We talk about the importance of education. In the US, education is the ticket out of poverty. I picked up a book once about three men living in the ghetto of some US city, and in high school they made a pact that they would be doctors one day. And they stuck to it. Boom – from the ghetto to a doctor’s salary. They were able to leave danger and frustration, and now have the spiritual wealth caring for people offers and the stability, enjoyment, and ease financial wealth offers.
Tho it must be noted that despite the hope this arouses, these gentlemen are exceptions. We talk often in the States of the “cycle of poverty” – you’re trapped, you can’t get out.
Here in Cote d’Ivoire, the “cycle of poverty” seems alive and well. People with university degrees are on the side of the road selling phone calls from their personal cell phones (which are actually commonly used here). They sit there in their little “cabine appel” (“appel” means “call” in French), and if you run out of credit on your cell phone, you pay 100 CFA (about 25 US cents, though that 25 cents goes a lot farther here), you approach one of these guys and make a call. So they went to university to do that? There aren’t jobs here. There aren’t possibilities, there aren’t opportunities.
In Paul Collier’s The Bottom Billion, the author talks about four “poverty traps” that keep the poorest countries (most of which are in Africa) so very poor. Their economic growth is so minimal, you have to ask what difference it’s really making. In the book, he talks about chutes and ladders. Chutes make it impossible to move up; ladders obviously provide the scaffolding one needs to make progress.
The chutes make ceilings – you are limited, you can only get so far. No matter how much you work, how much you try, you just can’t move up. Obviously slavery, Jim Crow, the menacing of the KKK, segregation, denial of the right to vote, denial of the right to own land, etc were chutes for the black community in the US.
Often, living with ceilings for so long causes what I have heard called a “mentality of oppression.” There is a point when folks are so broken down and used to a lack of progress, that it becomes internalized. My colleague in the Teacher Training College is one of the most hard working people here and certainly a good friend. Yet, I become frustrated with him. He says, “Ideally we’d like 3 or 4 computers here, and we can run a cyber café.” So I run around and find a way to purchase second hand computers, and he says immediately, “Yeah but they’re crappy ones.” I thought, “Can’t we at least give this a try?? Or maybe if we talk to the second hand computer folks, they can refer us to someone else who could give us what we want. Why are you so negative about this?? You’re killing it before it started!”
I also want to highlight that these chutes still exist for the black community in the States. An Ethiopian friend grew up in the States and was advised by her teacher not to take AP classes during high school, because they’d be “too much.” Her dad, who thank God had not internalized that her potential was limited, pushed for his daughter to take them. She did. And she did well. This begs the question, how many teachers, who do have good intentions and don’t even realize it, counsel black students to take the less challenging classes? And how many black folks, because of this internalized idea of “I can only achieve so much,” don’t push to go further?
The “chutes” are physical and psychological. How many times do we doubt ourselves so much that we kill our objective before even trying? I have 4 months left to make an impact here – I dream up starting a women’s group, working with a group of high school students to mobilize them so they can fight positively for what they want, and even working with the director here to develop a strategic plan. But I’m obsessed with how ineffective I’ll be, how I’ll fail, so I keep pushing them off. Like my colleague, I’m killing it before I even started.
Back to the physical chutes, this is a huge problem in Cote d’Ivoire. Why work hard for an education when there’s no gain from your effort? No, not everyone with a degree is selling phone calls on the side of the street. But it seems like the only opportunity here to gain some kind of comfortable living is to have a state-funded job – a government official, a policeman or policewoman, a teacher, etc or to work for a Lebanese-owned or French-owned company. I don’t know if an increase in individual entrepreneurship here could give Ivoirians more opportunities – perhaps it could. But folks don’t have the capital to start the businesses. And furthermore, culturally, I don’t see Ivoirians as entrepreneurs. They have the French socialist mentality, “The state takes care of everything,” which thwarts motivation to take initiative and be innovative and creative. It seems the tribes functioned in a very communal manner (again, a socialist state), and starting a business is a very individual initiative.
Though it must be noted that wealth is not the answer. Wealth is important to be able to live comfortable. Here, I see wealthier families who live in strife, while less wealthy families live with care, respect, and support for each other – and thus in peace. In the States, the very wealthy who wanted more have caused much destruction to many people. It’s just that Ivoirians need to have enough opportunities to not be forced to sit by the side of the street and sell phone calls for 25 cents a pop.
Monday, March 2, 2009
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
On moving up or being stuck.
