There are some events that are simply massive - ‘once in a lifetime’ events. Events like the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the tragedy of 9/11, or Tsunami that hit on 26 December 2004.
But there was one event that was simply a ‘once in eternity’ event: An event so big that the whole calendar of humanity turned around to count before and after it. That event is “The Christmas story”, a historic event that, at the time, seemed so insignificant, was happening in a dirty stable in a far off land.
Just over 2000 years ago a baby was born to an ordinary young woman called Mary. That baby was Jesus; a man who would challenge the world like no other.
The Christmas narrative has everything necessary for a great story. There is political intrigue, conflict (international, national, ethnic, and marital), anticipation (the key to every good Christmas), the drama of a delivery room, fear, and amazement. Good stuff.
But one thing that makes an impression about the Christmas story is how simple and unadorned it really is. God often brings to us the profound in the midst of the ordinary. On December 26th, The Bethlehem Gazette probably read, “Joseph and Mary, a boy, 17 inches long, 7.7 lbs.” Nothing stunning. Babies are born every day.
Don’t misunderstand. The birth of a virgin-born son is no little thing. The eternal Word becoming flesh does not happen every day. The Christmas story shows how God fills the seeming insignificant with his presence and makes what might have been mundane into profound mystery.
First, we should notice the insignificant places. Our story gives passing mention to Rome, centre of the inhabited world and Syria, gateway to the East. The influential people and those who ruled others lived there. The lifestyles of the rich and famous were recorded there. But the focus is on little places, such as: Bethlehem, which used to be the city of the great king (David), Puny and insignificant Nazareth from where Mary and Joseph hail and the manger where the baby Jesus was lying.
No one cared much about Bethlehem, Nazareth, Manger and the fields. Bethlehem was nothing to write about. Certainly it was not where you’d go on your honeymoon, leave along for the birth of your first child. Nazareth too was insignificant. Nathanael later asked of Nazareth, “Can anything good come from there?” (John 1:46).
Is it just possible that Bethlehem, Nazareth, the manger, and the fields become key places in God’s self-revelation? Could it be that there really are no little places in the world? Maybe when God comes near, all the little places become big!
Second, we should notice the insignificant people. The important people of the world mentioned are: Caesar Augustus and Quirinius. But our text gives only passing reference to these men and that is probably done so as to root our story in history.
Our story focuses on a poor young couple from Nazareth. Mary and Joseph, shepherds and the innkeeper—well, not really. In fact, he is so insignificant; but, It’s amazing to notice how much importance he gets in the average Christmas pageant.
God uses ordinary people—just like you and me. It reminds us of 1 Corinthians 1:26, “Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth.” Let’s face it: the people in the Christmas story were nothing to write home about. Neither are we. Maybe when God comes near, all the little people suddenly seem to matter.
These events and features of Christ’s birth have always been interwoven with insignificant and secular stuff. The challenge for us is to ensure that Christmas is not emptied of its spiritual essence.
Do you come from a remote town? Take heart, Christmas can happen in your little town. Do you have the self-esteem of a slug and feel as if no one cares whether you live or die? Take heart, Christmas announces that you matter to God. Do you feel as if nothing big ever happens in your life? Take heart, Christmas is for you.
Christians believe that the incarnation is very significant. We believe in what Col. James Erwin, former moon walker and astronaut, once said, “God walking on the earth is more important than man walking on the moon.” Yes, Christmas is significant, but the story itself tells us that the way of God in the world is still “power through weakness.”
Showing posts with label 2007. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2007. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Salesian Heritage
“The approach to develop all facets of the students’ personality including the intellectal, emotional and spiritual, has remained the salient feature of Don Bosco educational institutions,” wrote Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in his message to the Salesian centenary souvenir, “Don Bosco India Centenary 1906 - 2006.”
Rightly do people identify and wonder at the first instance, the special charism of the Salesian; above all the great legacy left us by Don Bosco and the early Salesian.
Legacy that is Ours
Rev. Fr. Joaquim D’Souza writing about the arrival of Salesians to India remarked, “Unlike the glamour and glitter of fads, God’s work mostly begins as something small and seemingly insignificant, like the tiny mustard seed. But then it germinates, takes root, grows and becomes a mighty tree. Such was the case with that small band of five Salesian and one aspirant that landed in Bombay on 5th January a hundred years ago.”
He further added, “They knew neither the people nor the language. They were not schooled in the customs and traditions of their ultimate destination. They did not know what the future held. But in their hearts they had a dream – a dream told them by their father, Don Bosco, a dream which was theirs to realize in this land and amongst these peoples, especially the young and the poor.”
While this was the humble beginning of the Salesian work in India, in a recent conference to the Salesians in Chennai Fr. Joaquim said, “By the mere fact that the Salesians are invited to animate the various congregations in different parts of the country is a sign that the Salesian legacy is a rich legacy and it is paying results.” The legacy left behind by Don Bosco and early Salesians is considered to be the greatest treasure for Salesians and for the youth for whom every effort of theirs is directed.
“By the mere fact
that the salesians are invited
to animate the various congregations
in different parts of the country
is a sign that the Salesian legacy
is a rich legacy and it is paying results.”
Constituents of the Salesian Heritage
The legacy which was a design made known by the Lord to Don Bosco constituted a spiritual and apostolic experience lived initially at Valdocco; it grew and acquired further clarity through the years; it flourished in innumerable new places and flowed in the passage of time.
Quoting the Holy See’s document on relations between bishops and religious Fr. Egidio Vigano said, “…it speaks of an experience of the Spirit transmitted to disciples to be lived, safeguarded, deepened and constantly developed in harmony with the Body of Christ in constant development. This Founder’s heritage is manifested in the special style of sanctification and apostolate lived according to its particular tradition that allows its elements to be adequately visible and objectively distinguished.”
Thus this legacy constitutes the charism of the founder, Don Bosco, the Methodology he proposed after a lived experience and the many special promptings of the spirit and the Blessed Mother.
The unifying Force of Salesian Charism
The Salesian Family of Don Bosco is a charismatic reality; in other words, it is a gift of the Holy Spirit to the Church, destined to grow and extend itself among the People of God. It has a determined and constant scope that transcends the changing circum-stances of time and place.
The congregation envisaged by the founder grew so big in to a great Salesian Family. Many groups formed part of the Salesian family with their specific differences but with a unifying force of Salesian charism.
The Salesians, the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, the Co-operators, the Don Bosco Volunteers, the Past Pupils and various other groups with their own specific characterizations form part of the Salesian Family.
The unifying force of Don Bosco’s charism has indeed given rise to a spiritual family that is unique, variegated and possessing many branches; it constitutes a kind of atmosphere of spiritual serenity from which no one is excluded; it is open to all races, nationalities and pluralistic cultures; no continent is excluded.
Family Spirit – the Hallmark
One of the greatest gifts left by Don Bosco is family spirit. The constitution tells us that the Salesians, if they are faithful to the spirit of Don Bosco, establish within their communities that unmistakable style of relationship which is known as family spirit.
It is family spirit that unites us. The model for the Salesian family spirit is in the first place the life the oratory at Valdocco, where Don Bosco lived as a father among his boys and collaborators.
In those days the oratory was truly a family. Don Bosco ran the oratory as a large family and the boys really felt as if they had never left their homes. Peaceful joy, unmarred by worry, ruled the oratory and family spirit brightened its life.
System of Education
Pope John Paul II in his letter Juvenum Patris wrote, “Don Bosco realized his personal holiness through an educative commitment.” This system is based entirely on reason, religion and above all on loving-kindness.
His pastoral praxis and pedagogical style spring from this experience. Love and pastoral charity unifies and drives the Salesian to be in the Church sign and bearer of God’s love for the young.
Having such great legacy there is a lot of expectation from the Church and the youth. Not only understanding this legacy, but also living up to it is the greatest challenge posed to the followers of Don Bosco. The Salesian Family demands a commitment to convergent action in offering an appropriate and exacting accom-paniment to each young person following the same legacy.
Rightly do people identify and wonder at the first instance, the special charism of the Salesian; above all the great legacy left us by Don Bosco and the early Salesian.
Legacy that is Ours
Rev. Fr. Joaquim D’Souza writing about the arrival of Salesians to India remarked, “Unlike the glamour and glitter of fads, God’s work mostly begins as something small and seemingly insignificant, like the tiny mustard seed. But then it germinates, takes root, grows and becomes a mighty tree. Such was the case with that small band of five Salesian and one aspirant that landed in Bombay on 5th January a hundred years ago.”
He further added, “They knew neither the people nor the language. They were not schooled in the customs and traditions of their ultimate destination. They did not know what the future held. But in their hearts they had a dream – a dream told them by their father, Don Bosco, a dream which was theirs to realize in this land and amongst these peoples, especially the young and the poor.”
While this was the humble beginning of the Salesian work in India, in a recent conference to the Salesians in Chennai Fr. Joaquim said, “By the mere fact that the Salesians are invited to animate the various congregations in different parts of the country is a sign that the Salesian legacy is a rich legacy and it is paying results.” The legacy left behind by Don Bosco and early Salesians is considered to be the greatest treasure for Salesians and for the youth for whom every effort of theirs is directed.
“By the mere fact
that the salesians are invited
to animate the various congregations
in different parts of the country
is a sign that the Salesian legacy
is a rich legacy and it is paying results.”
Constituents of the Salesian Heritage
The legacy which was a design made known by the Lord to Don Bosco constituted a spiritual and apostolic experience lived initially at Valdocco; it grew and acquired further clarity through the years; it flourished in innumerable new places and flowed in the passage of time.
Quoting the Holy See’s document on relations between bishops and religious Fr. Egidio Vigano said, “…it speaks of an experience of the Spirit transmitted to disciples to be lived, safeguarded, deepened and constantly developed in harmony with the Body of Christ in constant development. This Founder’s heritage is manifested in the special style of sanctification and apostolate lived according to its particular tradition that allows its elements to be adequately visible and objectively distinguished.”
Thus this legacy constitutes the charism of the founder, Don Bosco, the Methodology he proposed after a lived experience and the many special promptings of the spirit and the Blessed Mother.
The unifying Force of Salesian Charism
The Salesian Family of Don Bosco is a charismatic reality; in other words, it is a gift of the Holy Spirit to the Church, destined to grow and extend itself among the People of God. It has a determined and constant scope that transcends the changing circum-stances of time and place.
The congregation envisaged by the founder grew so big in to a great Salesian Family. Many groups formed part of the Salesian family with their specific differences but with a unifying force of Salesian charism.
The Salesians, the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, the Co-operators, the Don Bosco Volunteers, the Past Pupils and various other groups with their own specific characterizations form part of the Salesian Family.
The unifying force of Don Bosco’s charism has indeed given rise to a spiritual family that is unique, variegated and possessing many branches; it constitutes a kind of atmosphere of spiritual serenity from which no one is excluded; it is open to all races, nationalities and pluralistic cultures; no continent is excluded.
Family Spirit – the Hallmark
One of the greatest gifts left by Don Bosco is family spirit. The constitution tells us that the Salesians, if they are faithful to the spirit of Don Bosco, establish within their communities that unmistakable style of relationship which is known as family spirit.
It is family spirit that unites us. The model for the Salesian family spirit is in the first place the life the oratory at Valdocco, where Don Bosco lived as a father among his boys and collaborators.
In those days the oratory was truly a family. Don Bosco ran the oratory as a large family and the boys really felt as if they had never left their homes. Peaceful joy, unmarred by worry, ruled the oratory and family spirit brightened its life.
System of Education
Pope John Paul II in his letter Juvenum Patris wrote, “Don Bosco realized his personal holiness through an educative commitment.” This system is based entirely on reason, religion and above all on loving-kindness.
His pastoral praxis and pedagogical style spring from this experience. Love and pastoral charity unifies and drives the Salesian to be in the Church sign and bearer of God’s love for the young.
Having such great legacy there is a lot of expectation from the Church and the youth. Not only understanding this legacy, but also living up to it is the greatest challenge posed to the followers of Don Bosco. The Salesian Family demands a commitment to convergent action in offering an appropriate and exacting accom-paniment to each young person following the same legacy.
Nurturing the Gift of Ancient Heritage
“I am convinced that the world is not a mere bog in which men and women trample themselves in the mire and die. Something magnificent is taking place here amid the cruelties and tragedies, and the supreme challenge to intelligence is that of making the noblest and best in our curious heritage prevail.” - Charles Austin Beard US Historian
Nultural heritage is the legacy of physical artifacts and intangible attributes of a group or society that are inherited from past generations, maintained in the present and bestowed for the benefit of future generations. Often though, what is considered cultural heritage by one generation may be rejected by the next generation, only to be revived by a succeeding generation.
Physical or “tangible cultural heritage” includes buildings and historic places, monuments, artifacts, etc., that are considered worthy of preservation for the future. These include objects significant to the archaeology, architecture, science or technology of a specific culture. “Natural heritage” is also an important part of a culture, encompassing the countryside and natural environment, including flora and fauna. These kind of heritage sites often serve as an important component in a country’s tourist industry, attracting many visitors from abroad as well as locally.
The heritage that survives from the past is often unique and irreplaceable, which places the responsibility of preservation on the current generation. Smaller objects such as artworks and other cultural masterpieces are collected in museums and art galleries. Grass roots organizations and political groups have been successful in gaining the necessary support to preserve the heritage of many nations for the future.
A broader definition includes intangible aspects of a particular culture, often maintained by social customs during a specific period in history. The ways and means of behaviour in a society often, form as rules for operating in a particular cultural climate. These include social values and traditions, customs and practices, aesthetic and spiritual beliefs, artistic expression, language and other aspects of human activity. The significance of physical artifacts can be interpreted against the backdrop of socioeconomic, political, ethnic, religious and philosophical values of a particular group of people. Naturally, intangible cultural heritage is more difficult to preserve than physical objects.
There are examples of apologies by the pope for the past of the Catholic Church or of the Australian government to the aborigines.
Heritage as a term
Though it seems to represent what is ‘dead’, heritage is very much a living idea - it is about the present and the future as much as the past. An object or an activity can be considered today ‘heritage’. Heritage has become both affective and moral. But as a term representing both what should be valued and conserved publicly from the past, and as an attitude of respect to it, seems to be a late 20th century development. Many contemporary dictionaries give no prominence to this meaning or sometimes do not even record it.
The word heritage without doubt is a living term whose meaning is still developing - its definition is certainly not fixed yet. Heritage therefore as an attitude to the past is very much a product of our own historical period. As the world continues to change, both the concept itself and what it includes will continue to shift too.
Wealth of Heritage
World Heritage Department of Environment and Conservation came out with the significance of our heritage, “World Heritage sites are natural and cultural sites of universal significance to mankind. Each has been chosen for their enormous value to the people of the world and represent our greatest natural and cultural treasures.” Some of the sites include famous places known to all people, such as the Pyramids of Egypt, the Taj Mahal, the Grand Canyon and our own Great Barrier Reef. World Heritage is about recognizing these sites and their universal significance. It is also about ensuring that their enormous heritage value is passed on to future generations.
Benoy K. Behl, art historian, film-maker and photographer, has done pioneering work in documenting India’s art heritage. He has taken over 30,000 photographs of Indian monuments and art objects and made 100 documentaries on art history. His exhibitions have been held in 24 countries.
Why know Heritage at all?
“It is rightly said that the nation or the society, which does not know its heritage, cannot fully comprehend its present and hence is unable to steer its future. India’s most valued and revered gift not only to Herself but also to the entire humanity is its profound and timeless heritage,” says Naganath R. Ramdasi on the importance of understanding and nurturing the cultural heritage of one’s own society.
By knowing heritage we learn to appreciate the wealth of our land. French scholar Romain Rolland expressed, “If there is one place on the face of earth where all the dreams of living men have found a home from the very earliest days when man began the dream of existence, it is India.”
We learn also to appreciate other people. We begin to take in whatever is good for our culture and for the rest of the world. On scientific heritage of India, Albert Einstein once remarked, “We owe a lot to the Indians, who taught us how to count, without which no worthwhile scientific discovery could have been made.”
While the commentaries of Max Muller and Will Durant are well known, Mark Twain said, “India is the cradle of the human race, the birthplace of human speech, the mother of history, the grandmother of legend, and the great grandmother of tradition. Our most valuable and most instructive materials in the history of man are treasured up in India only.” Such realization helps us to treasure our own contribution to the world at large. Thus we begin to appreciate ourselves. This helps us to move forward to the next phase in history.
Forms of Heritage
“The World’s most valued and revered gift is not only to herself but also to the entire humanity known for its profound and timeless heritage. Heritage encompasses almost every aspect of human inquiry, exploration and existence covering philosophy and religion, language and literature, metaphysics and sciences, polity and social living, habitat and architecture, dance and music, and arts and crafts,” says Ramdasi.
Summed up here are some of the most common forms of heritage.
Aboriginal heritage includes Aboriginal sites, objects and remains. Maritime heritage includes underwater sites such as shipwrecks and land sites such as lighthouses, jetties and whaling stations. Movable cultural heritage includes historical objects, which are in the country. Many movable objects are housed in museums, which have a variety of methods for recording and managing their collections. The many types of natural heritage includes wilderness, coastlines and estuaries, native vegetation and threatened species.
Heritage, above all is a confident assertion of values and attitudes rather than the intrinsic nature of a historical object.
Ways to Keep Alive Heritage
Keeping heritage alive is a herculean task. Apart from talking about them to people and visiting those heritage sites, people should have a proper understanding of them.
Above all applying them in our lives particularly those good old customs and traditions which are essential to create a harmonious self and community. The Frontline states, “One of the remarkable aspects of early Indian art is that the focus was not on individuals and there were no portraits, even of the kings who were its patrons. In fact, Chitrasutra states that eternal themes and not personalities are the fitting subject of art.”
We see a vision of the world and the roots of a culture that has survived for more than 5,000 years.
Can Heritage be Only Positive?
