“Curmudge, our topic for today looks rather ominous. Perhaps we should start with an example. Our last discussion ended with the males of the village acquiring enough education to build systems for providing clean water and basic sanitation. Then what?”
“In their madrasa the boys undoubtedly learn reading and writing. However, if their teacher is an Islamic radical, he may also be indoctrinating them with the belief that the United States is the ‘Great Satan’ that must be destroyed by people achieving ‘martyrdom.’”
“So Curmudge, in our eyes these so-called ‘martyrs’ become murderers and suicide bombers by blowing themselves and innocent people to bits. It doesn’t do much good for these people to grow up with clean water and sanitation if their ultimate desire is to be dead before they’re old enough to grow a beard.”
“It’s even worse, Jaded Julie, when a whole nation becomes indoctrinated. Sixty-five years ago (I was 11 years old) American civilians viewed Japanese kamikaze pilots as a small group of deranged zealots willing to crash their planes onto American ships off Okinawa. Only slightly later did we learn that the whole Japanese nation had been brain-washed into believing that Americans were a sub-human race to be resisted unto death. This was clearly demonstrated by Okinawan civilians jumping to their death off high cliffs before the advancing Americans.”
“I can understand the history, Curmudge, but their psychology blows my mind. I hope the Islamic terrorists possess the only remaining vestige of such a warped mindset.”
“Unfortunately it’s not true, Julie. The modern-day North Koreans have been propagandized in much the same way as the World War II Japanese. The North Korean educational system teaches a belief in the unique moral superiority of the Korean race (1); Americans are depicted as an inherently evil race and sketched as jackals with paws and snouts.”
“Golly Curmudge, that would seem unbelievable except that it has been pounded into the minds of North Korean children for the past forty years.”
“There’s more. ‘They are also told that the South Korean masses, for all their material comfort, are ashamed of being under the thumb of the Yankees and yearn to live under Kim Jong-Il.’ The propaganda apparatus continues to assure the North Korean people that their economic sacrifices (over a million starved to death in the 1990’s) are essential to support their ‘military first’ regime and protect them from the Yankees.”
“If we didn’t know authoritatively that all this is the truth, it would seem like some sort of diabolical fairy tale. How will this situation end?”
“For our purpose, Julie, we can conclude that education can be a force for good; but when it becomes propaganda, it can become unspeakably evil. History is full of additional examples. For North Korea, the end game is a total unknown. Watch out for further writings by B. R. Myers to keep up to date on the situation (2). However if you want to sleep well at night, read medieval novels by Ken Follett.”
(1) Myers, B.R. The Cleanest Race: How North Koreans See Themselves—and Why It Matters. Available from Amazon.com. See also review by William Alexander.
(2) Myers, B.R. North Korea on the Edge. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704100604575145672974954144.html?KEYWORDS=BR+Myers
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Will education be the key to the Third World's health problems?
“Curmudge, it’s hard for me to forget about the problems of that Third World country that was our imaginary destination a few weeks ago. Wouldn’t the people’s lives be better if they could somehow get an education?”
“Jaded Julie, it depends on their culture and ultimately, on their government. With their hanging latrine, the people we visited were already one rung up on the sanitation ladder. I’m sure you recall that 2.6 billion people don’t even have a basic latrine, and many of those folks might not even appreciate the value of one. So the first step in education would be to put sanitation in the mindset of the populace.”
“What about formal education like reading and writing?”
“The dominant belief in some cultures is that women should not be educated. So in those locations at least half of their intellectual capital is wasted. Fortunately those children who are able to attend school will eventually be able to interact with their government and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to learn about developing clean water systems and basic sanitary facilities.”
“So, Curmudge, how might they obtain clean water?”
“It depends on the locale. They might dig a well or collect rainwater. Even in the U.S., my mother and her sisters used water from the rain barrel to wash their hair; it was softer than the spring water that they drank. Surface water in the Third World would have to be purified to make it safe. That could be done inexpensively by filtration through a ceramic cone or treatment with Clorox or similar chemicals. A solar still should be adequate to produce drinking water for a small family.”
“What about sanitation? There must be something for undeveloped countries that is better than that hanging latrine that we saw.”
“There are several systems, Julie, including composting pit latrines and their commercial version, the Ecosan waterless toilet. We needn’t discuss operational details other than to say that they are simple and should be inexpensive. I’ve seen these, fitted with solar panels, in national parks in the U.S.”
“We’ve done it, Curmudge. We’ve solved the water and sanitation problems of the Third World, at least theoretically. So everyone should live happily ever after.”
“It’s not necessarily so, Jaded Julie. Governments or ethnic groups can come along and turn everything we’ve said on its head. We’ll talk about that next time. You won’t like the story.”
“Jaded Julie, it depends on their culture and ultimately, on their government. With their hanging latrine, the people we visited were already one rung up on the sanitation ladder. I’m sure you recall that 2.6 billion people don’t even have a basic latrine, and many of those folks might not even appreciate the value of one. So the first step in education would be to put sanitation in the mindset of the populace.”
“What about formal education like reading and writing?”
“The dominant belief in some cultures is that women should not be educated. So in those locations at least half of their intellectual capital is wasted. Fortunately those children who are able to attend school will eventually be able to interact with their government and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to learn about developing clean water systems and basic sanitary facilities.”
“So, Curmudge, how might they obtain clean water?”
“It depends on the locale. They might dig a well or collect rainwater. Even in the U.S., my mother and her sisters used water from the rain barrel to wash their hair; it was softer than the spring water that they drank. Surface water in the Third World would have to be purified to make it safe. That could be done inexpensively by filtration through a ceramic cone or treatment with Clorox or similar chemicals. A solar still should be adequate to produce drinking water for a small family.”
“What about sanitation? There must be something for undeveloped countries that is better than that hanging latrine that we saw.”
“There are several systems, Julie, including composting pit latrines and their commercial version, the Ecosan waterless toilet. We needn’t discuss operational details other than to say that they are simple and should be inexpensive. I’ve seen these, fitted with solar panels, in national parks in the U.S.”
“We’ve done it, Curmudge. We’ve solved the water and sanitation problems of the Third World, at least theoretically. So everyone should live happily ever after.”
“It’s not necessarily so, Jaded Julie. Governments or ethnic groups can come along and turn everything we’ve said on its head. We’ll talk about that next time. You won’t like the story.”
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