How do Ivoirians know they’re "poor?" It’s the same question of Adam and Eve – how did they know they were naked? It was suddenly revealed to them from an external source. We can’t wish for what we can’t have if we don’t know it’s there. People here talk a lot about how they are a poor country. How they’re “en retard” (behind). They are frustrated with the state of their country. But the United States was in this same place back 100, 150 years. People were hitching up wagons to – about 2000 miles (3200 kilometers) to what was then “the Oregon country.” It wasn’t because something was wrong with us, it wasn’t because we messed up – it’s just where our own development was at the time. We haven’t landed on Mars yet, simply because we just haven’t gotten there.
Doesn’t it happen, on an individual level, that we beat ourselves up for seeing something in someone else that we don’t possess? I’m not talking about material things; I’m talking on more of a “personhood” level. We ask ourselves: “Why am I a such a disorganized mess?” (insert thought of someone who’s organized here), “Why do I babble on like an inarticulate fool while so-and-so speaks so well?” or “Why am I not as effective at work as my colleague down the hall?“ We compare. And comparing is so dangerous. Because instead of being supportive and encouraging and loving to ourselves, so that we can achieve the next step in becoming more organized, a better speaker, or more effective at work, we put ourselves down. We beat ourselves up. We blame ourselves for not being “enough” and then we begin to think we’re shit. Something is wrong with us. Then, the destructive behavior starts. Why do addictions persist? Because people are so busy menacing themselves with how horrible they are and how they deserve nothing that they don’t love themselves enough to make the changes they want to see in their lives.
This is at least in part what I see here. Ivoirians seem to think negatively of themselves – They’re not the United States. They are less. And that’s just not fair. Just now, in the midst of writing this, I was chatting with a colleague who works at the local Ministry of Education, and he said, “But you’re more honest than us.” You, the Americans. Us, the Ivoirians. "Hell no!" I told him. "People are people, and there's plenty of dishonest people in the States." I think to myself, with a negative self-perception like that, how is this place ever going to have the spirit to make the changes they want to make?
Because of the American personality -we want more and bigger and the next best thing- there was a lot of natural motivation for invention. So the US produced electricity, human flight, the telephone, washing machines. And the list goes on. But because Americans produced this stuff, which is useful to the world-over, does that mean Ivoirians are crap? This moves on to a whole other question – are we valuable because of who we are, innately, as human beings, just for being living and breathing spirits? Or do we base our value on what we produce, what we do? Am I more valuable or better than someone because I was a pretty damn good field hockey player when I was 13 or because I entered college with a semester’s worth of college credit from college courses I took while in high school? Are you annoyed at me because I said that, asking what’s with the unnecessary bragging, the “personal plug?” Because if I read that, I would be. And that’s my point. That stuff, it means nothing. It’s stuff I did, but it’s not who I am. It’s not who my spirit is. And I’d like to see Ivoirians –and the rest of us- to give ourselves a little more compassion, a little more nurturing. We are able to achieve what we want through nurturing and pushing ourselves, not through thinking badly of ourselves. That only keeps us stuck where we are. Côte d’Ivoire, appreciate who you are, give yourself a little encouragement, and you can move.
Doesn’t it happen, on an individual level, that we beat ourselves up for seeing something in someone else that we don’t possess? I’m not talking about material things; I’m talking on more of a “personhood” level. We ask ourselves: “Why am I a such a disorganized mess?” (insert thought of someone who’s organized here), “Why do I babble on like an inarticulate fool while so-and-so speaks so well?” or “Why am I not as effective at work as my colleague down the hall?“ We compare. And comparing is so dangerous. Because instead of being supportive and encouraging and loving to ourselves, so that we can achieve the next step in becoming more organized, a better speaker, or more effective at work, we put ourselves down. We beat ourselves up. We blame ourselves for not being “enough” and then we begin to think we’re shit. Something is wrong with us. Then, the destructive behavior starts. Why do addictions persist? Because people are so busy menacing themselves with how horrible they are and how they deserve nothing that they don’t love themselves enough to make the changes they want to see in their lives.
This is at least in part what I see here. Ivoirians seem to think negatively of themselves – They’re not the United States. They are less. And that’s just not fair. Just now, in the midst of writing this, I was chatting with a colleague who works at the local Ministry of Education, and he said, “But you’re more honest than us.” You, the Americans. Us, the Ivoirians. "Hell no!" I told him. "People are people, and there's plenty of dishonest people in the States." I think to myself, with a negative self-perception like that, how is this place ever going to have the spirit to make the changes they want to make?