Does heritage have to be positive? The word has inherited some appalling events in the 20th century like genocides and natural calamities among many others. There are the lost heritages e.g. the descendants of slaves, a present people whose past heritage is somehow cut off; or the holocaust, a past heritage without a present people.
Are we responsible for the past - do we have a corporate or even individual responsibility for it? There are examples of apologies by the Popes for the past of the Catholic church or of the Australian government to the aborigines; the British government is notoriously slow in this e.g. with regard to Ireland or its role in the slave trade. All very difficult and sensitive areas and nobody comes away with ‘clean hands’.
In an article to the Frontline, Benoy K. Behl wrote, “The art of ancient India brings before us a vision of great compassion. It is a view of the world that sees a harmony in the whole of creation. It sees the same that is in each of us, in the animals, the flowers, the trees, the leaves and even in the breeze that moves the leaves. All that there is, is seen to be a reflection of the One.”
From the early river valley civilization onwards, we see the foundations of the art of one of the oldest civilizations of the world. We see a vision of the world and the roots of a culture that has survived for more than 5,000 years.
What makes it so fascinating is that this is a culture that continues to this day.
All the learning about cultural heritage is not for making one an intellectual; but, to understand oneself against the complexities of the universe and against the passing of bygone years.
Nultural heritage is the legacy of physical artifacts and intangible attributes of a group or society that are inherited from past generations, maintained in the present and bestowed for the benefit of future generations. Often though, what is considered cultural heritage by one generation may be rejected by the next generation, only to be revived by a succeeding generation.
Physical or “tangible cultural heritage” includes buildings and historic places, monuments, artifacts, etc., that are considered worthy of preservation for the future. These include objects significant to the archaeology, architecture, science or technology of a specific culture. “Natural heritage” is also an important part of a culture, encompassing the countryside and natural environment, including flora and fauna. These kind of heritage sites often serve as an important component in a country’s tourist industry, attracting many visitors from abroad as well as locally.
The heritage that survives from the past is often unique and irreplaceable, which places the responsibility of preservation on the current generation. Smaller objects such as artworks and other cultural masterpieces are collected in museums and art galleries. Grass roots organizations and political groups have been successful in gaining the necessary support to preserve the heritage of many nations for the future.
A broader definition includes intangible aspects of a particular culture, often maintained by social customs during a specific period in history. The ways and means of behaviour in a society often, form as rules for operating in a particular cultural climate. These include social values and traditions, customs and practices, aesthetic and spiritual beliefs, artistic expression, language and other aspects of human activity. The significance of physical artifacts can be interpreted against the backdrop of socioeconomic, political, ethnic, religious and philosophical values of a particular group of people. Naturally, intangible cultural heritage is more difficult to preserve than physical objects.
There are examples of apologies by the pope for the past of the Catholic Church or of the Australian government to the aborigines.
Heritage as a term
Though it seems to represent what is ‘dead’, heritage is very much a living idea - it is about the present and the future as much as the past. An object or an activity can be considered today ‘heritage’. Heritage has become both affective and moral. But as a term representing both what should be valued and conserved publicly from the past, and as an attitude of respect to it, seems to be a late 20th century development. Many contemporary dictionaries give no prominence to this meaning or sometimes do not even record it.
The word heritage without doubt is a living term whose meaning is still developing - its definition is certainly not fixed yet. Heritage therefore as an attitude to the past is very much a product of our own historical period. As the world continues to change, both the concept itself and what it includes will continue to shift too.
Wealth of Heritage
World Heritage Department of Environment and Conservation came out with the significance of our heritage, “World Heritage sites are natural and cultural sites of universal significance to mankind. Each has been chosen for their enormous value to the people of the world and represent our greatest natural and cultural treasures.” Some of the sites include famous places known to all people, such as the Pyramids of Egypt, the Taj Mahal, the Grand Canyon and our own Great Barrier Reef. World Heritage is about recognizing these sites and their universal significance. It is also about ensuring that their enormous heritage value is passed on to future generations.
Benoy K. Behl, art historian, film-maker and photographer, has done pioneering work in documenting India’s art heritage. He has taken over 30,000 photographs of Indian monuments and art objects and made 100 documentaries on art history. His exhibitions have been held in 24 countries.
Why know Heritage at all?
“It is rightly said that the nation or the society, which does not know its heritage, cannot fully comprehend its present and hence is unable to steer its future. India’s most valued and revered gift not only to Herself but also to the entire humanity is its profound and timeless heritage,” says Naganath R. Ramdasi on the importance of understanding and nurturing the cultural heritage of one’s own society.
By knowing heritage we learn to appreciate the wealth of our land. French scholar Romain Rolland expressed, “If there is one place on the face of earth where all the dreams of living men have found a home from the very earliest days when man began the dream of existence, it is India.”
We learn also to appreciate other people. We begin to take in whatever is good for our culture and for the rest of the world. On scientific heritage of India, Albert Einstein once remarked, “We owe a lot to the Indians, who taught us how to count, without which no worthwhile scientific discovery could have been made.”
While the commentaries of Max Muller and Will Durant are well known, Mark Twain said, “India is the cradle of the human race, the birthplace of human speech, the mother of history, the grandmother of legend, and the great grandmother of tradition. Our most valuable and most instructive materials in the history of man are treasured up in India only.” Such realization helps us to treasure our own contribution to the world at large. Thus we begin to appreciate ourselves. This helps us to move forward to the next phase in history.
Forms of Heritage
“The World’s most valued and revered gift is not only to herself but also to the entire humanity known for its profound and timeless heritage. Heritage encompasses almost every aspect of human inquiry, exploration and existence covering philosophy and religion, language and literature, metaphysics and sciences, polity and social living, habitat and architecture, dance and music, and arts and crafts,” says Ramdasi.
Summed up here are some of the most common forms of heritage.
Aboriginal heritage includes Aboriginal sites, objects and remains. Maritime heritage includes underwater sites such as shipwrecks and land sites such as lighthouses, jetties and whaling stations. Movable cultural heritage includes historical objects, which are in the country. Many movable objects are housed in museums, which have a variety of methods for recording and managing their collections. The many types of natural heritage includes wilderness, coastlines and estuaries, native vegetation and threatened species.
Heritage, above all is a confident assertion of values and attitudes rather than the intrinsic nature of a historical object.
Ways to Keep Alive Heritage
Keeping heritage alive is a herculean task. Apart from talking about them to people and visiting those heritage sites, people should have a proper understanding of them.
Above all applying them in our lives particularly those good old customs and traditions which are essential to create a harmonious self and community. The Frontline states, “One of the remarkable aspects of early Indian art is that the focus was not on individuals and there were no portraits, even of the kings who were its patrons. In fact, Chitrasutra states that eternal themes and not personalities are the fitting subject of art.”
We see a vision of the world and the roots of a culture that has survived for more than 5,000 years.
Can Heritage be Only Positive?
Does heritage have to be positive? The word has inherited some appalling events in the 20th century like genocides and natural calamities among many others. There are the lost heritages e.g. the descendants of slaves, a present people whose past heritage is somehow cut off; or the holocaust, a past heritage without a present people.
Are we responsible for the past - do we have a corporate or even individual responsibility for it? There are examples of apologies by the Popes for the past of the Catholic church or of the Australian government to the aborigines; the British government is notoriously slow in this e.g. with regard to Ireland or its role in the slave trade. All very difficult and sensitive areas and nobody comes away with ‘clean hands’.
In an article to the Frontline, Benoy K. Behl wrote, “The art of ancient India brings before us a vision of great compassion. It is a view of the world that sees a harmony in the whole of creation. It sees the same that is in each of us, in the animals, the flowers, the trees, the leaves and even in the breeze that moves the leaves. All that there is, is seen to be a reflection of the One.”
From the early river valley civilization onwards, we see the foundations of the art of one of the oldest civilizations of the world. We see a vision of the world and the roots of a culture that has survived for more than 5,000 years.
What makes it so fascinating is that this is a culture that continues to this day.
All the learning about cultural heritage is not for making one an intellectual; but, to understand oneself against the complexities of the universe and against the passing of bygone years.
The wisdom of the ages
Every being and every thing in this universe seem to beconnected. There is connectedness between the people who lived and are going to occupy the planet earth.
There is also interrelatedness between animate and inanimate beings. It appeard to the enlightened that they were living amidst one great big reality.
People from various places and times differed in food habit, dress code, climatic context and other external features; but there is harmony in their search for meaning, struggle for life and the way they solved their problems.
They walked the same earth as we do. They shared the same dream, aspired for the same truth, hoped for the same future as we do now. We share many things in common. In that way we are connected with our ancestors.
People learnt secrets about living not only from other cultures but also from animals, plants and other beings.
This collective wisdom of the ages is what we call heritage or cultural heritage. Albert Camus wrote, “Without culture, and the relative freedom it implies, society, even when perfect, is but a jungle. This is why any authentic creation is a gift to the future.” It is for this purpose everyone needs to nourish the gift of heritage.
Heritage is such a strong term that it seems to have become popularly interchangeable with history itself. It suggests however some obligation on the part of the present to the past and also on behalf of the future, and that the past should give us in some way a lesson for the present and future.
Heritage suggests continuity, perhaps of ideals felt to be in decline, and usually suggests some fixity of form or practice.
Heritage, like tradition, is a way of managing the past, managing history and (re)presenting it in the present.
Heritage is in a sense, not only a ‘reading’ of the past but a ‘writing’ of it - a way of establishing ‘history’ itself. This places considerable responsibility on the presentation and also offers great opportunities for manipulation of it for commercial ends.
There are many contradictions. Ironically something becomes ‘heritage’ only when it is in danger of being lost.
Heritage suggests agreement about what is to be valued and what an object or activity means - whereas at the time of its creation and use there would certainly have been conflicts of opinion.
Certain elements of heritage considered to be noble for some groups of people have been diametrically opposed to other groups of people.
Caste system for example is a bad influence that corrupted the Indian heritage. This stratification, though deplorable and hated by everyone due to its penetration in the daily life of the people, is an evil affecting the finest thread of our heritage.
Similarly, India’s social structure is a unique blend of diverse religious, cultural, linguistic and racial groups. But this fine unification is often threatened by elements of hate.
The heritage handed on by Don Bosco and the early Salesians is not a mere collection of rules and regulations. Instead, it is the collaborative effort of Don Bosco with God and our Blessed Mother together with the collective wisdom of so many of the dedicated Salesians.
From 14th to 20th of this month we celebrate the world heritage week. It is a week to reflect about our roots and the meaning of our life.
We need to understand that the wisdom of the ages is collectively presented to us in the form of heritage. Making sense of it is our duty. It is primarily the duty of those who call themselves educators.
Just as Branch Rickey says, “What matters is not the honour that you take with you, but the heritage you leave behind.” After all what we need to do is to leave our best contributions to the society. When it is done, we should sit and rejoice in our own works, for that is our heritage.
There is also interrelatedness between animate and inanimate beings. It appeard to the enlightened that they were living amidst one great big reality.
People from various places and times differed in food habit, dress code, climatic context and other external features; but there is harmony in their search for meaning, struggle for life and the way they solved their problems.
They walked the same earth as we do. They shared the same dream, aspired for the same truth, hoped for the same future as we do now. We share many things in common. In that way we are connected with our ancestors.
People learnt secrets about living not only from other cultures but also from animals, plants and other beings.
This collective wisdom of the ages is what we call heritage or cultural heritage. Albert Camus wrote, “Without culture, and the relative freedom it implies, society, even when perfect, is but a jungle. This is why any authentic creation is a gift to the future.” It is for this purpose everyone needs to nourish the gift of heritage.
Heritage is such a strong term that it seems to have become popularly interchangeable with history itself. It suggests however some obligation on the part of the present to the past and also on behalf of the future, and that the past should give us in some way a lesson for the present and future.
Heritage suggests continuity, perhaps of ideals felt to be in decline, and usually suggests some fixity of form or practice.
Heritage, like tradition, is a way of managing the past, managing history and (re)presenting it in the present.
Heritage is in a sense, not only a ‘reading’ of the past but a ‘writing’ of it - a way of establishing ‘history’ itself. This places considerable responsibility on the presentation and also offers great opportunities for manipulation of it for commercial ends.
There are many contradictions. Ironically something becomes ‘heritage’ only when it is in danger of being lost.
Heritage suggests agreement about what is to be valued and what an object or activity means - whereas at the time of its creation and use there would certainly have been conflicts of opinion.
Certain elements of heritage considered to be noble for some groups of people have been diametrically opposed to other groups of people.
Caste system for example is a bad influence that corrupted the Indian heritage. This stratification, though deplorable and hated by everyone due to its penetration in the daily life of the people, is an evil affecting the finest thread of our heritage.
Similarly, India’s social structure is a unique blend of diverse religious, cultural, linguistic and racial groups. But this fine unification is often threatened by elements of hate.
The heritage handed on by Don Bosco and the early Salesians is not a mere collection of rules and regulations. Instead, it is the collaborative effort of Don Bosco with God and our Blessed Mother together with the collective wisdom of so many of the dedicated Salesians.
From 14th to 20th of this month we celebrate the world heritage week. It is a week to reflect about our roots and the meaning of our life.
We need to understand that the wisdom of the ages is collectively presented to us in the form of heritage. Making sense of it is our duty. It is primarily the duty of those who call themselves educators.
Just as Branch Rickey says, “What matters is not the honour that you take with you, but the heritage you leave behind.” After all what we need to do is to leave our best contributions to the society. When it is done, we should sit and rejoice in our own works, for that is our heritage.
The African mission at a crossroads
Statistics show that 75% of theAfrican population is below 30years of age. Where there is youth population, especially at risk, there is work for Salesians. The fact that Africa has the vast majority of their youth population, particularly at risk and below 30 years of age, shows that the Salesians have lot of work. It is quite clear that most of the population belong to the category of children and youth.
The situation of Turin in 1840 is the case in Africa now in 2007. As in Turin, the African cities are becoming hubs of life and services. A lot of industries are being started to meet the needs of the global society. Such industrialisation has led to urbanisation in the case of Africa too. People are flocking to cities to get employed and most often unskilled youngsters are victimised in the process since Africa is a vast land where education and other social amenities are not that easily available. The cities claim to provide many facilities to these vagrant youth. So the young people run to cities and they have the usual problems like housing, unemployment, HIV/AIDS and so on.
The youngsters are victimised particularly when they are not prepared in terms of education and skills. So the relevance of Salesian work is felt all the more. The need, to educate and prevent problems, is felt all the more in the rural areas.
The African morality works on social control, tradition and social taboos. Whereas in the urbanised society there is no social control because there is anonymity and so there is a collapse of moral system.
Against this setting Fr. Selvam classifies the African mission in to two important dimensions. They are : 1. Curative and therapeutic work in urban areas and 2. Preventive work in rural areas.
From the View Point of the African Church
For many here in Africa, The face of Don Bosco, which we are so familiar, is relatively new. But, today Bishops appreciate the Salesians and their work. Perhaps they would have studied a little about Don Bosco when they were young. The face of Don Bosco, which was hazy and muddled, is clearly seen in the faces of the Salesians. They have great expectations from the Salesians. They know that Salesians have solutions to the problems of the African youth. This is the impression they have about the Salesians in Africa.
In East Africa we have about 35 to 40 pending requests from Bishops who want us to work with them and some even give unconditional offers. Even the lay people want to give their property to us but we have no personnel to make use of the places offered. Some of the Italians and even some Goans settled there are ready to give their land to us for our ministry. Thus helps are pouring in a big way.
Local Vocations
In the African province, Sudan is one after Congo to have complete cycle of formation from the aspirantate to the theologate and even the magisterium for Salesian Brothers. There has been a trend to invest on personnel particularly in formation houses, though this reduces the number of Salesian personnel to serve in our missions. It is true that other provinces are benefitting from us as a result of this. "It is worth mentioning that there are over 20 priests from the province of Sudan,"says Fr. John Peter. With limited personnel, a province is able to think of sparing confrerers for the rest of the provinces is something great.
Area of ministry
A variety of ministry is carried out in Africa. Indian confreres are very comfortable with schools. The Polish are experts in running parishes. The Italians are efficient in running technical schools. Holland and Belgium provide many services to the Africans. Africa needs academic schools and that is why, many youngsters come to India for academic studies.
Starting technical schools will not be a solution to the youth of Sudan. Take for example Iringa, a city in Sudan needs 20 carpenters every year. But you train 100 of them. They either become unemployed or are underemployed. After finishing their technical qualification they do not want to venture into other types of jobs, "says Fr. John Peter.
So focus on technical schools will not be a solution to their livelihood. "Initially we focussed on schools but right now our ministry is diversified. Working for Refugees, street children, schools, animation centres, media centre by name Beams and parishes are the ministries that are offered," says Fr.Selvam.
Critical Aspects of Project Africa
The Indian Salesians have carried with them a very rich Salesian heritage, thanks to the early missionaries in India. "As Indian heritage, we have very rich spirituality and deep ascetical life. Our simple lifestyle and deep spirituality pose a big challenge to the African culture," says Fr. Selvam.
The Indian Salesians have transplanted their style, mentality and even their problems into the African situations. The weakness of East African mission model is actually the model that was proposed to the Indian provinces some twenty five years ago, i.e. the institutional model. Too soon the Salesians started setting up institutions and stabilising them. As a result, from 1980 to 1994 there were only three communities in East Africa.
Both the European Salesians and the Indian Salesians went into African mission. While the European Salesians came with a preserving attitude, Indian Salesians came with an expanding attitude. "If only we had international group of Salesians for a joint venture, we would have projected the Salesian identity in a more powerful manner," says Fr. Selvam.
The congregation has done a lot for Africa. With the support of the Salesian NGOs huge sum of money was pumped in. Project Africa is an example of networking. Indians have skills and Europeans, money. When these two can be helped to network the dream of Don Bosco can be kept alive in the African Continent. By working together this great dream can be realised.
