we know it. If we need to facilitate a brave new world for our children, maybe it is time we took a step back after providing them with the opportunities. With technology racing ahead, it’s their world – a world they understand and grasp much better and much faster than we do. Maybe it’s time they started learning instead of being educated. Maybe it’s time we stopped putting boundaries to their boundless imagination and capabilities. Maybe it’s time we guided from behind rather than lead from the front. Maybe it’s time we cut them loose to discover rather than fence them in. Maybe it’s time.

Rememberer Resolutions

The old song went, “All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth’. All I was a-wanting was my rememberer back because without it, I can’t for the life of me even think of keeping any of those resolutions I made a few days ago. Oh yes, I made a list and checked it not twice but a hundred times, just to make sure I hadn’t repeated myself too often…. happens a lot these days!

A friend in the same boat, I might add, sent me something I thought summed it up so well. Our forgetters seem to be pushing our rememberers into the shade and nothing short of a miracle is going to reverse that tide. So is there any point making resolutions that I won’t even remember I’ve made at all?

Considering that I’m at the threshold of the dawning of the Age of Fogettererism, might it not be more prudent, not to say infinitely more practical, to leave my rememberer behind and enter with gusto into the new age? No vestiges of ‘what might have been’ to cast a shadow of regret on the road ahead. Just a joyful embracing of what is to come.

So I think I’m going to change a few resolutions around. Better still, cast out that list (Get thee behind me, I have no recollection of what thou containeth!), and begin with a tabula rasa. A clean slate that says it’s okay to forget. Onward forgetterers, may our tribe increase. Who cares what the morrow might bring? Que sera, sera!