Because of the American personality -we want more and bigger and the next best thing- there was a lot of natural motivation for invention. So the US produced electricity, human flight, the telephone, washing machines. And the list goes on. But because Americans produced this stuff, which is useful to the world-over, does that mean Ivoirians are crap? This moves on to a whole other question – are we valuable because of who we are, innately, as human beings, just for being living and breathing spirits? Or do we base our value on what we produce, what we do? Am I more valuable or better than someone because I was a pretty damn good field hockey player when I was 13 or because I entered college with a semester’s worth of college credit from college courses I took while in high school? Are you annoyed at me because I said that, asking what’s with the unnecessary bragging, the “personal plug?” Because if I read that, I would be. And that’s my point. That stuff, it means nothing. It’s stuff I did, but it’s not who I am. It’s not who my spirit is. And I’d like to see Ivoirians –and the rest of us- to give ourselves a little more compassion, a little more nurturing. We are able to achieve what we want through nurturing and pushing ourselves, not through thinking badly of ourselves. That only keeps us stuck where we are. Côte d’Ivoire, appreciate who you are, give yourself a little encouragement, and you can move.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
On cultural values.
Recently I’ve found myself getting more and more frustrated, discouraged, worried, and sad about the state of Côte d’Ivoire and the possibility of having strong infrastructure, education, health services, etc here. Teachers aren’t paid on time, often for months. There aren’t enough teachers. If there’s not an English teacher, or even a month teacher, high school students just don’t get that subject that year. There aren’t enough classrooms. High school students and teachers don’t have toilets that work. (They are disgusting, let me tell you.) There are holes in the walls between classrooms, and the classes themselves are very large, maybe 50 students in a class. “What is this?” I ask myself. A lack of funds due low tax revenue, because many people live day-to-day? Wasteful spending? Habits that don’t lend themselves to improving the situation? Really, all play their part. And I should add that, contrary to popular opinion here in Côte d’Ivoire, we have the same problems in poor neighborhoods in the States. Jonothan Kozol does a great job of painting the picture of poverty and the resulting (lack of) education in America in his book Savage Inequalities.
I feel like I do see things here that people can improve upon, but they don’t. If funds were better spent by the local and national government, could we see better services for Ivoirians? Why are there five librarians in the library where I work, and the bookshelves and books are still covered with dust? Why do a couple librarians show up to work when they want, and this is tolerated? Even when the librarians are at the library, they hang out and chat. And I ask myself, “Isn’t there work to be done?? Aren’t there many things to be improved upon?? Why are we just hanging around?? And if we don’t need five librarians, isn’t a position cut and those funds used to improve the library?”
However very recently I began to look at the slow pace of “development” in Côte d’Ivoire in a different way. I was flipping through a book of art of the Sefou, a people from what is now northern Cote d’Ivoire. The art tells a lot about the people: there were masks for dances, statues of pregnant women, headdresses for initiation ceremonies. It appears to me that they are a very spiritual people; what the art painted for me was a beautiful, rich culture. Then I began thinking. Different cultures have different values. Would we expect the Native Americans of long ago to succeed quickly in the world of Western business and modernization? It’s just not who the people seem to be. Their values are not productivity, creating the latest technology, and pushing the limit.
Looking at the history of the States, we have always been a people who are serious about pushing and fighting to get what we want, and to get more of it. People were frustrated that they couldn’t live as they wanted to, so they took a hellacious voyage to an unknown land and settled there. Then we said to the British, “We feel like you’re controlling us too much, and it’s annoying. We’ve had enough.” So a slightly ragtag militia launched a war against the military of a world power – and we won. Then there’s the Oregon Trail, the Gold Rush, and the idea of Manifest Destiny. Slavery was an effort to maximize profits. Even marginalized groups like women and blacks carry the mentality and launched fantastic and impressive movements to demand their rights. It’s like we don’t stop at anything to have what we want. Our mentality is the bigger the better; we want more, more, more. We deserve it all. And to get it, we push and fight and sacrifice, and push and fight and sacrifice some more.
It’s social Darwinism, in a way. The world leaders are those who carry certain values. Even the French lost their status as a world power after World War II, and from what I saw during my time there, they value the enjoyment of life, for example in terms of food, vacation time, or an afternoon spent at a café. They are not a culture who do the “push and fight and sacrifice.”
As I looked at the pictures and read about the meaning behind the various pieces of art, I became sad again. And I thought to myself, “You’re getting so angry and so frustrated with Ivoirians… You expect them to have the same mentality as you. We’re asking a culture that lived off the land for all their needs and had what we would call ‘tribal practices,’ (dances, initiation rites, etc) to adopt totally new values, to change their way of life.”