There were times when Rome got alarmed about the fast expansion of East Africa. Since 1994, the major superiors started speaking on consolidation. For example, a community should consist of at least three Salesians. It is difficult to realise that the success of the Indian Salesianity lies in its ever expanding nature.
The present crisis, of lack of vocations in Europe, could be attributed to this attitude of limiting ourselves, says Fr. Selvam.
Wherever there is consolidation, there is stagnation. African mission bore the brunt of this stagnating consolidation for a while. This even led many to leave the missions because there were no new challenges and no reality to face. Many Salesians returned to India as a consequence of this consolidation process. This is the situation towards which East Africa is heading. The fact that the confreres were not allowed to go ahead with certain momentum can lull the growth for ever has become a lesson for the future.
Writing for the centenary souvenir, Fr. Joseph Pulikkal SDB, Provincial, wrote about the challenges still faced, " In spite of the progress made in the past 25 years, we still have immense challenges to face, such as poverty, illiteracy, HIV/AIDS, unemployment, corrosion of culture, and want of religious education."
With all these pressing demands placed on the Salesians, there is a move by Salesians to consolidate on the one hand and the desire to expand and keep Don Bosco alive on the other. The Salesians are at a crossroads today as they are having their Silver Jubilee Celebrations of the arrival of Project Africa. Today, there is a need to be challenged by the ‘new frontiers’ that the Rector Major is speaking about. Just as Don Bosco dreamt of going to various places not yet reached by others, the Salesians need to dream about reaching such unreachable shores.
The situation of Turin in 1840 is the case in Africa now in 2007. As in Turin, the African cities are becoming hubs of life and services. A lot of industries are being started to meet the needs of the global society. Such industrialisation has led to urbanisation in the case of Africa too. People are flocking to cities to get employed and most often unskilled youngsters are victimised in the process since Africa is a vast land where education and other social amenities are not that easily available. The cities claim to provide many facilities to these vagrant youth. So the young people run to cities and they have the usual problems like housing, unemployment, HIV/AIDS and so on.
The youngsters are victimised particularly when they are not prepared in terms of education and skills. So the relevance of Salesian work is felt all the more. The need, to educate and prevent problems, is felt all the more in the rural areas.
The African morality works on social control, tradition and social taboos. Whereas in the urbanised society there is no social control because there is anonymity and so there is a collapse of moral system.
Against this setting Fr. Selvam classifies the African mission in to two important dimensions. They are : 1. Curative and therapeutic work in urban areas and 2. Preventive work in rural areas.
From the View Point of the African Church
For many here in Africa, The face of Don Bosco, which we are so familiar, is relatively new. But, today Bishops appreciate the Salesians and their work. Perhaps they would have studied a little about Don Bosco when they were young. The face of Don Bosco, which was hazy and muddled, is clearly seen in the faces of the Salesians. They have great expectations from the Salesians. They know that Salesians have solutions to the problems of the African youth. This is the impression they have about the Salesians in Africa.
In East Africa we have about 35 to 40 pending requests from Bishops who want us to work with them and some even give unconditional offers. Even the lay people want to give their property to us but we have no personnel to make use of the places offered. Some of the Italians and even some Goans settled there are ready to give their land to us for our ministry. Thus helps are pouring in a big way.
Local Vocations
In the African province, Sudan is one after Congo to have complete cycle of formation from the aspirantate to the theologate and even the magisterium for Salesian Brothers. There has been a trend to invest on personnel particularly in formation houses, though this reduces the number of Salesian personnel to serve in our missions. It is true that other provinces are benefitting from us as a result of this. "It is worth mentioning that there are over 20 priests from the province of Sudan,"says Fr. John Peter. With limited personnel, a province is able to think of sparing confrerers for the rest of the provinces is something great.
Area of ministry
A variety of ministry is carried out in Africa. Indian confreres are very comfortable with schools. The Polish are experts in running parishes. The Italians are efficient in running technical schools. Holland and Belgium provide many services to the Africans. Africa needs academic schools and that is why, many youngsters come to India for academic studies.
Starting technical schools will not be a solution to the youth of Sudan. Take for example Iringa, a city in Sudan needs 20 carpenters every year. But you train 100 of them. They either become unemployed or are underemployed. After finishing their technical qualification they do not want to venture into other types of jobs, "says Fr. John Peter.
So focus on technical schools will not be a solution to their livelihood. "Initially we focussed on schools but right now our ministry is diversified. Working for Refugees, street children, schools, animation centres, media centre by name Beams and parishes are the ministries that are offered," says Fr.Selvam.
Critical Aspects of Project Africa
The Indian Salesians have carried with them a very rich Salesian heritage, thanks to the early missionaries in India. "As Indian heritage, we have very rich spirituality and deep ascetical life. Our simple lifestyle and deep spirituality pose a big challenge to the African culture," says Fr. Selvam.
The Indian Salesians have transplanted their style, mentality and even their problems into the African situations. The weakness of East African mission model is actually the model that was proposed to the Indian provinces some twenty five years ago, i.e. the institutional model. Too soon the Salesians started setting up institutions and stabilising them. As a result, from 1980 to 1994 there were only three communities in East Africa.
Both the European Salesians and the Indian Salesians went into African mission. While the European Salesians came with a preserving attitude, Indian Salesians came with an expanding attitude. "If only we had international group of Salesians for a joint venture, we would have projected the Salesian identity in a more powerful manner," says Fr. Selvam.
The congregation has done a lot for Africa. With the support of the Salesian NGOs huge sum of money was pumped in. Project Africa is an example of networking. Indians have skills and Europeans, money. When these two can be helped to network the dream of Don Bosco can be kept alive in the African Continent. By working together this great dream can be realised.
There were times when Rome got alarmed about the fast expansion of East Africa. Since 1994, the major superiors started speaking on consolidation. For example, a community should consist of at least three Salesians. It is difficult to realise that the success of the Indian Salesianity lies in its ever expanding nature.
The present crisis, of lack of vocations in Europe, could be attributed to this attitude of limiting ourselves, says Fr. Selvam.
Wherever there is consolidation, there is stagnation. African mission bore the brunt of this stagnating consolidation for a while. This even led many to leave the missions because there were no new challenges and no reality to face. Many Salesians returned to India as a consequence of this consolidation process. This is the situation towards which East Africa is heading. The fact that the confreres were not allowed to go ahead with certain momentum can lull the growth for ever has become a lesson for the future.
Writing for the centenary souvenir, Fr. Joseph Pulikkal SDB, Provincial, wrote about the challenges still faced, " In spite of the progress made in the past 25 years, we still have immense challenges to face, such as poverty, illiteracy, HIV/AIDS, unemployment, corrosion of culture, and want of religious education."
With all these pressing demands placed on the Salesians, there is a move by Salesians to consolidate on the one hand and the desire to expand and keep Don Bosco alive on the other. The Salesians are at a crossroads today as they are having their Silver Jubilee Celebrations of the arrival of Project Africa. Today, there is a need to be challenged by the ‘new frontiers’ that the Rector Major is speaking about. Just as Don Bosco dreamt of going to various places not yet reached by others, the Salesians need to dream about reaching such unreachable shores.
Indian contribution to project Africa
With special reference t oEqastern Africa
With their work extended to 45 out of 53 countries, from a mere one province to 13 new delegations or vice provinces, the African mission is at a crossroads being pulled by static consolidation on the one hand and dynamic expansion on the other. Is the term ‘Project Africa’ a closed chapter or a new beginning? Here are the milestones, anxieties, concerns, challenges and preoccupations of a province now left to itself to multiply and bear fruit.
or many, Africa offered a greatfuture in terms of the natural resources. But for most others, Africa was a dark continent as it may seem from the colour of its people. The various outlook people had about African countries and their citizens, led them to a plight and destiny that is not so easy to explain. The tarnished, sub human and impoverished situation seen from a periphery was challenged by the richness of their culture and traditions. The image about their external features was challenged by their internal qualities of love and tolerance. For the Salesians who work there the situation offered both possibilities from its people and much more challenges from those who opted to work there and from the political situation prevalent there.
Fr. Vernal Paul Felix SDB recalls Don Bosco’s touching intervention during the meeting of the Superior Council on 26 May 1886 to show how earnestly he thought of the African mission: "... this mission forms part of my plans and is one of my dreams. If I were young, I would take along with me Fr. Michael Rua and say, ‘Come, let us go to the Cape of Good Hope to Nigritia ( Sudan), Khartoum, the Congo, to Suakin... We could establish a novitiate there by the Red Sea’."
Unfortunately, this dream of Don Bosco remained unfulfilled during his life-time. It was Don Rua who, towards the end of 1896, eight years after the death of Don Bosco, sent the first Salesians to Africa ( Alexandria-Egypt).
It was surprising that the Salesians could not make headway in evangelisation or education even many years after their arrival in Africa.
The year 1978 is a significant one for the African missions. It was at this year that an African Salesian took part in the General Chapter for the first time. He was from Zaire, presently known as Congo DRC.
The African who took part in the General Chapter challenged the participants of the Chapter telling them, Africa needs Don Bosco the most. Remember the Salesians were in very few countries at that time.
It was a big challenge posed, because the vocations were dwindling in Europe and so they were trying to close the existing houses. With all the difficulty in finding vocations, Fr. Vigano urged the members to give priority to Africa. Everyone felt that it is not possible. Many even felt that the Rector Major is catching the bull by its horns. But he was firm; and that’s how ‘Project Africa’ was born.
Along with the appeal of the African Salesian many bishops at that time started writing to the Rector Major appealing for Salesian presences in Africa. The Bishops’ frequent appeal and the Challenge posed by the first African participant were coinciding; therefore the Chapter decided to open missions in Africa.
Today, the African missionaries see this event as a clear sign from God and see it as a move towards the fulfilment of Don Bosco’s dream.
The superiors following the strategy of the Jesuits, gave each African region to the existing Salesian Provinces of the world. Thus, Zambia and Uganda were given to the Polish provinces; Gana to Germans, Liberia to Great Britain and East Africa to the Indian provinces.
East Africa consisted of 5 provinces of which the Indian Provinces were given Kenya, Sudan and Tanzania. On the request of the General Council, the SPCI (now SPCSA) decided to send 2 Salesians from each province every year. The first group of missionaries left for the East Africa accompanied by Fr. Tony D’Souza, Provincial of Bombay and coordinator of Project Africa.
The first batch left for Africa in 1979 though the actual work started in East Africa in 1980. They were taken for a missionary course and they were put in existing diocesan parishes, in order to learn the culture, the language and the customs of the people.
Thus began a new era for the Church and for the Congregation in East Africa, with the pioneering team of 12 priests and 3 lay Brothers with a clear will set on the African Soil and its People. Full of love and dedication they set out to spread the kingdom of God having reassured by the words of Maurice Cardinal Otunga of Nairobi: " Invade Africa with the Kingdom of God."
From then on there was no set back to Project Africa, from this arduous yet cherished challenge of bringing to focus the ‘African Face’ of Don Bosco.
In 2005 the East African province celebrated the silver jubilee( 1980-2005). In August 2005 Fr. Pascual Chavez, visited Kenya, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda to celebrate the 25 years of the Salesian presence in Eastern Africa.
Though there was a general scarcity of vocations in 1995, it was stabilised due to the African factor. One of the key factors for the increase in vocation is the increase of vocations in Africa. How it was possible is open for everyone’s guess.
At that time it was thought of as a foolish idea to start new presences in Africa as the number of vocations in Europe started dwindling. As a result combining of provinces took place. But after 1995, the status is stabilised. But in Africa and Asia the existing provinces are divided and there is a new dynamics in the congregation. The Salesian congregation has a lot of scope for the future.
With their work extended to 45 out of 53 countries, from a mere one province to 13 new delegations or vice provinces, the African mission is at a crossroads being pulled by static consolidation on the one hand and dynamic expansion on the other. Is the term ‘Project Africa’ a closed chapter or a new beginning? Here are the milestones, anxieties, concerns, challenges and preoccupations of a province now left to itself to multiply and bear fruit.
or many, Africa offered a greatfuture in terms of the natural resources. But for most others, Africa was a dark continent as it may seem from the colour of its people. The various outlook people had about African countries and their citizens, led them to a plight and destiny that is not so easy to explain. The tarnished, sub human and impoverished situation seen from a periphery was challenged by the richness of their culture and traditions. The image about their external features was challenged by their internal qualities of love and tolerance. For the Salesians who work there the situation offered both possibilities from its people and much more challenges from those who opted to work there and from the political situation prevalent there.
Fr. Vernal Paul Felix SDB recalls Don Bosco’s touching intervention during the meeting of the Superior Council on 26 May 1886 to show how earnestly he thought of the African mission: "... this mission forms part of my plans and is one of my dreams. If I were young, I would take along with me Fr. Michael Rua and say, ‘Come, let us go to the Cape of Good Hope to Nigritia ( Sudan), Khartoum, the Congo, to Suakin... We could establish a novitiate there by the Red Sea’."
Unfortunately, this dream of Don Bosco remained unfulfilled during his life-time. It was Don Rua who, towards the end of 1896, eight years after the death of Don Bosco, sent the first Salesians to Africa ( Alexandria-Egypt).
It was surprising that the Salesians could not make headway in evangelisation or education even many years after their arrival in Africa.
The year 1978 is a significant one for the African missions. It was at this year that an African Salesian took part in the General Chapter for the first time. He was from Zaire, presently known as Congo DRC.
The African who took part in the General Chapter challenged the participants of the Chapter telling them, Africa needs Don Bosco the most. Remember the Salesians were in very few countries at that time.
It was a big challenge posed, because the vocations were dwindling in Europe and so they were trying to close the existing houses. With all the difficulty in finding vocations, Fr. Vigano urged the members to give priority to Africa. Everyone felt that it is not possible. Many even felt that the Rector Major is catching the bull by its horns. But he was firm; and that’s how ‘Project Africa’ was born.
Along with the appeal of the African Salesian many bishops at that time started writing to the Rector Major appealing for Salesian presences in Africa. The Bishops’ frequent appeal and the Challenge posed by the first African participant were coinciding; therefore the Chapter decided to open missions in Africa.
Today, the African missionaries see this event as a clear sign from God and see it as a move towards the fulfilment of Don Bosco’s dream.
The superiors following the strategy of the Jesuits, gave each African region to the existing Salesian Provinces of the world. Thus, Zambia and Uganda were given to the Polish provinces; Gana to Germans, Liberia to Great Britain and East Africa to the Indian provinces.
East Africa consisted of 5 provinces of which the Indian Provinces were given Kenya, Sudan and Tanzania. On the request of the General Council, the SPCI (now SPCSA) decided to send 2 Salesians from each province every year. The first group of missionaries left for the East Africa accompanied by Fr. Tony D’Souza, Provincial of Bombay and coordinator of Project Africa.
The first batch left for Africa in 1979 though the actual work started in East Africa in 1980. They were taken for a missionary course and they were put in existing diocesan parishes, in order to learn the culture, the language and the customs of the people.
Thus began a new era for the Church and for the Congregation in East Africa, with the pioneering team of 12 priests and 3 lay Brothers with a clear will set on the African Soil and its People. Full of love and dedication they set out to spread the kingdom of God having reassured by the words of Maurice Cardinal Otunga of Nairobi: " Invade Africa with the Kingdom of God."
From then on there was no set back to Project Africa, from this arduous yet cherished challenge of bringing to focus the ‘African Face’ of Don Bosco.
In 2005 the East African province celebrated the silver jubilee( 1980-2005). In August 2005 Fr. Pascual Chavez, visited Kenya, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda to celebrate the 25 years of the Salesian presence in Eastern Africa.
Though there was a general scarcity of vocations in 1995, it was stabilised due to the African factor. One of the key factors for the increase in vocation is the increase of vocations in Africa. How it was possible is open for everyone’s guess.
At that time it was thought of as a foolish idea to start new presences in Africa as the number of vocations in Europe started dwindling. As a result combining of provinces took place. But after 1995, the status is stabilised. But in Africa and Asia the existing provinces are divided and there is a new dynamics in the congregation. The Salesian congregation has a lot of scope for the future.
AFRICA : The land that needs Don Bosco the most!
It has been generally agreed that the first human beings evolved on theAfrican continent more than 1 million years ago. Archaeological excavations at various sites in eastern and southern Africa have produced evidence for this theory. If this is correct, all human history began with a series of migrations from Africa to other world regions.
It is also surprising that in to the continent from where human beings migrated to the rest of the world, many also later migrated to explore the potentials of Africa. Thus the African continent was colonised.
Perhaps the most important legacy of colonialism is the division of Africa into more than 50 states whose boundaries were set without regard for where the people lived or how they organized their own political divisions. The present boundaries often divide single African ethnic communities among two or more nation-states. For example, although most of the Somali people live in Somalia, there are significant minorities in Kenya and Ethiopia, many of whom would like to become citizens of Somalia. This has led to tension, and on occasion to border warfare, among Kenyan, Ethiopian, and Somali governments.
A second important legacy of colonialism was its effect on the economic life of the African people. All the colonial systems disrupted existing economic patterns, though the extent of the disruption varied from area to area. The benefits of these new patterns usually went to the European countries rather than to the African colonies. This history of economic exploitation has played an important role in shaping the way independent African governments have attempted to develop their own economies.
The third important legacy of colonialism was the introduction of ideas of European racial and cultural superiority. The colonial powers attempted to convince Africans that effective participation in the modern world required them to discard their own identities and cultures and become more like Europeans. Schools in colonial Africa taught African children about European history and European literature, while neglecting the history and cultural heritage of Africa itself.
The experience of colonialism in Africa, also generated a powerful desire among the colonized to be free. This feeling was strengthened after thousands of African soldiers fought for France and Britain in World Wars I and II. They returned home with a renewed spirit of freedom and desire to build independent countries that would take their proper place among the global community of nations. While the colonial authorities first resisted these notions, by the late 1950s they had become too strong to be denied.
