Poverty usually comes with a fair amount of laziness. I’m not implying that the rich are not-lazy, but simply that the poor people can rise above the food chain with a little effort. One might point out the lack of opportunities among the poor, but intelligence and creativity are traits inherent in all of us (or which can be developed).
We recently visited a small town near Dehiattakandia, and from the atmosphere you can immediately feel the staleness of the place. We talked to the village leaders (and did a quick RRA), and we immediately came to realize the insanely bureaucratic way that the villagers were treated by the officials. We also noticed that the most of the villagers are also lethargic to do something on their own.
But taking all this into account, and ignoring the arrogance of the authorities, we took 19 handpicked farmers to see a tissue cultured banana cultivation farm and lab in Hambanthota. The Colombo University owned farm was impressively working with enthusiastic farmers (people from the down-south are usually energetic) to mass produce bananas.
Our farmers will be receiving their own tissue cultured banana plants in October and will be guided by the field agents in Hambanthota lab, who have volunteered to travel all the way and monitor the process.
But apart from all this, the village lacks heavily on facilities and infra-structure. There’s no point of even talking about the authorities (well in their defense, the country is bankrupt, so they can’t really do nothin), but at least the villagers should be able to stand up together and build their village. They’ve lived together for more than 20 years! Yet all they do is blame each other and curse the authorities.
My question is should we interfere further? Or should we let evolution take its path? (For the better or for worse)
Ending note: Not all the villagers are lethargic. There are a few who have been inspirational in bringing change to the village. But they carry the whole weight of the village, much like our country as a whole.
11 comments:
There are some empirical studies that support a theory called "Learned helplessness" which you might like to check out. Maybe this is what has happened.
To counteract this phenomenon, it has been proposed that "learned optimism" might be the way to go. Research on this has been conducted in the University of Pennsylvania.
May be we should show them the hindi movie "Swades". with the intervention of few audacious people, a lot can be achieved in this villages.
To be more serious, i think what you try to point out here is pretty much true. The poor people in this country(i don't know about the other countries) are generally lethargic. The best example i can give you is how the people of my village, especially the poor ones, went on with their lives after the tsunami. All they did was waiting for the government to build them new houses. Of course you can argue that they lack the necessary resources or the moneys to build something their own. But, most of the people, especially the males, sat back, smoking beedies and discussing the bad luck fallen upon them.
I believe what is really needed is education. Proper education with a motive to be independent should be provided. they should be encouraged not to depend on the government.
in most of the late night news bulletins, especially "Madiyamata Pera" on Rupavahini, people tend to send requests asking the relevent government officials to build a road to their village or to build a bridge to connect their village with the other. Why can't these people organize a shramadana campaign or something of that sort and do it themselves. By that way, they don't have to depend on the government for all their needs and they have sense of ownership for their achievement too.
I,
Thanks for the info. I looked it up on wikipedia. There seems to be much research done in this area. Should be a worthwhile pursuit to study learned optimism in detail.
As I feared helplessness is a form of survival, and brings me question further the way that our efforts carried out.
Niro,
I'm not a big fan of education but the 'motive to be independent' is quite convincing and relevant. The big question is how do we achieve this. As you said, everywhere we look, we see people begging for help, and it's become a norm of this country to always favour the less fortunate. In the short run, this might look quite innocent, but in the long run it's damaging to both parties. I think a shift of values is needed, and religion should be the first to change.
Seems to me that this mindset has to do mostly with ‘conditioning’. Having been born and bred in a given environment does things to the psyche. 'Education', as Niro said could be a major factor in awakening the senses, a change of environment would be another (notice how Sri Lankan’s abroad are generally thought of as good and efficient workers?).
The tragedy is that the government has no programmes in place that will educate and motivate the villagers in the remoter areas. Land management is another major problem that needs to be addressed and making this a part of the 'education' policy would do a world of good to all concerned and to the country in particular.
Hmmm... Education in a non-conventional sense would perhaps do the trick. But who would be able to provide it? There are not many organizations like horizon lanka around....
But looking at the bigger picture, instead of this situation, java, you're right. A policy level change should come focusing on rural education, where land policy, agriculture, and trade should be taught.
i dnt think its just that village's mentality..its just the mentality as we sri lankans commonly possess...we easily blame it on everybody else when the problem is in our selves...i think it takes alot of time effort to change that kind of a mindset especially in the rural areas
Java was addressing the same thing when he said a change of environment would perhaps help. The mindset radically changes when the toad jumps out of the well.
However taking the toad out of the well also takes some effort. And afterwards there's no guarantee it will return back.
I can't put my finger on it. Maybe its just me being too PC, or overly self conscious but the tone of some of our comments may sound a tad patronising?
Dr. Martin Selligmann is the person who heads the research on "Learned Optimism" and has solid credentials. Am usually sceptical about hyped up American organisational theories etc. but I think "Learned Optimism" is more pragmatic in its approach. Did a search and found they have released a new book called "Authentic Happiness" that builds on this theory.
Sri Lanka with one of the highest suicide rates would probably benefit from such approaches if they work.
sorry, correct spelling Seligman.
Seems like a new kind of self help thingy. We've considered trying to conduct some sort of NLP workshops, but the practical side of implementation is a little blurry.
I'll look into it nevertheless.
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