This morning I went to buy a little bag of attieke (dried cassava root - It looks like couscous) from a local vendor on a little dirt path near my apt. I had this moment of seeing Africa at its beauty - women cooking, children playing with each other and not with toys, a man sawing a piece of wood. Then I went to the Teacher Training College where I work, where we push paper, have meetings, and make schedules. I wish that this place wasn't colonized - that Côte d'Ivoire is a country wherein the women cook and the children play and the people are self-sufficient with what they grow from the land. I'm talking in ideals, but it just seems like the simple beauty of this place and its people and their way of life is slowly being replaced with our modern focus on business deals and having the newest and greatest and best next thing. I'm trying now to appreciate the simple moments here, the real beauty of what this place is: sitting with my colleague's 2 year old son by the fire as dinner cooks, sitting with another colleague's niece as the sun sets, chatting with my neighbors who sell fruit and food on the side of the little path near our house. Despite my worry about this country, I feel a certain peace when I take a moment to take in its physical beauty and the spirit of its people.
I feel like I do see things here that people can improve upon, but they don’t. If funds were better spent by the local and national government, could we see better services for Ivoirians? Why are there five librarians in the library where I work, and the bookshelves and books are still covered with dust? Why do a couple librarians show up to work when they want, and this is tolerated? Even when the librarians are at the library, they hang out and chat. And I ask myself, “Isn’t there work to be done?? Aren’t there many things to be improved upon?? Why are we just hanging around?? And if we don’t need five librarians, isn’t a position cut and those funds used to improve the library?”
However very recently I began to look at the slow pace of “development” in Côte d’Ivoire in a different way. I was flipping through a book of art of the Sefou, a people from what is now northern Cote d’Ivoire. The art tells a lot about the people: there were masks for dances, statues of pregnant women, headdresses for initiation ceremonies. It appears to me that they are a very spiritual people; what the art painted for me was a beautiful, rich culture. Then I began thinking. Different cultures have different values. Would we expect the Native Americans of long ago to succeed quickly in the world of Western business and modernization? It’s just not who the people seem to be. Their values are not productivity, creating the latest technology, and pushing the limit.
Looking at the history of the States, we have always been a people who are serious about pushing and fighting to get what we want, and to get more of it. People were frustrated that they couldn’t live as they wanted to, so they took a hellacious voyage to an unknown land and settled there. Then we said to the British, “We feel like you’re controlling us too much, and it’s annoying. We’ve had enough.” So a slightly ragtag militia launched a war against the military of a world power – and we won. Then there’s the Oregon Trail, the Gold Rush, and the idea of Manifest Destiny. Slavery was an effort to maximize profits. Even marginalized groups like women and blacks carry the mentality and launched fantastic and impressive movements to demand their rights. It’s like we don’t stop at anything to have what we want. Our mentality is the bigger the better; we want more, more, more. We deserve it all. And to get it, we push and fight and sacrifice, and push and fight and sacrifice some more.
It’s social Darwinism, in a way. The world leaders are those who carry certain values. Even the French lost their status as a world power after World War II, and from what I saw during my time there, they value the enjoyment of life, for example in terms of food, vacation time, or an afternoon spent at a café. They are not a culture who do the “push and fight and sacrifice.”
As I looked at the pictures and read about the meaning behind the various pieces of art, I became sad again. And I thought to myself, “You’re getting so angry and so frustrated with Ivoirians… You expect them to have the same mentality as you. We’re asking a culture that lived off the land for all their needs and had what we would call ‘tribal practices,’ (dances, initiation rites, etc) to adopt totally new values, to change their way of life.”
This morning I went to buy a little bag of attieke (dried cassava root - It looks like couscous) from a local vendor on a little dirt path near my apt. I had this moment of seeing Africa at its beauty - women cooking, children playing with each other and not with toys, a man sawing a piece of wood. Then I went to the Teacher Training College where I work, where we push paper, have meetings, and make schedules. I wish that this place wasn't colonized - that Côte d'Ivoire is a country wherein the women cook and the children play and the people are self-sufficient with what they grow from the land. I'm talking in ideals, but it just seems like the simple beauty of this place and its people and their way of life is slowly being replaced with our modern focus on business deals and having the newest and greatest and best next thing. I'm trying now to appreciate the simple moments here, the real beauty of what this place is: sitting with my colleague's 2 year old son by the fire as dinner cooks, sitting with another colleague's niece as the sun sets, chatting with my neighbors who sell fruit and food on the side of the little path near our house. Despite my worry about this country, I feel a certain peace when I take a moment to take in its physical beauty and the spirit of its people.
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