At the same time, due to many reasons, there is political instability. One important cause of political instability in Africa is the inability of governments to meet the rapidly growing demands for more schools, roads, hospitals, and other expensive services that were denied by the colonial powers. The people thought that political freedom would bring quick changes in their standard of living. When such hopes are not fulfilled, these people lose faith in their government. That was the time, the Salesians intervened again in the name of ‘Project Africa’.
While the African people have much to dream of and the governments have much to achieve, the Salesians did play a crucial role in the reconstruction of the African identity. In doing this, there was a serious call to reconstruct and give special emphasis on Sudan. Rector Major dedicated this year too for the development of Sudan.
In the message sent by the Rector Major in view of the centenary celebrations in India, Fr. Chavez wrote thus, " This centenary is not only an occasion for thanksgiving, or for celebrating a memory; it is above all an occasion for taking a pledge – a pledge to imitate those early pioneers in their love for Christ and his people, a pledge to be faithful to Don Bosco and his charism. The early missionaries brought the torch of Don Bosco’s charism to the Indian shores; thousands after them have kept it burning bright through the century; today it is in your hands and in your hearts. Keep it burning ever brighter; light them in the hearts of as many youngsters as possible; hand it over to the generations after you, still bright and shining."
Many regions in Africa are celebrating the silver Jubilee of the launch of ‘Project Africa’. The contribution of the west is over with regard to offering dedicated Salesians missionaries. Now, it is a clear call to the Indians to go out as missionaries in support of the land that needs Don Bosco the most.
Perhaps the message of the Rector Major still holds good even for the Indian confreres to support Africa. While we are happy that the charism of Don Bosco is kept alive in Africa, can we join in solidarity with the African mission and the people who need our care and concern? Can we offer our service to the African mission particularly for Sudan?
It is also surprising that in to the continent from where human beings migrated to the rest of the world, many also later migrated to explore the potentials of Africa. Thus the African continent was colonised.
Perhaps the most important legacy of colonialism is the division of Africa into more than 50 states whose boundaries were set without regard for where the people lived or how they organized their own political divisions. The present boundaries often divide single African ethnic communities among two or more nation-states. For example, although most of the Somali people live in Somalia, there are significant minorities in Kenya and Ethiopia, many of whom would like to become citizens of Somalia. This has led to tension, and on occasion to border warfare, among Kenyan, Ethiopian, and Somali governments.
A second important legacy of colonialism was its effect on the economic life of the African people. All the colonial systems disrupted existing economic patterns, though the extent of the disruption varied from area to area. The benefits of these new patterns usually went to the European countries rather than to the African colonies. This history of economic exploitation has played an important role in shaping the way independent African governments have attempted to develop their own economies.
The third important legacy of colonialism was the introduction of ideas of European racial and cultural superiority. The colonial powers attempted to convince Africans that effective participation in the modern world required them to discard their own identities and cultures and become more like Europeans. Schools in colonial Africa taught African children about European history and European literature, while neglecting the history and cultural heritage of Africa itself.
The experience of colonialism in Africa, also generated a powerful desire among the colonized to be free. This feeling was strengthened after thousands of African soldiers fought for France and Britain in World Wars I and II. They returned home with a renewed spirit of freedom and desire to build independent countries that would take their proper place among the global community of nations. While the colonial authorities first resisted these notions, by the late 1950s they had become too strong to be denied.
At the same time, due to many reasons, there is political instability. One important cause of political instability in Africa is the inability of governments to meet the rapidly growing demands for more schools, roads, hospitals, and other expensive services that were denied by the colonial powers. The people thought that political freedom would bring quick changes in their standard of living. When such hopes are not fulfilled, these people lose faith in their government. That was the time, the Salesians intervened again in the name of ‘Project Africa’.
While the African people have much to dream of and the governments have much to achieve, the Salesians did play a crucial role in the reconstruction of the African identity. In doing this, there was a serious call to reconstruct and give special emphasis on Sudan. Rector Major dedicated this year too for the development of Sudan.
In the message sent by the Rector Major in view of the centenary celebrations in India, Fr. Chavez wrote thus, " This centenary is not only an occasion for thanksgiving, or for celebrating a memory; it is above all an occasion for taking a pledge – a pledge to imitate those early pioneers in their love for Christ and his people, a pledge to be faithful to Don Bosco and his charism. The early missionaries brought the torch of Don Bosco’s charism to the Indian shores; thousands after them have kept it burning bright through the century; today it is in your hands and in your hearts. Keep it burning ever brighter; light them in the hearts of as many youngsters as possible; hand it over to the generations after you, still bright and shining."
Many regions in Africa are celebrating the silver Jubilee of the launch of ‘Project Africa’. The contribution of the west is over with regard to offering dedicated Salesians missionaries. Now, it is a clear call to the Indians to go out as missionaries in support of the land that needs Don Bosco the most.
Perhaps the message of the Rector Major still holds good even for the Indian confreres to support Africa. While we are happy that the charism of Don Bosco is kept alive in Africa, can we join in solidarity with the African mission and the people who need our care and concern? Can we offer our service to the African mission particularly for Sudan?
teachers - present or absent
Recently, the Governmentof Tamilnadu gave a strictwarning to all the Government teachers that disciplinary actions would be taken on teachers who failed to carry out their duties. This comes in the wake of a surprise check made by officials to a Adi Dravida Welfare Primary School on Flowers Road, Purasawalkam. They found that only one student and the headmistress were present in the whole of the campus. After verification they found that the students had been sent home early by teachers and there were no proper registration of attendance.
There are teachers who spend most of the time in the staff rooms than classrooms. Its now the turn of the teachers to say, Present or Absent.
This might look like an isolated case but the truth is many schools are facing a similar situation. Students, who are supposed to be studying either while away the time in school or on play grounds. There are teachers who spend most of the time in the staff rooms than classrooms. There are instances where the students who fail to join tuitions run by the class teachers were being victimised. They will get low marks, sidelined and at times even harsher punishments like beatings for even small mistakes.
But there are hundreds of dedicated teachers who are genuinely concerned with the welfare of the students. They not only "teach" the curriculum but inspire the students and set examples by their thirst for knowledge and exemplary behaviour. Our dear Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam is a shining example. But the sad fact is this species of dedicated teachers is dwindling by the day. They are in fact becoming an exception rather than the rule.
When we contacted few students from govt run institutions they gave mostly positive remarks for all the teachers. Priya, a student of Tarapore Group of Schools says, " We never had a science teacher till our Quarterly Examinations and then they appointed one teacher after pressure from the students. When we have doubts and approach her, she will simply read out the same paragraph back to us. I go for private tuitions to compensate this. There are some teachers who are excellent in their subjects".
A high school student from Arangaiya Naidu School requesting anonymity says, "All the teachers we have are excellent except for our Tamil Miss, Most of her classes will be like free periods. We will be asked to read the text for ourselves. And when we go and raise any issues we get caned". One more student from his class also voices the same opinion.
Schools in rural areas paint a very grim picture. Sources say that majority of the schools in villages are run with skeletal or no staffs at all. In a recent survey it was found that 42,000 schools in India have no teachers and in states like Karnataka , schools are run without any students and the management produce fake records and take home the paychecks. There are also allegations that during examinations the school authorities let the students indulge in malpractices. This way the results will show the teachers have prepared the students well.
Nayagam, a retired state award winning headmaster accepts that there are shortcomings in the school administration especially in the rural sector. He adds that the private school teachers are paid less than their government counterparts. Private teachers fare better since they are subject to constant supervision and accountability. Once the teachers are made accountable there will be definitely a positive change in the effective functioning of schools.
The Government on its part has been very considerate in allotting more holidays to them then any other department staffs. They are entitled to 2 months annual summer holidays with full pay and they get holiday during study leave for students. They also enjoy the benefits of Medical and Casual holidays. They are paid well but still they feel that they are not being paid. It is disheartening to see many of the teachers staging demonstrations and hunger protests for hike in pay scale. If they show at least a part of these efforts in educating their students, it can have phenomenal effects, opines an educationist.
Doctors may take the credit for their profession to be noble but nobler are the teachers who impart all their knowledge for the students to come up in life. There are some teachers who take such great concern for every student in the class. A teacher with nearly three decades of experience claims that every old student she meets gives her exuberant welcome irrespective of the place they meet. It gives immense pleasure to see the students we trained making it successful in life. "Even though we are old enough to be grandmother still we are MISS to our students!".
As Nayagam points out, that teachers should be made aware that students are National Property. The best thing that can happen to Education in our country, is the teachers realizing that they are handling this treasure and do so with utmost dedication and with proper care.. It is high time the teachers acknowledged that teaching is not just a profession but a life time vocation.
Its now the turn of the teachers to say, Present or Absent.
There are teachers who spend most of the time in the staff rooms than classrooms. Its now the turn of the teachers to say, Present or Absent.
This might look like an isolated case but the truth is many schools are facing a similar situation. Students, who are supposed to be studying either while away the time in school or on play grounds. There are teachers who spend most of the time in the staff rooms than classrooms. There are instances where the students who fail to join tuitions run by the class teachers were being victimised. They will get low marks, sidelined and at times even harsher punishments like beatings for even small mistakes.
But there are hundreds of dedicated teachers who are genuinely concerned with the welfare of the students. They not only "teach" the curriculum but inspire the students and set examples by their thirst for knowledge and exemplary behaviour. Our dear Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam is a shining example. But the sad fact is this species of dedicated teachers is dwindling by the day. They are in fact becoming an exception rather than the rule.
When we contacted few students from govt run institutions they gave mostly positive remarks for all the teachers. Priya, a student of Tarapore Group of Schools says, " We never had a science teacher till our Quarterly Examinations and then they appointed one teacher after pressure from the students. When we have doubts and approach her, she will simply read out the same paragraph back to us. I go for private tuitions to compensate this. There are some teachers who are excellent in their subjects".
A high school student from Arangaiya Naidu School requesting anonymity says, "All the teachers we have are excellent except for our Tamil Miss, Most of her classes will be like free periods. We will be asked to read the text for ourselves. And when we go and raise any issues we get caned". One more student from his class also voices the same opinion.
Schools in rural areas paint a very grim picture. Sources say that majority of the schools in villages are run with skeletal or no staffs at all. In a recent survey it was found that 42,000 schools in India have no teachers and in states like Karnataka , schools are run without any students and the management produce fake records and take home the paychecks. There are also allegations that during examinations the school authorities let the students indulge in malpractices. This way the results will show the teachers have prepared the students well.
Nayagam, a retired state award winning headmaster accepts that there are shortcomings in the school administration especially in the rural sector. He adds that the private school teachers are paid less than their government counterparts. Private teachers fare better since they are subject to constant supervision and accountability. Once the teachers are made accountable there will be definitely a positive change in the effective functioning of schools.
The Government on its part has been very considerate in allotting more holidays to them then any other department staffs. They are entitled to 2 months annual summer holidays with full pay and they get holiday during study leave for students. They also enjoy the benefits of Medical and Casual holidays. They are paid well but still they feel that they are not being paid. It is disheartening to see many of the teachers staging demonstrations and hunger protests for hike in pay scale. If they show at least a part of these efforts in educating their students, it can have phenomenal effects, opines an educationist.
Doctors may take the credit for their profession to be noble but nobler are the teachers who impart all their knowledge for the students to come up in life. There are some teachers who take such great concern for every student in the class. A teacher with nearly three decades of experience claims that every old student she meets gives her exuberant welcome irrespective of the place they meet. It gives immense pleasure to see the students we trained making it successful in life. "Even though we are old enough to be grandmother still we are MISS to our students!".
As Nayagam points out, that teachers should be made aware that students are National Property. The best thing that can happen to Education in our country, is the teachers realizing that they are handling this treasure and do so with utmost dedication and with proper care.. It is high time the teachers acknowledged that teaching is not just a profession but a life time vocation.
Its now the turn of the teachers to say, Present or Absent.
parent - teacher venture
Filling the gap in the learning process
ducation is called the engine of society. Education isresponsible for every thing that happens within the individual or in the society. The beauty of it is that it takes place everywhere; not only in the class rooms.
Parents are said to be the first educators of a child. Education begins at birth. Parents are responsible for the education of the child. They should acquire the qualities of a good educator. Otherwise they become the cause of ruining the life of the child. Children observe their parents and from them they pick up values, attitudes and behaviour patterns.
It has become very common for parents to blame the teachers for every mistake of their children. It is also quite common that the teachers blame the parents for not sufficiently caring for their children. As a result of shirking each other’s responsibility as educators, the child loses the chance of real education.
The plus-two or higher secondary stage signifies a major transition in a learners’ life. By the time they reach this threshold, they show early signs of independent thinking, awareness of their own needs and a general sensitivity to life’s greater challenges.
For the parents, it is a period of great anxiety. We are familiar with the "admission mania" which is reported in the press : parents suffer as their children struggle to cope with the great demand-supply hiatus in-so-far as seats in prestigious engineering, medical and general colleges go.
But the growing children of the 17-19 age group go through much more. Nature and the Indian socio-economic reality pull them in opposite directions.
They are the quintessential teenagers - self-conscious, grappling to internalise life’s manifold complications, have a strong sense of likes and dislikes, tend to develop attraction towards adventure and is under strong peer pressure to emulate the general trends. Their parents, however, want them to be disciplined, focussed on the career and stay away from needless "distractions".
After all, they remind them night and day that it is a highly competitive world. To educationists, the higher secondary stage is not a mere interregnum between school and college, but also between adolescence and youth. It means handling someone delicate, tender and priceless.
The teacher is best poised to offer the only professional guidance and neutral counselling a growing child can get at this important stage in his life. The teacher has to help the adolescents choose their own future. But in this task, the teacher’s role too has its limitations.
It is the task of the parents to fill the gap. Te parents should help the student to choose academic curriculum and courses so that the students are able to pursue their goals in life with adequate options at their disposal. Students should not only be offered flexibility in terms of choice, but also in pace of learning. In our case, it very much remains the archaic way of doing things.
Parents must join hand s with the teachers to remove the burden involved in education. A smooth facilitation from both will help the students nurture all the good things they learnt.
The problems of rigidity that afflict the present system can be cured only by the infusion of greater and greater flexibility. Student life is a dynamic period and the system must respond to it.
ducation is called the engine of society. Education isresponsible for every thing that happens within the individual or in the society. The beauty of it is that it takes place everywhere; not only in the class rooms.
Parents are said to be the first educators of a child. Education begins at birth. Parents are responsible for the education of the child. They should acquire the qualities of a good educator. Otherwise they become the cause of ruining the life of the child. Children observe their parents and from them they pick up values, attitudes and behaviour patterns.
It has become very common for parents to blame the teachers for every mistake of their children. It is also quite common that the teachers blame the parents for not sufficiently caring for their children. As a result of shirking each other’s responsibility as educators, the child loses the chance of real education.
The plus-two or higher secondary stage signifies a major transition in a learners’ life. By the time they reach this threshold, they show early signs of independent thinking, awareness of their own needs and a general sensitivity to life’s greater challenges.
For the parents, it is a period of great anxiety. We are familiar with the "admission mania" which is reported in the press : parents suffer as their children struggle to cope with the great demand-supply hiatus in-so-far as seats in prestigious engineering, medical and general colleges go.
But the growing children of the 17-19 age group go through much more. Nature and the Indian socio-economic reality pull them in opposite directions.
They are the quintessential teenagers - self-conscious, grappling to internalise life’s manifold complications, have a strong sense of likes and dislikes, tend to develop attraction towards adventure and is under strong peer pressure to emulate the general trends. Their parents, however, want them to be disciplined, focussed on the career and stay away from needless "distractions".
After all, they remind them night and day that it is a highly competitive world. To educationists, the higher secondary stage is not a mere interregnum between school and college, but also between adolescence and youth. It means handling someone delicate, tender and priceless.
The teacher is best poised to offer the only professional guidance and neutral counselling a growing child can get at this important stage in his life. The teacher has to help the adolescents choose their own future. But in this task, the teacher’s role too has its limitations.
It is the task of the parents to fill the gap. Te parents should help the student to choose academic curriculum and courses so that the students are able to pursue their goals in life with adequate options at their disposal. Students should not only be offered flexibility in terms of choice, but also in pace of learning. In our case, it very much remains the archaic way of doing things.
Parents must join hand s with the teachers to remove the burden involved in education. A smooth facilitation from both will help the students nurture all the good things they learnt.
The problems of rigidity that afflict the present system can be cured only by the infusion of greater and greater flexibility. Student life is a dynamic period and the system must respond to it.
class struggle
The objective of education is to train and condition the mind to function effectively in any context. The new conditions, however, constitute a challenge to teachers in their functioning. They are caught up in a battle where they are drawn between the fair ideals of education and the institutionalised educational system.
et another teacher’s day has gone by. But, there maynot be enough time for anyone to think of the teachers. There is no time for parents to even think of the teachers who slog to equip their children in various schools. Setting aside some time to compare the kind of teachers they had when they were young with those of the present age. Time has rolled by and the contexts in which the teacher has to function have changed.
The teacher of today may find himself/herself in a totally different set up from those of the yesteryear. What then are the impediments that these changed conditions have fostered? What limitations and handicaps have they imposed upon their effective functioning? Will they still be able to discharge the responsibilities that society has bestowed on them? To what extent is the situation in which the pupils find themselves a distracting factor? These are issues that need to be examined for a better understanding of the predicaments the teacher faces.
The objective of education is to train and condition the mind so that an individual can function effectively in any context. Education is supposed to provide an opportunity for personal formation, evolving a meaning system and the acquisition of skills necessary to eke out a livelihood. These broad goals have remained the same through hundreds of years.
In the traditional education system, the teacher was responsible not only for providing formal education but also to mould the character of the pupil. For the student, it was acquisition of knowledge along with the ethics of how to use it. Thus, character building was an essential part of the educative process.
But over the years, times and techniques have changed. The new conditions constitute a challenge to their functioning. The phenomenal growth of the population has increased manifold the demand for education at all levels. With demand out-matching the means and resources, the quality of education and individual attention to the pupil has suffered a serious set back. For the teacher, it is lecturing or mass instruction minus character moulding. The scope for teacher-student interaction is drastically cut.
On the home front, with the parents of first generation students being either uneducated or with minimum education, they are largely unaware of the needs and demands of modern school and collegiate education.
Further, as a matter of necessity, children spend less time with parents, either being away in hostels or having to commute long distances. In families where both the parents work, parental attention and care may be inadequate. But finally with teacher responsibility in character and value building also being non-existent, most children and adolescents have only their peers and the media to provide the role models. The students are like rudderless boats on the high seas.
In the economic arena, developments like consumerism, globalisation and market economy have had a significant influence on individual values. The influence of these changes on the education system, through indirect, has been appalling. Education is impersonalised and is acquiring the characteristics of a commercial commodity - the information technology revolution, distance education, programmed computer-based learning and the Internet - their good effects not withstanding have shrunk the role and the personalised influence of the teacher. There is abundant and easy availability of knowledge, but it is without the moral fibre that binds its use and the ethics that guide its application resulting in its dehumanisation. (The ongoing debate on the use of the knowledge of the genome is a case in point).
The average student and teacher at the collegiate and university level are neither fluent in the English language nor in the regional language. Language inadequacies are restricting the efficiency of both teachers and students alike. This is particularly so in the non-science subjects like economics, history, politics and sociology.
If students, with a communication handicap, were to become teachers, their students in turn will be handicapped and the whole thing becomes a vicious circle.
The teacher is facing another problem on campuses - politicisation of education. It has been viewed by many leaders that there is a need to create political awareness among the students. For good or bad reasons, many political parties have promoted student wings of their parties on campuses. Students also get divided on caste lines.
Apart from the routine conflicts among these groups, their desire to out beat each other in performance and fight for the cause of students rights have often brought them into confrontation with the administration, resulting in strikes, dharnas, and general unrest.
Teacher’s are often in a helpless situation and more often than not get swayed by these groups. Further, as today’s students become the research scholars and teachers of tomorrow, they carry with them their group affiliations and identities leading to a gradual politicisation of the teaching community. The net result is a flagrant distraction from the avowed goals of educational instruction. This is a growing problem in campuses and urgently needs to be addressed.
The localisation of employment, though it may have its own rationale contributes to greater inbreeding that, as in genetics, contributes among other things to accentuation of certain defects and deficiencies that ultimately form a vicious circle. The well-known good effects of hybridisation are lost. This factor acts as a handicap in the selection of meritorious teachers or students.
Many of our teachers lack adequate communication skills with regard to language fluency, technique of teaching and the use of audio-visual aids. There is a dire need and urgency for the teacher of to day to master these skills, as they constitute the backbone of his function as an effective teacher.
The impressive advance in information technology has come in handy as adjuncts to teaching. The latest developments in most subjects can be accessed through the Internet. Video and computer presentation of teaching material is available in many places. The teachers who use these techniques are able to forge far ahead of others who only "chalk and talk".
New knowledge is generated by research. Therefore, it is necessary that teachers keep themselves abreast of new developments. The goal of university is to promote research, training and dissemination of knowledge. University teachers need to not only teach but also do research and disseminate knowledge to the common man.
The foregoing are some of the many changed contexts in which the teacher of today has to function. They pose a serious challenge to his efficiency and smooth functioning in the realisation of cherished goals. Certainly, they need counsel and support through a helping hand. They need to be trained to meet the professional contingencies as they arise. In other words, the teacher needs to be trained and equipped to meet the demands of a changed educational context and be able to facilitate the transfer of knowledge-cum- values-and-wisdom.
Then, and then alone, would the teacher be able to effectively discharge the responsibility and trust, society has entrusted them with.
et another teacher’s day has gone by. But, there maynot be enough time for anyone to think of the teachers. There is no time for parents to even think of the teachers who slog to equip their children in various schools. Setting aside some time to compare the kind of teachers they had when they were young with those of the present age. Time has rolled by and the contexts in which the teacher has to function have changed.
The teacher of today may find himself/herself in a totally different set up from those of the yesteryear. What then are the impediments that these changed conditions have fostered? What limitations and handicaps have they imposed upon their effective functioning? Will they still be able to discharge the responsibilities that society has bestowed on them? To what extent is the situation in which the pupils find themselves a distracting factor? These are issues that need to be examined for a better understanding of the predicaments the teacher faces.
The objective of education is to train and condition the mind so that an individual can function effectively in any context. Education is supposed to provide an opportunity for personal formation, evolving a meaning system and the acquisition of skills necessary to eke out a livelihood. These broad goals have remained the same through hundreds of years.
In the traditional education system, the teacher was responsible not only for providing formal education but also to mould the character of the pupil. For the student, it was acquisition of knowledge along with the ethics of how to use it. Thus, character building was an essential part of the educative process.
But over the years, times and techniques have changed. The new conditions constitute a challenge to their functioning. The phenomenal growth of the population has increased manifold the demand for education at all levels. With demand out-matching the means and resources, the quality of education and individual attention to the pupil has suffered a serious set back. For the teacher, it is lecturing or mass instruction minus character moulding. The scope for teacher-student interaction is drastically cut.
On the home front, with the parents of first generation students being either uneducated or with minimum education, they are largely unaware of the needs and demands of modern school and collegiate education.
Further, as a matter of necessity, children spend less time with parents, either being away in hostels or having to commute long distances. In families where both the parents work, parental attention and care may be inadequate. But finally with teacher responsibility in character and value building also being non-existent, most children and adolescents have only their peers and the media to provide the role models. The students are like rudderless boats on the high seas.
In the economic arena, developments like consumerism, globalisation and market economy have had a significant influence on individual values. The influence of these changes on the education system, through indirect, has been appalling. Education is impersonalised and is acquiring the characteristics of a commercial commodity - the information technology revolution, distance education, programmed computer-based learning and the Internet - their good effects not withstanding have shrunk the role and the personalised influence of the teacher. There is abundant and easy availability of knowledge, but it is without the moral fibre that binds its use and the ethics that guide its application resulting in its dehumanisation. (The ongoing debate on the use of the knowledge of the genome is a case in point).
The average student and teacher at the collegiate and university level are neither fluent in the English language nor in the regional language. Language inadequacies are restricting the efficiency of both teachers and students alike. This is particularly so in the non-science subjects like economics, history, politics and sociology.
If students, with a communication handicap, were to become teachers, their students in turn will be handicapped and the whole thing becomes a vicious circle.
The teacher is facing another problem on campuses - politicisation of education. It has been viewed by many leaders that there is a need to create political awareness among the students. For good or bad reasons, many political parties have promoted student wings of their parties on campuses. Students also get divided on caste lines.
Apart from the routine conflicts among these groups, their desire to out beat each other in performance and fight for the cause of students rights have often brought them into confrontation with the administration, resulting in strikes, dharnas, and general unrest.
Teacher’s are often in a helpless situation and more often than not get swayed by these groups. Further, as today’s students become the research scholars and teachers of tomorrow, they carry with them their group affiliations and identities leading to a gradual politicisation of the teaching community. The net result is a flagrant distraction from the avowed goals of educational instruction. This is a growing problem in campuses and urgently needs to be addressed.
The localisation of employment, though it may have its own rationale contributes to greater inbreeding that, as in genetics, contributes among other things to accentuation of certain defects and deficiencies that ultimately form a vicious circle. The well-known good effects of hybridisation are lost. This factor acts as a handicap in the selection of meritorious teachers or students.
Many of our teachers lack adequate communication skills with regard to language fluency, technique of teaching and the use of audio-visual aids. There is a dire need and urgency for the teacher of to day to master these skills, as they constitute the backbone of his function as an effective teacher.
The impressive advance in information technology has come in handy as adjuncts to teaching. The latest developments in most subjects can be accessed through the Internet. Video and computer presentation of teaching material is available in many places. The teachers who use these techniques are able to forge far ahead of others who only "chalk and talk".
New knowledge is generated by research. Therefore, it is necessary that teachers keep themselves abreast of new developments. The goal of university is to promote research, training and dissemination of knowledge. University teachers need to not only teach but also do research and disseminate knowledge to the common man.
The foregoing are some of the many changed contexts in which the teacher of today has to function. They pose a serious challenge to his efficiency and smooth functioning in the realisation of cherished goals. Certainly, they need counsel and support through a helping hand. They need to be trained to meet the professional contingencies as they arise. In other words, the teacher needs to be trained and equipped to meet the demands of a changed educational context and be able to facilitate the transfer of knowledge-cum- values-and-wisdom.
Then, and then alone, would the teacher be able to effectively discharge the responsibility and trust, society has entrusted them with.
the stuff in style
The task of the excellent teacher is to stimulate ‘apparently ordinary’ people to unusual effort.
Teachers Day’ is here. We think of our beginnings. The firstthought that is still fresh in mind is the experience, either good or bad, that we had in our early schooling. We fondly think of some teachers who inspired us, convinced us of what we should be and helped us to dream a good future both for ourselves and for the society.
Dan Rather said, "The dream begins with a teacher who believes in you, who tugs and pushes and leads you to the next plateau, sometimes poking you with a sharp stick called "truth."
The real heroes of our youngsters are not the cine stars but the teachers who made an impact. Often this fact is not brought out to the fore because there is no more glamour in the teaching profession.
The task of the excellent teacher is to stimulate ‘apparently ordinary’ people to unusual effort. The tough problem is not in identifying winners: it is in making winners out of ordinary people.
Only teachers bring us a meaning system that challenges our convictions. As a result we are able to have fair ideals for life. History proves this point. Most of the wise men we read in history were teachers too. They not only had the right kind of knowledge to impart; they had the right kind of teaching style. That is how they are remembered in history.
There are many such good teachers even today, full of wisdom and knowledge. Unfortunately we cannot see or measure the fruits of their real teaching. It shows itself only after many years of experience. It stays dormant inside as meaning system till the right moment comes. Jacques Barzun rightly pointed out, "In teaching you cannot see the fruit of a day’s work. It is invisible and remains so." The fruits of our education may be seen only after ten or twenty years.
This being so difficult, the struggle of teachers is to bring out a result that they themselves cannot see or experience. With a blind aim and hazy direction, they are asked to guide the students. Teachers are expected to reach unattainable goals with inadequate tools. The miracle is that at times they accomplish this impossible task.
Great men believed in the power of education. Aristotle wrote: "The fate of empires depends on the education of youth." Education is the key to any change or revolution and this lies with the teacher. That is the power of the teacher. Amidst the entire struggle a teacher undergoes in the classroom, he/she also realises his/her power-power to change the students and the society. The real power comes from empowering the students.
The secret to this power lies in his own being rather than in his doing: What the teacher is, is more important than what he teaches. This is the key to miracles in education.
The end of education is the expert discernment in everything. A good education helps us to weed out the bad from the good and the counterfeit from the genuine. This helps us to opt for the good and the genuine when we make true life choices.
A good teacher is an instrument in reaching this goal. William Arthur Ward said, "The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires." A good teacher not only has the style of teaching but the right kind of stuff and passes on the stuff in style to inspire.
Teachers Day’ is here. We think of our beginnings. The firstthought that is still fresh in mind is the experience, either good or bad, that we had in our early schooling. We fondly think of some teachers who inspired us, convinced us of what we should be and helped us to dream a good future both for ourselves and for the society.
Dan Rather said, "The dream begins with a teacher who believes in you, who tugs and pushes and leads you to the next plateau, sometimes poking you with a sharp stick called "truth."
The real heroes of our youngsters are not the cine stars but the teachers who made an impact. Often this fact is not brought out to the fore because there is no more glamour in the teaching profession.
The task of the excellent teacher is to stimulate ‘apparently ordinary’ people to unusual effort. The tough problem is not in identifying winners: it is in making winners out of ordinary people.
Only teachers bring us a meaning system that challenges our convictions. As a result we are able to have fair ideals for life. History proves this point. Most of the wise men we read in history were teachers too. They not only had the right kind of knowledge to impart; they had the right kind of teaching style. That is how they are remembered in history.
There are many such good teachers even today, full of wisdom and knowledge. Unfortunately we cannot see or measure the fruits of their real teaching. It shows itself only after many years of experience. It stays dormant inside as meaning system till the right moment comes. Jacques Barzun rightly pointed out, "In teaching you cannot see the fruit of a day’s work. It is invisible and remains so." The fruits of our education may be seen only after ten or twenty years.
This being so difficult, the struggle of teachers is to bring out a result that they themselves cannot see or experience. With a blind aim and hazy direction, they are asked to guide the students. Teachers are expected to reach unattainable goals with inadequate tools. The miracle is that at times they accomplish this impossible task.
Great men believed in the power of education. Aristotle wrote: "The fate of empires depends on the education of youth." Education is the key to any change or revolution and this lies with the teacher. That is the power of the teacher. Amidst the entire struggle a teacher undergoes in the classroom, he/she also realises his/her power-power to change the students and the society. The real power comes from empowering the students.
The secret to this power lies in his own being rather than in his doing: What the teacher is, is more important than what he teaches. This is the key to miracles in education.
The end of education is the expert discernment in everything. A good education helps us to weed out the bad from the good and the counterfeit from the genuine. This helps us to opt for the good and the genuine when we make true life choices.
A good teacher is an instrument in reaching this goal. William Arthur Ward said, "The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires." A good teacher not only has the style of teaching but the right kind of stuff and passes on the stuff in style to inspire.
Virtually devoid of divide
We have united ourselves in various virtual communities for our own selfish business, knowledge and emotional needs. Have we ever given a thought about uniting ourselves on moral and spiritual realms?
India is a country whose demographics tell some tale. About 50% of its population is less than 20 years old, while 65% of its population is less than 35 years. It implies that the entire market segment which is youthful is more than double the size of United States and Canada. Entertainment, leisure, lifestyle, education, retailing etc., are services geared for this youth market with robust enthusiasm. We can understand the strength of the human resource we have. We are even proud about this fact.
We also know and understand the rules of the community; we know the healing effect of community in terms of individual lives. If we could somehow find a way across the bridge of our knowledge, would not these same rules have a healing effect upon our world?
We human beings have often been referred to as social animals. But we are not yet community creatures. We are impelled to relate with each other for our survival. But we do not yet relate with the inclusivity, realism, self-awareness, vulnerability, commitment, openness, freedom, equality, and love of genuine community spirit.
It is clearly no longer enough to be simply social animals, babbling together at cocktail parties and brawling with each other in business and over boundaries. It is our task our essential, central, crucial task to transform ourselves from mere social creatures into community creatures. It is the only way that human evolution will be able to proceed further. We need to go beyond the narrow confines of petty selfishness and rise to see a new and powerful community emerging with strong identity that is typical of a psycho-spiritual being.
While reflecting on the growth and development of human society, we are baffled to see the growth of another sector. That is the IT sector impelled by the strength of the world wide web and the internet. The rate of the growth of the Internet has generally exceeded most estimates, with increases in many, but not all segments of the population. The in direct relevance if you are planning an online community for people with no Internet access. But more importantly, it is also a call to each of us to recognize how we can lessen the divide and look for ways to contribute to the improvement of our communities as part of our online life.
There has been much speculation on the effect of online activities on our offline lives, ranging from concerns about addiction, to meeting the "loves of our lives" online and getting married. There are examples from all the extremes, but the more relevant question is how do we integrate our offline and online experiences.
Amy Jo Kim, online community architect, has suggested that there are two ways we participate in online communities: "the kind where you’re yourself and the kind where you are playing out a fantasy role.
We are often understood by people in real life and in real communities. It is not the case with the virtual world. Here you can boost your image with better photograph, cleverly crafted name and curriculum vitae and identify yourself with any icon that you want to be. We have created a split within us and within the community. The virtual community that we visualise needs to be devoid of all these divisions.
We have united ourselves in various virtual communities for our own selfish business, knowledge and emotional needs. Have we ever given a thought about uniting ourselves on moral and spiritual realms? Can we make an attempt to use these virtual communities to unite ourselves? Can they make ourselves devoid of all the divides and the split that we have created, both within each of us and among the community members?
India is a country whose demographics tell some tale. About 50% of its population is less than 20 years old, while 65% of its population is less than 35 years. It implies that the entire market segment which is youthful is more than double the size of United States and Canada. Entertainment, leisure, lifestyle, education, retailing etc., are services geared for this youth market with robust enthusiasm. We can understand the strength of the human resource we have. We are even proud about this fact.
We also know and understand the rules of the community; we know the healing effect of community in terms of individual lives. If we could somehow find a way across the bridge of our knowledge, would not these same rules have a healing effect upon our world?
We human beings have often been referred to as social animals. But we are not yet community creatures. We are impelled to relate with each other for our survival. But we do not yet relate with the inclusivity, realism, self-awareness, vulnerability, commitment, openness, freedom, equality, and love of genuine community spirit.
It is clearly no longer enough to be simply social animals, babbling together at cocktail parties and brawling with each other in business and over boundaries. It is our task our essential, central, crucial task to transform ourselves from mere social creatures into community creatures. It is the only way that human evolution will be able to proceed further. We need to go beyond the narrow confines of petty selfishness and rise to see a new and powerful community emerging with strong identity that is typical of a psycho-spiritual being.
While reflecting on the growth and development of human society, we are baffled to see the growth of another sector. That is the IT sector impelled by the strength of the world wide web and the internet. The rate of the growth of the Internet has generally exceeded most estimates, with increases in many, but not all segments of the population. The in direct relevance if you are planning an online community for people with no Internet access. But more importantly, it is also a call to each of us to recognize how we can lessen the divide and look for ways to contribute to the improvement of our communities as part of our online life.
There has been much speculation on the effect of online activities on our offline lives, ranging from concerns about addiction, to meeting the "loves of our lives" online and getting married. There are examples from all the extremes, but the more relevant question is how do we integrate our offline and online experiences.
Amy Jo Kim, online community architect, has suggested that there are two ways we participate in online communities: "the kind where you’re yourself and the kind where you are playing out a fantasy role.
We are often understood by people in real life and in real communities. It is not the case with the virtual world. Here you can boost your image with better photograph, cleverly crafted name and curriculum vitae and identify yourself with any icon that you want to be. We have created a split within us and within the community. The virtual community that we visualise needs to be devoid of all these divisions.
We have united ourselves in various virtual communities for our own selfish business, knowledge and emotional needs. Have we ever given a thought about uniting ourselves on moral and spiritual realms? Can we make an attempt to use these virtual communities to unite ourselves? Can they make ourselves devoid of all the divides and the split that we have created, both within each of us and among the community members?
WHEN CHILDREN SPEAK NO ONE LISTENS
Today’s Indians are more aware than ever of thetragedy of child abuse: our national and local media carry daily reports of children who have been beaten, imprisoned, starved, burned or sexually and emotionally abused. Shopping carts, milk cartons, billboards, newspapers all carry the message that children should tell if they are being hurt and that to prevent abuse, just call a hotline and help will arrive.
However, we are slowly awakening to the fact that, even if suspected abuse is reported, this does not always result in safeguarding the child from further abuse. In fact, some of the worst cases are those where authorities were notified of abuse and had determined that the child was at risk, but nevertheless left the child in the care of the abuser. We are also learning that not only the woman who flees domestic violence is at risk from further violence, but that her children are often the innocent witnesses to her being battered or additional victims.
And in far too many cases, the batterer has not only revenges himself on his former partner, but hurts or kills the children as well.
But there is an aspect to this violence in the family which so far has escaped the public’s attention: the granting of sole custody or unsupervised access to the batterer or child abuser.
According to Fr. John Dharman sdb, the director of Anbu Illam, Coimbatore, "One of the most common reasons given for resuming an abusive relationship is the fear that the abuser will act on the threats of taking the children from the victim.
Studies show that batterers have been able to convince authorities that the victim is unfit or undeserving of sole custody in approximately 70% of challenged cases."
The idea that batterers and child abusers are awarded sole custody even when there has been a domestic violence conviction or reliable evidence of sexual abuse may seem so bizarre as to be unbelievable to most Indians. Even those who have experienced this admit that they never would have believed it possible until it happened to them. They thought that if their child made an outcry, help would be there for them.
They thought that judges would look at a history of domestic violence, weigh the medical evidence, listen to the words of their children, and choose to protect the child. Instead, juvenile courts frequently minimize the harmful impact of children’s witnessing violence between their parents and sometimes are reluctant to believe mothers.
Some professionals assume that accusations of physical or sexual abuse of children that arise during divorce or custody disputes are likely to be false, but the empirical research to date shows no such increase in false reporting at that time. In many cases people think that children are frightened about being alone with a father they have seen use violence towards their mother or a father who has abused them.
Instead the recent government study shows that the children accused mothers more than the fathers of abuse. Many children even express their hatred for their mothers who abuse them, but their voices are ignored.
Parents do not give a consideration when children report abuse which their children have disclosed at the hands of the family friends. These parents are at times more interested in protecting their family friends than safeguarding their children. Such cases underscore the importance of having the best interest of the child at heart, and that the protection of the child should be the goal of our child protection system. It goes without saying that each case must be judged on its own merits.
As far as we know, no one has addressed the long term effects of this betrayal upon children who told about being abused but were silenced or ignored by the judicial system and given into the hands of those who had abused and violated them. Many instances go untold and undisclosed due to the fear many of our children have on the parents or friends who visit the family. The children need to have the secure feeling before they divulge.
A family that sits together, plays together, shares together might be a right place for children to share the abuse they underwent. Creating such environment is the utmost duty of the parents, teachers and elders.
However, we are slowly awakening to the fact that, even if suspected abuse is reported, this does not always result in safeguarding the child from further abuse. In fact, some of the worst cases are those where authorities were notified of abuse and had determined that the child was at risk, but nevertheless left the child in the care of the abuser. We are also learning that not only the woman who flees domestic violence is at risk from further violence, but that her children are often the innocent witnesses to her being battered or additional victims.
And in far too many cases, the batterer has not only revenges himself on his former partner, but hurts or kills the children as well.
But there is an aspect to this violence in the family which so far has escaped the public’s attention: the granting of sole custody or unsupervised access to the batterer or child abuser.
According to Fr. John Dharman sdb, the director of Anbu Illam, Coimbatore, "One of the most common reasons given for resuming an abusive relationship is the fear that the abuser will act on the threats of taking the children from the victim.
Studies show that batterers have been able to convince authorities that the victim is unfit or undeserving of sole custody in approximately 70% of challenged cases."
The idea that batterers and child abusers are awarded sole custody even when there has been a domestic violence conviction or reliable evidence of sexual abuse may seem so bizarre as to be unbelievable to most Indians. Even those who have experienced this admit that they never would have believed it possible until it happened to them. They thought that if their child made an outcry, help would be there for them.
They thought that judges would look at a history of domestic violence, weigh the medical evidence, listen to the words of their children, and choose to protect the child. Instead, juvenile courts frequently minimize the harmful impact of children’s witnessing violence between their parents and sometimes are reluctant to believe mothers.
Some professionals assume that accusations of physical or sexual abuse of children that arise during divorce or custody disputes are likely to be false, but the empirical research to date shows no such increase in false reporting at that time. In many cases people think that children are frightened about being alone with a father they have seen use violence towards their mother or a father who has abused them.
Instead the recent government study shows that the children accused mothers more than the fathers of abuse. Many children even express their hatred for their mothers who abuse them, but their voices are ignored.
Parents do not give a consideration when children report abuse which their children have disclosed at the hands of the family friends. These parents are at times more interested in protecting their family friends than safeguarding their children. Such cases underscore the importance of having the best interest of the child at heart, and that the protection of the child should be the goal of our child protection system. It goes without saying that each case must be judged on its own merits.
As far as we know, no one has addressed the long term effects of this betrayal upon children who told about being abused but were silenced or ignored by the judicial system and given into the hands of those who had abused and violated them. Many instances go untold and undisclosed due to the fear many of our children have on the parents or friends who visit the family. The children need to have the secure feeling before they divulge.
A family that sits together, plays together, shares together might be a right place for children to share the abuse they underwent. Creating such environment is the utmost duty of the parents, teachers and elders.
CHILD ABUSE
Alarming Facts from a Government study
"Child abuse is shrouded in secrecy and there is a conspiracy of silence around the entire subject. There is a belief that no child is abused in India."
Renuka Chowd hury
Minister of State for Women and Child Development
A shocking case of parents employing someone to kill their son Satish was reported widely in newspapers on January 8, 2005. Eleven year old Satish was alleged to have been infected with HIV, after a blood transfusion during his childhood. As the parents hated to have a son with HIV and since they felt that it would spoil their reputation, they decided to hire a man to administer a fatal injection to kill Satish.
"The parents wanted to kill him as they felt the son may affect their daughter’s future. They also feared that Sathish might tarnish the image of the family among the villagers and relatives," said T. Sundaresan, Superintendent of Police, Madurai.
Children in India, who form 19% of the world’s children and nearly 440 million, are living dangerously is a fact beyond statistical proof. Female infanticide to auto rickshaws packed with school children getting crushed under a speeding truck are our daily news.
The Reuters AlertNet poll conducted a survey among humanitarian workers and journalists to name three places they considered to be world’s most dangerous place for children. The three nations that topped the list are Iraq, Somalia and India.
India is a home for 100 million children who are out of school, 35 million who are homeless, where two out of every three children are physically abused. In India, Child abuse is either taken for granted or it has always been denied.
How safe are the children in the hands of parents? The incident we read was an extreme act of cruelty that a family could inflict on a child. As it involved high drama it got its media attention. But talking about domestic abuse of children is a forbidden fruit for the society as the general belief is that that’s where the children are safe and secure. The parents are often reluctant to admit and deal with child abuse of physical and sexual nature, involving family members. Or some even boast about the physical punishments they inflicted on the children, not considering that as an abuse. With all these ‘Indian Happy Family’ image was maintained.
Renuka Chowdhury, Minister of State for Women and Child Development at the Central Government, in her message on ‘Study on Child Abuse, India 2007’ reiterates that child abuse is shrouded in secrecy and there is a conspiracy of silence around the entire subject. There is a belief that no child is abused in India.
The recent path breaking study on Child Abuse by the Central Government’s Ministry of Women and Child Welfare is shattering and shocking. This is the first time that the Government’s agency is ever taking stock of the situation. The study was conducted in collaboration with UNICEF, Save the Children and Prayas.
The study reveals that "child abuse is common in India" and that "every second child is faced with sexual abuse and two-thirds have been physically abused".The study has taken two years to complete and covered 13 states of India where 12,247 children between 5 and 12 and 2,324 young adults (over the age of 12) were interviewed. The study claims that this is the largest of its kind undertaken anywhere in the world.
The study continuously makes shocking revelations such as among the 15,000 child respondents, 50.9% children were subjected to physical abuse by their mothers while 37.6% faced abuse from their fathers. Only 37.6% faced abuse by their fathers. Hence it is clear that most of the emotional and physical abuse suffered by children in our families is inflicted by mothers.
Another major set back in the growth of the children is also humiliation. Humiliation in early childhood haunts throughout one’ life if not guided and helped properly. Humiliation in childhood is a challenge for later formation of young adults and adults. Humiliation is referred as degradation of self-esteem of a child by shouting, belittling, using abusive language, comparison with other children etc.,
According to the study, 44.13% respondents reported facing humiliation. Here again shockingly, around 44.09% reported being humiliated by their mothers and 35.35 by their fathers. Among these 45.5% in the age group of 5-12, 42.25% in the age group of 13-14 and 43.54% in the age group of 15-18 reported being humiliated in the family environment.
Humiliation often builds around a sense of worthlessness in children. If parents treat a child as though he/she were there as bag and baggage and train to a constant state of surrender to the parental will, they sow the seeds of complexes. Say for example it could be the intolerance of a mother. The study too points out that She might always tell a child "Look you have no worth of your own. Your whole good is to come along with what I say". So, the child loses the basic human option - the option to love. The image of us is really product of what other people, rightly or wrongly, have told us from our childhood that we are. The ugly self-image, that is the result of repeated humiliation, can even cause human inertia, failure and unhappiness.
According to Dr. Loveleen Kacker, the official in charge of child welfare in the ministry under whom the study was conducted is of the opinion that substantial number of the abusers were "persons in trust and care-givers’ who included parents, relatives and school teachers.
Altogether almost 89% of children were subjected to physical abuse by their parents, who have the primary responsibility of protecting their children.
Among the respondents 48% girls whished they were boys as more than two out of three girls felt they were neglected. As per the study, the girls in the families are denied of opportunities for growth. They are more made use of for taking care of siblings and doing household works.
The reasons for child abuse lie within family itself according to the study. The factors are bad relationships, bad marriages, lack of job, lack of money, lack of educational skills, lack of parenting skills. All these have their repercussions on children. As fittest survives, it is the weakest that suffers.
The children also do not report the abuse to anyone. 50% of the young adults still feel that the abuse is matter of the family and should remain within the family. Children don’t betray the parents and relatives. It is rather a slender (17%) per cent of the respondents wish their abusers to be punished. Therefore the challenge is to convince the children to report abuse. But this could spark of a big debate in a society like ours. The idea of children reporting abuse to authorities is purely western. In fact, the study advocates such a reporting.
The study also mentions that high per cent of respondents need care and protection. It is an eye opener of the existing reality that was kept hidden and secret. Families are to be kept together but if the child is in eminent danger in family what do we do?
This study indicates that there is something seriously wrong with our kids in our society. It will also spark off another debate among the NGOs who are vehemently promoting family care as the ideal care for children. In a country like India, we need to look into the context of the society, family and children to decide the sort of care and protection we could plan. There is no single quick fix solution as often advocated by donor agencies to save the children of India.
Though the fact that the study has focused on the most vulnerable groups is of little consolation, the indictment of our Indian families’ cruel treatment to children is exposed. The study also recommends policy and legislations and the need for revision of National policy on children 1974 and need for stricter legislation on to deal with child abuses, to develop protocols on child protection mechanisms at all levels, need for national scheme to prevent vulnerabilities and provide services to those in need, out reach and support services like trauma counseling, medical treatment, police intervention and legal support, tracking missing children, shared responsibility of stake holders, capacity building and advocacy and awareness on child rights.
Well, all these would remain only pious exhortations in a country where families are struggling to recognize children as equal members of the family. Though the recommendations by the study are relevant and realistic yet its implementation into family environment requires no effort to be spared on the part of the Government, Citizens and parents. This is bound to take a decade to reach a decent level of awareness on child rights and protection. Such imminent problem needs immediate attention without delay.
"Child abuse is shrouded in secrecy and there is a conspiracy of silence around the entire subject. There is a belief that no child is abused in India."
Renuka Chowd hury
Minister of State for Women and Child Development
A shocking case of parents employing someone to kill their son Satish was reported widely in newspapers on January 8, 2005. Eleven year old Satish was alleged to have been infected with HIV, after a blood transfusion during his childhood. As the parents hated to have a son with HIV and since they felt that it would spoil their reputation, they decided to hire a man to administer a fatal injection to kill Satish.
"The parents wanted to kill him as they felt the son may affect their daughter’s future. They also feared that Sathish might tarnish the image of the family among the villagers and relatives," said T. Sundaresan, Superintendent of Police, Madurai.
Children in India, who form 19% of the world’s children and nearly 440 million, are living dangerously is a fact beyond statistical proof. Female infanticide to auto rickshaws packed with school children getting crushed under a speeding truck are our daily news.
The Reuters AlertNet poll conducted a survey among humanitarian workers and journalists to name three places they considered to be world’s most dangerous place for children. The three nations that topped the list are Iraq, Somalia and India.
India is a home for 100 million children who are out of school, 35 million who are homeless, where two out of every three children are physically abused. In India, Child abuse is either taken for granted or it has always been denied.
How safe are the children in the hands of parents? The incident we read was an extreme act of cruelty that a family could inflict on a child. As it involved high drama it got its media attention. But talking about domestic abuse of children is a forbidden fruit for the society as the general belief is that that’s where the children are safe and secure. The parents are often reluctant to admit and deal with child abuse of physical and sexual nature, involving family members. Or some even boast about the physical punishments they inflicted on the children, not considering that as an abuse. With all these ‘Indian Happy Family’ image was maintained.
Renuka Chowdhury, Minister of State for Women and Child Development at the Central Government, in her message on ‘Study on Child Abuse, India 2007’ reiterates that child abuse is shrouded in secrecy and there is a conspiracy of silence around the entire subject. There is a belief that no child is abused in India.
The recent path breaking study on Child Abuse by the Central Government’s Ministry of Women and Child Welfare is shattering and shocking. This is the first time that the Government’s agency is ever taking stock of the situation. The study was conducted in collaboration with UNICEF, Save the Children and Prayas.
The study reveals that "child abuse is common in India" and that "every second child is faced with sexual abuse and two-thirds have been physically abused".The study has taken two years to complete and covered 13 states of India where 12,247 children between 5 and 12 and 2,324 young adults (over the age of 12) were interviewed. The study claims that this is the largest of its kind undertaken anywhere in the world.
The study continuously makes shocking revelations such as among the 15,000 child respondents, 50.9% children were subjected to physical abuse by their mothers while 37.6% faced abuse from their fathers. Only 37.6% faced abuse by their fathers. Hence it is clear that most of the emotional and physical abuse suffered by children in our families is inflicted by mothers.
Another major set back in the growth of the children is also humiliation. Humiliation in early childhood haunts throughout one’ life if not guided and helped properly. Humiliation in childhood is a challenge for later formation of young adults and adults. Humiliation is referred as degradation of self-esteem of a child by shouting, belittling, using abusive language, comparison with other children etc.,
According to the study, 44.13% respondents reported facing humiliation. Here again shockingly, around 44.09% reported being humiliated by their mothers and 35.35 by their fathers. Among these 45.5% in the age group of 5-12, 42.25% in the age group of 13-14 and 43.54% in the age group of 15-18 reported being humiliated in the family environment.
Humiliation often builds around a sense of worthlessness in children. If parents treat a child as though he/she were there as bag and baggage and train to a constant state of surrender to the parental will, they sow the seeds of complexes. Say for example it could be the intolerance of a mother. The study too points out that She might always tell a child "Look you have no worth of your own. Your whole good is to come along with what I say". So, the child loses the basic human option - the option to love. The image of us is really product of what other people, rightly or wrongly, have told us from our childhood that we are. The ugly self-image, that is the result of repeated humiliation, can even cause human inertia, failure and unhappiness.
According to Dr. Loveleen Kacker, the official in charge of child welfare in the ministry under whom the study was conducted is of the opinion that substantial number of the abusers were "persons in trust and care-givers’ who included parents, relatives and school teachers.
Altogether almost 89% of children were subjected to physical abuse by their parents, who have the primary responsibility of protecting their children.
Among the respondents 48% girls whished they were boys as more than two out of three girls felt they were neglected. As per the study, the girls in the families are denied of opportunities for growth. They are more made use of for taking care of siblings and doing household works.
The reasons for child abuse lie within family itself according to the study. The factors are bad relationships, bad marriages, lack of job, lack of money, lack of educational skills, lack of parenting skills. All these have their repercussions on children. As fittest survives, it is the weakest that suffers.
The children also do not report the abuse to anyone. 50% of the young adults still feel that the abuse is matter of the family and should remain within the family. Children don’t betray the parents and relatives. It is rather a slender (17%) per cent of the respondents wish their abusers to be punished. Therefore the challenge is to convince the children to report abuse. But this could spark of a big debate in a society like ours. The idea of children reporting abuse to authorities is purely western. In fact, the study advocates such a reporting.
The study also mentions that high per cent of respondents need care and protection. It is an eye opener of the existing reality that was kept hidden and secret. Families are to be kept together but if the child is in eminent danger in family what do we do?
This study indicates that there is something seriously wrong with our kids in our society. It will also spark off another debate among the NGOs who are vehemently promoting family care as the ideal care for children. In a country like India, we need to look into the context of the society, family and children to decide the sort of care and protection we could plan. There is no single quick fix solution as often advocated by donor agencies to save the children of India.
Though the fact that the study has focused on the most vulnerable groups is of little consolation, the indictment of our Indian families’ cruel treatment to children is exposed. The study also recommends policy and legislations and the need for revision of National policy on children 1974 and need for stricter legislation on to deal with child abuses, to develop protocols on child protection mechanisms at all levels, need for national scheme to prevent vulnerabilities and provide services to those in need, out reach and support services like trauma counseling, medical treatment, police intervention and legal support, tracking missing children, shared responsibility of stake holders, capacity building and advocacy and awareness on child rights.
Well, all these would remain only pious exhortations in a country where families are struggling to recognize children as equal members of the family. Though the recommendations by the study are relevant and realistic yet its implementation into family environment requires no effort to be spared on the part of the Government, Citizens and parents. This is bound to take a decade to reach a decent level of awareness on child rights and protection. Such imminent problem needs immediate attention without delay.
Homemade failures
In May 2007, Cho Seung-Hui killed 32 on the campus of Virginia Tech, in Blacksburg, Virginia. He also turned the gun on himself after killing the others. It was shocking for everyone around. Details about Cho unraveled after he committed his gory crime tell us that he was a nearly insane character who seemed to have had difficult childhood. We also had great people. We are happy about them and try to imitate them. All these greatness or belittling elements in us take us back partially to our childhood and to our families. It is for this reason that everyone values the childhood and the formation given to children in the family.
All of us bring back our childhood memories now and then. We cherish many moments of ecstasy and thrill. We have accumulated within us the years of experiences as memories. We were nourished by our experiences which shaped us. Others see in us what the past had written on us. Others experience the good or bad things that have made us up. Many have appreciated or cursed us for the kind of persons we are.
We see we have two important factors moulding us. One is the genes passed on to us; the other is the environment which shapes us. We find ourselves unable to modify what has been in us by our genes. We are able to change the environment in which we live. The family in which we are brought up is the environment which we can alter or change to suit us.
The Home is the nursery of character. Just as the home is the most potent influence for good training, so it is for bad. We do not mean that it is the only influence, for the school, companions and other circumstances to which the child is exposed, all play their part in moulding his character and shaping his personality. But the faulty or the good mental habits that are most deeply furrowed in the mind are those which are planted during the plastic years of early childhood. The fist seven years of life constitute perhaps the most important period for training to wholesome mental attitudes. The difficulties of most "problem children" originate in the family. A very large percentage of failures in life are homemade failures.
This is a broad statement but it is not so dogmatic as it may at first appear. For it is in the home that the child lays down the emotional attitudes that form the basis of his adult personality. Since the environment of the home is chiefly the creation of the parents, it is the responsibility of parents to supply a home atmosphere that will foster the growth of healthy attitudes in their children.
The child’s first teacher, and in some respects the most important teacher he will ever have, is the parent. Others may impart more knowledge and information to the child but it is from his parents that he receives his basic points of view, his methods of tackling his problems, and is fundamental philosophy of life. In the early years the parents interpret life for the child and at the same time they lay the foundations on which he will build his own future interpretations. The parents decide what pictures hang on the wall, the books that come into the home, the kind of people who visit there, the type of conversation that is encouraged, the neighbourhood in which the child is reared, the school and church he attends, and the countless other things that enter into his experience. All these factors influence the child’s present emotional responses. Many of them arouse permanent dispositions that will colour his reactions to the problems he encounters in later life.
Almost a quarter of a billion children are working as child labourers today, and will continue toiling tomorrow despite the world’s promise to care for every child, the scourge of child labour still leaves countless children deprived of their most basic rights. The saddest thing is that it happens now right where they are supposed to be secure. These children have become homemade failures.
We need a renewed determination to protect the lives of all children. Governments must be called upon to meet the commitments in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and in the ILO Conventions on child labour. The international community must make the protection and development of children the first priority in aid programmes. Businesses must stop using children to turn a quick profit. And above all, ordinary people, adults and children alike, must make it clear that the abuse of children as child labourers has no place in this world.
The commercial exploitation of children in both developing and developed countries has come to be recognised as the most common form of child abuse today. Subjected to physical, psychological and emotional abuse, children are often trapped with no other options, but to be bonded in the families. Too often society simply accepts their labour at homes as a harsh reality and turns a blind eye as the children suffer horrendous abuse.
Do we consider ourselves civilised? Do we deserve to be called humanity when we take the youngest children and abuse them for petty profit and power?
All of us bring back our childhood memories now and then. We cherish many moments of ecstasy and thrill. We have accumulated within us the years of experiences as memories. We were nourished by our experiences which shaped us. Others see in us what the past had written on us. Others experience the good or bad things that have made us up. Many have appreciated or cursed us for the kind of persons we are.
We see we have two important factors moulding us. One is the genes passed on to us; the other is the environment which shapes us. We find ourselves unable to modify what has been in us by our genes. We are able to change the environment in which we live. The family in which we are brought up is the environment which we can alter or change to suit us.
The Home is the nursery of character. Just as the home is the most potent influence for good training, so it is for bad. We do not mean that it is the only influence, for the school, companions and other circumstances to which the child is exposed, all play their part in moulding his character and shaping his personality. But the faulty or the good mental habits that are most deeply furrowed in the mind are those which are planted during the plastic years of early childhood. The fist seven years of life constitute perhaps the most important period for training to wholesome mental attitudes. The difficulties of most "problem children" originate in the family. A very large percentage of failures in life are homemade failures.
This is a broad statement but it is not so dogmatic as it may at first appear. For it is in the home that the child lays down the emotional attitudes that form the basis of his adult personality. Since the environment of the home is chiefly the creation of the parents, it is the responsibility of parents to supply a home atmosphere that will foster the growth of healthy attitudes in their children.
The child’s first teacher, and in some respects the most important teacher he will ever have, is the parent. Others may impart more knowledge and information to the child but it is from his parents that he receives his basic points of view, his methods of tackling his problems, and is fundamental philosophy of life. In the early years the parents interpret life for the child and at the same time they lay the foundations on which he will build his own future interpretations. The parents decide what pictures hang on the wall, the books that come into the home, the kind of people who visit there, the type of conversation that is encouraged, the neighbourhood in which the child is reared, the school and church he attends, and the countless other things that enter into his experience. All these factors influence the child’s present emotional responses. Many of them arouse permanent dispositions that will colour his reactions to the problems he encounters in later life.
Almost a quarter of a billion children are working as child labourers today, and will continue toiling tomorrow despite the world’s promise to care for every child, the scourge of child labour still leaves countless children deprived of their most basic rights. The saddest thing is that it happens now right where they are supposed to be secure. These children have become homemade failures.
We need a renewed determination to protect the lives of all children. Governments must be called upon to meet the commitments in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and in the ILO Conventions on child labour. The international community must make the protection and development of children the first priority in aid programmes. Businesses must stop using children to turn a quick profit. And above all, ordinary people, adults and children alike, must make it clear that the abuse of children as child labourers has no place in this world.
The commercial exploitation of children in both developing and developed countries has come to be recognised as the most common form of child abuse today. Subjected to physical, psychological and emotional abuse, children are often trapped with no other options, but to be bonded in the families. Too often society simply accepts their labour at homes as a harsh reality and turns a blind eye as the children suffer horrendous abuse.
Do we consider ourselves civilised? Do we deserve to be called humanity when we take the youngest children and abuse them for petty profit and power?
Are Men Equal to Women?
As men have the stronger sex urge, women have the stronger “sympathy” urge.
Instead of asking the question: “Are women equal to men?” we should reverse the question to: “Are men equal to women?” and we will have a question which can not as easily be answered by a resounding “Yes”.
The obvious fact - no less scientific because it is obvious - is that women can be mothers and men cannot. Biologically speaking there is no comparison between motherhood and fatherhood for the simple reason that a man is all but unrelated to his own child in that the mother has alone been carrying the child for nine months; the mother is the one who has been feeding and coddling and burping and tending the child; she has all but monopolised him and he her. Man is an extern, a foreigner, an intruder in the biological process which has cast him aside as a mere casual incident. He does posses a muscular superiority and dominance but his system is not changed according to whether or not his sperm shall have impregnated an ovum; his whole life has not taken on a sudden, overwhelming, terrifically personal new meaning; to him there has been no radical change of outlook, no constant feeling of personal responsibility and dedication, no deep-seated pulsation throbbing throughout his system saying: “We are no longer one but two.” And as the days of confinement and hour of delivery draw near, there is not the same numbing apprehension of an impending rendezvous with destiny, the glorious climax of immediate cooperation with God in the struggle that new existence may find his way into a bright world; nor with the victory won does there come to man the warm rich glow of achievement and honour and personal fulfilment as a tender warm bundle of life looks up with clear but unsteady eyes into the wan smiling face of the woman he will ever after call “Mother.”
It is impossible for an adult, even for an adult savage, not to understand that it is particularly from the mother and within the mother that the child lives and moves and derives its being. More than that: after the child is born, nature has decreed that the child needs its mother for “a nourishment that has never been equalled” and the mother needs the child not only for deep psychological reasons but because the child “through its (breast-feeding) functioning is related to the uterine involution which it facilitates and completes.” Mother and child need each other for their physical, emotional, and psychological well-being. In all of this, the man is certainly not equal.
The burden of hundreds of weighty doctoral dissertations and thousands of excellent educational experiments has been: a child’s earliest days are his most important and impressionable days. Yet biology is oblivious to any complaint of the male that the woman is by nature destined to be closer to the child. Or that she will have more to say about moulding the human race. Or that she will be the one who will more closely cooperate with God in moulding and developing the future inhabitants of home, state, and heaven, if God had wanted the man to be closer to the child, he would have given the male the appropriate nurturing equipment and functions.
Sociability
A woman is much more likely to become emotional about somebody. Her greater affectivity is toward persons; she is a more social person. She is interested in the living human being; not in things, actions, accomplishments, theories, statistics, or impersonal plans as such. She is more interested in getting along with others, and she works at it. Allport and Hartman found that girls are less resistant to social situations generally; they are the greater “conformists.
Heidbreder found that women prefer more socially approved traits than do the men; they prefer more desirable social traits in themselves and in others, while men-egotists as they seem to be, prefer more desirable traits in others than in themselves. The man is less willing to put himself out to “get along”; he is more satisfied with the role of the “great independent” or the lone wolf. In considering woman’s greater sociability there is the biocultural factor that the woman “gets ahead” through marriage and therefore by attracting another through personality, charm, and ingratiating ways, while the man “gets ahead” by proving himself in business and other more impersonal ways.
Cooperation
As men have the stronger sex urge, women have the stronger “sympathy” urge. As women need greater affection, social attention, emotional response, personal assistance and aid, they feel others need it too. And they respond accordingly. Their spirit of cooperation, their willingness to subordinate their own personal aggrandisement or pet project for the common good, their “social aid and uplift tendencies,” are all indicated at an early age. Girls’ “service score” and “altruistic attitudes” surpass consistently those of their brothers even though their male counterparts have a worse reputation for lack of cooperation than seems to be warranted. Daughters perform more kind deeds and do more chores for both parents.
If we ask why it is that from early childhood to old age it is the female sex which in general is the more “socially aware” and altruistic, the answer seems obvious enough: women expand their “motherliness” into the whole broad, needy world with which they come in contact. In this second division of the emotions, the altruistic, there is accordingly no doubt that women are superior.
The Hardy Sex
Doctors agree the woman has the more viable, more resistant body, The secret of her success in this field, as in so many others, is her excess of female hormones, Our hormone supply is our medicinal supply-we always have an ever-ready automatic medicine kit, Nevertheless, as Dr. Hugh H. Darby of Columbia University points out, though both sexes produce both “male” and “female” hormones the production overwhelmingly favours the woman for:
Even among children from three to ten years old, little boys, on the average, produce twice as much of the “male hormones” as do little girls while little girls produce forty or fifty times as much of the “female” hormones as do little boys.
This excess of hormones with their healing power gives woman such marvelous recuperative powers that she can look forward to six more years of life than the male. At all ages the female death rate is at least twenty-five per cent lower than the male. Not only will the Woman benefit proportionately wherever there are improved living and medical conditions but she has less chance of being a victim of anyone of the major diseases.
Physical versus Psychological
Leclercq characterises man as more “carnal” and woman as more “passionate.” Man’s libidinous affectability is localised and propulsive; woman’s diffuse and more amenable to psychological implications. This dimorphic sex impetus gives rise to such rough approximations as the followings:
It is estimated that in about 90% of the boys it is the physical factor (of the sex instinct) that predominates, while in about 90% of the girls it is the psychic factor. Dr. Bigelow expresses it this way: The sexual instincts of the young man are characteristically active, aggressive, spontaneous, and automatic; while those of the girl, as a rule, are passive, and subject to awakening by external stimuli, especially in connection with affection.
Not only in the human world but in the whole animal world it is primarily the male who searches for the female. In the cellular origins of multicellular life it is the spermatozoa which seek out the ova and vice versa. This basic male-female pattern as existing among the games continue the biologic stairways right into the formal ballroom of mankind: the male is the aggressor and the female is the coy latent potential mother - the conserver, nourisher, personal protector, and builder of the vital world. To the male, the sexual union is more often an end in itself; to the woman it is more often a means: a means to satisfy the male, or a means to obtain children.
The consideration of these basic sociological, and psychological differences helps us understand why there is some truth in saying that for the male love is ninety per cent physical and ten per cent psychological, and for the female love is ten per cent physical and ninety per cent psychological. Do they also go to prove women are far superior to men?
Instead of asking the question: “Are women equal to men?” we should reverse the question to: “Are men equal to women?” and we will have a question which can not as easily be answered by a resounding “Yes”.
The obvious fact - no less scientific because it is obvious - is that women can be mothers and men cannot. Biologically speaking there is no comparison between motherhood and fatherhood for the simple reason that a man is all but unrelated to his own child in that the mother has alone been carrying the child for nine months; the mother is the one who has been feeding and coddling and burping and tending the child; she has all but monopolised him and he her. Man is an extern, a foreigner, an intruder in the biological process which has cast him aside as a mere casual incident. He does posses a muscular superiority and dominance but his system is not changed according to whether or not his sperm shall have impregnated an ovum; his whole life has not taken on a sudden, overwhelming, terrifically personal new meaning; to him there has been no radical change of outlook, no constant feeling of personal responsibility and dedication, no deep-seated pulsation throbbing throughout his system saying: “We are no longer one but two.” And as the days of confinement and hour of delivery draw near, there is not the same numbing apprehension of an impending rendezvous with destiny, the glorious climax of immediate cooperation with God in the struggle that new existence may find his way into a bright world; nor with the victory won does there come to man the warm rich glow of achievement and honour and personal fulfilment as a tender warm bundle of life looks up with clear but unsteady eyes into the wan smiling face of the woman he will ever after call “Mother.”
It is impossible for an adult, even for an adult savage, not to understand that it is particularly from the mother and within the mother that the child lives and moves and derives its being. More than that: after the child is born, nature has decreed that the child needs its mother for “a nourishment that has never been equalled” and the mother needs the child not only for deep psychological reasons but because the child “through its (breast-feeding) functioning is related to the uterine involution which it facilitates and completes.” Mother and child need each other for their physical, emotional, and psychological well-being. In all of this, the man is certainly not equal.
The burden of hundreds of weighty doctoral dissertations and thousands of excellent educational experiments has been: a child’s earliest days are his most important and impressionable days. Yet biology is oblivious to any complaint of the male that the woman is by nature destined to be closer to the child. Or that she will have more to say about moulding the human race. Or that she will be the one who will more closely cooperate with God in moulding and developing the future inhabitants of home, state, and heaven, if God had wanted the man to be closer to the child, he would have given the male the appropriate nurturing equipment and functions.
Sociability
A woman is much more likely to become emotional about somebody. Her greater affectivity is toward persons; she is a more social person. She is interested in the living human being; not in things, actions, accomplishments, theories, statistics, or impersonal plans as such. She is more interested in getting along with others, and she works at it. Allport and Hartman found that girls are less resistant to social situations generally; they are the greater “conformists.
Heidbreder found that women prefer more socially approved traits than do the men; they prefer more desirable social traits in themselves and in others, while men-egotists as they seem to be, prefer more desirable traits in others than in themselves. The man is less willing to put himself out to “get along”; he is more satisfied with the role of the “great independent” or the lone wolf. In considering woman’s greater sociability there is the biocultural factor that the woman “gets ahead” through marriage and therefore by attracting another through personality, charm, and ingratiating ways, while the man “gets ahead” by proving himself in business and other more impersonal ways.
Cooperation
As men have the stronger sex urge, women have the stronger “sympathy” urge. As women need greater affection, social attention, emotional response, personal assistance and aid, they feel others need it too. And they respond accordingly. Their spirit of cooperation, their willingness to subordinate their own personal aggrandisement or pet project for the common good, their “social aid and uplift tendencies,” are all indicated at an early age. Girls’ “service score” and “altruistic attitudes” surpass consistently those of their brothers even though their male counterparts have a worse reputation for lack of cooperation than seems to be warranted. Daughters perform more kind deeds and do more chores for both parents.
If we ask why it is that from early childhood to old age it is the female sex which in general is the more “socially aware” and altruistic, the answer seems obvious enough: women expand their “motherliness” into the whole broad, needy world with which they come in contact. In this second division of the emotions, the altruistic, there is accordingly no doubt that women are superior.
The Hardy Sex
Doctors agree the woman has the more viable, more resistant body, The secret of her success in this field, as in so many others, is her excess of female hormones, Our hormone supply is our medicinal supply-we always have an ever-ready automatic medicine kit, Nevertheless, as Dr. Hugh H. Darby of Columbia University points out, though both sexes produce both “male” and “female” hormones the production overwhelmingly favours the woman for:
Even among children from three to ten years old, little boys, on the average, produce twice as much of the “male hormones” as do little girls while little girls produce forty or fifty times as much of the “female” hormones as do little boys.
This excess of hormones with their healing power gives woman such marvelous recuperative powers that she can look forward to six more years of life than the male. At all ages the female death rate is at least twenty-five per cent lower than the male. Not only will the Woman benefit proportionately wherever there are improved living and medical conditions but she has less chance of being a victim of anyone of the major diseases.
Physical versus Psychological
Leclercq characterises man as more “carnal” and woman as more “passionate.” Man’s libidinous affectability is localised and propulsive; woman’s diffuse and more amenable to psychological implications. This dimorphic sex impetus gives rise to such rough approximations as the followings:
It is estimated that in about 90% of the boys it is the physical factor (of the sex instinct) that predominates, while in about 90% of the girls it is the psychic factor. Dr. Bigelow expresses it this way: The sexual instincts of the young man are characteristically active, aggressive, spontaneous, and automatic; while those of the girl, as a rule, are passive, and subject to awakening by external stimuli, especially in connection with affection.
Not only in the human world but in the whole animal world it is primarily the male who searches for the female. In the cellular origins of multicellular life it is the spermatozoa which seek out the ova and vice versa. This basic male-female pattern as existing among the games continue the biologic stairways right into the formal ballroom of mankind: the male is the aggressor and the female is the coy latent potential mother - the conserver, nourisher, personal protector, and builder of the vital world. To the male, the sexual union is more often an end in itself; to the woman it is more often a means: a means to satisfy the male, or a means to obtain children.
The consideration of these basic sociological, and psychological differences helps us understand why there is some truth in saying that for the male love is ninety per cent physical and ten per cent psychological, and for the female love is ten per cent physical and ninety per cent psychological. Do they also go to prove women are far superior to men?
Feminine Genius
Her strength is her weakness.
She challenges by faltering,
she fights by yielding,
and she conquers by falling.
- Author unknown
ll cultures have adored women; studied their physical structure; researched on their thinking process; glorified their beauty; wondered at the subtle splash of wisdom that comes from them; But finally they shut them in to a cascade and present them as show piece not knowing what to do with them. Understandably that is precisely the work of a male who stresses the aspect of doing instead of being.
For a man, a woman is a paradox. She seems to be weak, losing, soft, tender, supple and yet that is her strength, victory, dominance and superiority. She is strong with all her weaknesses; she fights while giving in, and conquers while falling.
There are differences between man and woman. Many have written about it, though not so eloquently. Many cultures, be it western or eastern, have tried to vocalize it in the desire to bring out the essence of women. Though we have greatly succeeded in explaining, we find ourselves at a loss when we try to explain their true essence. We find ourselves incomplete, confused and some times totally missed the point. The individuality of a woman stands before us with ever more richness beyond our normal logical, mathematical and human calculations.
This leads us again to further the discussion on the missing side of male psyche, namely the extra sensory perception, imagination, intuition, lateral thinking etc., of which the female psyche seems to be way ahead of a male psyche. At the same time we know that there is a man in woman and a woman in man lying dormant showing himself or herself occasionally in thought or in action. This leads us to the androgynous nature, the principle of Arthanariswarar, the Yin Yang etc.,
After centuries of domination of male psyche in developmental, historical, mathematical and logical fields, there is an emerging search of the female psyche in ecological, philosophical, metaphysical, anthropological and parascientific fields. This search takes place in the unexplored vicissitudes of human life. This certainly opens us a whole new way of being, thinking and responding to the human problems and challenges existing for centuries for which the male psyche could hardly find a solution and to which the female psyche was forbidden to enter.
The Genius
A genius may be taken as one who is recognised for his/her extraordinary power of invention or origination. In pre-Christian Roman theology a “genius” was a spirit presiding over the destiny of a person or place. By extension we have come to take a genius as one who through domination of his particular field influences a sizable portion of mankind. There is no common acceptance of what is meant by the word. Therefore, there can be no question of claiming any scientific exactitude in the following discussion.
Sorokin’s investigations indicate that only about 100,000 individuals left any notable trace on the memory of history from the forty-five billions who inhabited the earth through the 2,250 years that his study covered. Thus, only one person out of every 4,50,000 had immortalised himself. The chief arenas in which they have attained their pre-eminence are the following nine: government, religion, literature, scholarship, science, philosophy, business, music, and the other fine arts. Of these 100,000 historically towering elite, perhaps 95 per cent are men. More striking is the fact that all our recorded great geniuses have been men. Not one woman has ever risen to the ultimate heights in any field of human thought, action, or cultural creation. When we start to mention such names as Sappho and realise that only scattered fragments of her works remain, while her name is the dubious symbol of an immortal cult, or the name of the little known Benedictine nun Hroswitha whose copious works of the tenth century might be considered as the bridge between ancient and modern drama-when we dig and scrape into the bottom of the barrel labelled “All-Time Geniuses” and come up with specimens of such mediocre size as this, it becomes all too painfully clear that there is not one woman who could be classified as an all-time-great creative genius.
No one has given a satisfactory explanation of this amazing enigma. This brief present sketch will not change the history of the past’s unsatisfactory explanations but it may suggest further investigation.
Feminine Genius
The archetypal relationship between man and woman seems ideal and beautiful on the surface, and we are all taken up by its glamour. We are flabbergasted and are immersed in the subject. But where is the individual in the tragic tale of Tristan and Isolde, of Romeo and Juliet, of Salim and Anarkali, of the prince and princess who live happily ever after? The individual psyche stands far outside the tale, because it is an analogy, a symbol of what goes on within himself. Male and female within the individual must battle with each other in opposition until they achieve union. But the actual man and woman who live in the world and love each other must not lose sight of their true identity in the battle and the union. They must not mistake this one symbol for the whole story of their lives. There must be surrender, surely, in the act of union, in the bliss of love, in the hell of hate, but one’s individuality is more precious than any archetype.
But there are few individuals, few who have emerged from the primordial ooze enough to stand outside these archetypal dramas. Men and women who are asleep, who have no real individuality, find themselves compelled to be like the polar opposites of masculinity and femininity, like stereotypes, regardless of who they are. Men feel they must be dominant, aggressive, and active, and women feel they must be submissive, passive, and receptive. They cultivate the qualities of the archetype rather than their own peculiarities.
Since we live in a patriarchy, masculine values based on masculine qualities are the prescribed modes of thinking. Women take on the dark side of this. If the masculine world would open itself to feminine knowledge there would be a hieros gamos on a large scale, a union of opposites, a marriage between art and science, between poetry and philosophy. This alchemical union takes place on the individual plane in a few people but rarely, and these people attain to something like genius of being. So, though the masculine mind rejects the feminine, on the individual plane this most despised thing, the stone rejected by the builders, is actually the cornerstone of the alchemical work.
What is the feminine part of the psyche? It is a blind spot, so it is difficult to see. Let us say the intellect is masculine; it is ordered, structured, and finite. Objectivity and rationality, we shall also say are masculine. And therefore, what lies outside these masculine realms is feminine territory: intuition, subjectivity, and irrationality. It is not this simple though, because objectivity is very subjective, rationality is very irrational, and the borders between intellect and intuition cannot be found. And here lies the threat of the feminine point of view: it forever beholds the folly of pure rationality, pure intellect, pure objectivity. However, given the strict duality of the male-female myth, men are rational, objective, and intellectual; women are irrational, subjective, and intuitional. We who have lived under the yoke of this myth for thousands of years have become like the creatures of the myth. This is a sad state of affairs because intellect without intuition is a stale rigid trap.
Men need the qualities they project onto women. We believe because of our conditioning that a man is not a man if he has any of the qualities he gets rid of by claiming they are exclusively female. He knows unconsciously that he needs those qualities-that is why he is drawn to certain women, women who display outwardly the qualities he has hidden within himself, in the dark shadows of his psyche. It is no wonder a man wants to possess a woman, he really wants to reclaim that lost part of himself, to be whole again. He must have or imagine he has a woman who is all of those qualities he is missing. She will be an extension of himself, devoid of individuality. This is how she fulfils her role as mate to her man.
The tragedy of this situation strikes at both sides. A man may seem to have individuality and dignity but he is not himself if he has repressed part of himself. The tragedy on the other side is that a woman doesn’t even have this false individuality and dignity. She is only a part of the man, like Adam’s rib. She has individuality and dignity vicariously: She must repress the part other psyche that demands these things and project this part onto her man. He opens all doors for her, he blazes a path through the world for both of them. One wonders what men do with their emotions and what women do with their aggressions. What does a man do inside himself when he would weep? What does a woman do inside herself when she would be forceful and take over a situation? There must be murders and imprisonments inside, amputations and other tortures, punishments and deformities.
What is the feminine view of the world? It is a preoccupation with the relationship between things rather than with the things themselves. Men believe they are objective because they take careful note of individual things but they are coming more to realise that the object is not alone, it is inseparable from all the objects around it. In fact, it is the whole that must be understood before anyone object can be understood. This is a more feminine point of view: In conversation, a woman is more occupied with the way things are said, the tone of voice, gesture, body language, than is a man. A man is more occupied with the content of the words. In modern psychology, body language is studied by intuitive persons because they find that words can lie but the body cannot. This is a field in which women are unconscious adepts.
Because of her peculiar orientation, woman has developed talents to see where men cannot see, to see from angles he cannot see. In this patriarchy, what men see is what mankind sees. Woman is silent about what she sees. She does not see what she sees. Now is the time when we are beginning to look at ourselves and reassess our possibilities.
Why is it there have been no women of genius, only an occasional one who even aspired? Because woman has always had to play a part for man’s sake. She has had to be his missing part, so that he can be whole and survive his own unbalanced state. The danger of woman’s desire for independence, for a life of her own, has always been felt by those who train her for this role. Let us hope we can heal a universal neurosis, that we can effect an alchemy that will give back to man his soul, his emotions, his imagination, all that he now sees in woman, and free woman to enjoy her individuality.
There is a renaissance for woman. Once her creativity is allowed to come forth boldly and with its own peculiar mark of femininity, we will see women of genius. It is the flowering of experience from a particular point of view of an individual who is courageous enough to experience life deeply, to experience all the pangs and joys, the awesome vision of death and infinity: Genius and madness and sainthood are all entwined in the vision of life being greater than oneself, and if one can stand the vision and speak of it, though never really capturing it in words and symbols, that is the work of the genius. One can see the mark of psychic courage in these words. They seem to demand that one have such a vision oneself: They haunt one and lead one on to unimaginable goals, like fairy paths through an enchanted forest.
Women could come out with immortal facts without having any so called scientific research and yet they are true. It is in this background we need to look at the contribution women make to the society: perceiving without seeing, comprehending without listening, understanding without any help from the senses. They are able to prove a logic without logical procedures and conclusions. If asked for the logic behind their facts, we find no tactile experience but intuitive grasp of reality which is hard to comprehend for science.
We derive solutions from the female psyche for the problems. It is not based on mathematics and logic but based on intuition and extra sensory perception; not from outside but from inside. The feminine genius is inviting us to get back to that forgotten traits that used to be and still guides silently the universe, the solar system and the human mind relentlessly. That which guides with no apparent logic of mathematical calculation; that which attracts us incessantly. The question is : how much of it can we comprehend ?
She challenges by faltering,
she fights by yielding,
and she conquers by falling.
- Author unknown
ll cultures have adored women; studied their physical structure; researched on their thinking process; glorified their beauty; wondered at the subtle splash of wisdom that comes from them; But finally they shut them in to a cascade and present them as show piece not knowing what to do with them. Understandably that is precisely the work of a male who stresses the aspect of doing instead of being.
For a man, a woman is a paradox. She seems to be weak, losing, soft, tender, supple and yet that is her strength, victory, dominance and superiority. She is strong with all her weaknesses; she fights while giving in, and conquers while falling.
There are differences between man and woman. Many have written about it, though not so eloquently. Many cultures, be it western or eastern, have tried to vocalize it in the desire to bring out the essence of women. Though we have greatly succeeded in explaining, we find ourselves at a loss when we try to explain their true essence. We find ourselves incomplete, confused and some times totally missed the point. The individuality of a woman stands before us with ever more richness beyond our normal logical, mathematical and human calculations.
This leads us again to further the discussion on the missing side of male psyche, namely the extra sensory perception, imagination, intuition, lateral thinking etc., of which the female psyche seems to be way ahead of a male psyche. At the same time we know that there is a man in woman and a woman in man lying dormant showing himself or herself occasionally in thought or in action. This leads us to the androgynous nature, the principle of Arthanariswarar, the Yin Yang etc.,
After centuries of domination of male psyche in developmental, historical, mathematical and logical fields, there is an emerging search of the female psyche in ecological, philosophical, metaphysical, anthropological and parascientific fields. This search takes place in the unexplored vicissitudes of human life. This certainly opens us a whole new way of being, thinking and responding to the human problems and challenges existing for centuries for which the male psyche could hardly find a solution and to which the female psyche was forbidden to enter.
The Genius
A genius may be taken as one who is recognised for his/her extraordinary power of invention or origination. In pre-Christian Roman theology a “genius” was a spirit presiding over the destiny of a person or place. By extension we have come to take a genius as one who through domination of his particular field influences a sizable portion of mankind. There is no common acceptance of what is meant by the word. Therefore, there can be no question of claiming any scientific exactitude in the following discussion.
Sorokin’s investigations indicate that only about 100,000 individuals left any notable trace on the memory of history from the forty-five billions who inhabited the earth through the 2,250 years that his study covered. Thus, only one person out of every 4,50,000 had immortalised himself. The chief arenas in which they have attained their pre-eminence are the following nine: government, religion, literature, scholarship, science, philosophy, business, music, and the other fine arts. Of these 100,000 historically towering elite, perhaps 95 per cent are men. More striking is the fact that all our recorded great geniuses have been men. Not one woman has ever risen to the ultimate heights in any field of human thought, action, or cultural creation. When we start to mention such names as Sappho and realise that only scattered fragments of her works remain, while her name is the dubious symbol of an immortal cult, or the name of the little known Benedictine nun Hroswitha whose copious works of the tenth century might be considered as the bridge between ancient and modern drama-when we dig and scrape into the bottom of the barrel labelled “All-Time Geniuses” and come up with specimens of such mediocre size as this, it becomes all too painfully clear that there is not one woman who could be classified as an all-time-great creative genius.
No one has given a satisfactory explanation of this amazing enigma. This brief present sketch will not change the history of the past’s unsatisfactory explanations but it may suggest further investigation.
Feminine Genius
The archetypal relationship between man and woman seems ideal and beautiful on the surface, and we are all taken up by its glamour. We are flabbergasted and are immersed in the subject. But where is the individual in the tragic tale of Tristan and Isolde, of Romeo and Juliet, of Salim and Anarkali, of the prince and princess who live happily ever after? The individual psyche stands far outside the tale, because it is an analogy, a symbol of what goes on within himself. Male and female within the individual must battle with each other in opposition until they achieve union. But the actual man and woman who live in the world and love each other must not lose sight of their true identity in the battle and the union. They must not mistake this one symbol for the whole story of their lives. There must be surrender, surely, in the act of union, in the bliss of love, in the hell of hate, but one’s individuality is more precious than any archetype.
But there are few individuals, few who have emerged from the primordial ooze enough to stand outside these archetypal dramas. Men and women who are asleep, who have no real individuality, find themselves compelled to be like the polar opposites of masculinity and femininity, like stereotypes, regardless of who they are. Men feel they must be dominant, aggressive, and active, and women feel they must be submissive, passive, and receptive. They cultivate the qualities of the archetype rather than their own peculiarities.
Since we live in a patriarchy, masculine values based on masculine qualities are the prescribed modes of thinking. Women take on the dark side of this. If the masculine world would open itself to feminine knowledge there would be a hieros gamos on a large scale, a union of opposites, a marriage between art and science, between poetry and philosophy. This alchemical union takes place on the individual plane in a few people but rarely, and these people attain to something like genius of being. So, though the masculine mind rejects the feminine, on the individual plane this most despised thing, the stone rejected by the builders, is actually the cornerstone of the alchemical work.
What is the feminine part of the psyche? It is a blind spot, so it is difficult to see. Let us say the intellect is masculine; it is ordered, structured, and finite. Objectivity and rationality, we shall also say are masculine. And therefore, what lies outside these masculine realms is feminine territory: intuition, subjectivity, and irrationality. It is not this simple though, because objectivity is very subjective, rationality is very irrational, and the borders between intellect and intuition cannot be found. And here lies the threat of the feminine point of view: it forever beholds the folly of pure rationality, pure intellect, pure objectivity. However, given the strict duality of the male-female myth, men are rational, objective, and intellectual; women are irrational, subjective, and intuitional. We who have lived under the yoke of this myth for thousands of years have become like the creatures of the myth. This is a sad state of affairs because intellect without intuition is a stale rigid trap.
Men need the qualities they project onto women. We believe because of our conditioning that a man is not a man if he has any of the qualities he gets rid of by claiming they are exclusively female. He knows unconsciously that he needs those qualities-that is why he is drawn to certain women, women who display outwardly the qualities he has hidden within himself, in the dark shadows of his psyche. It is no wonder a man wants to possess a woman, he really wants to reclaim that lost part of himself, to be whole again. He must have or imagine he has a woman who is all of those qualities he is missing. She will be an extension of himself, devoid of individuality. This is how she fulfils her role as mate to her man.
The tragedy of this situation strikes at both sides. A man may seem to have individuality and dignity but he is not himself if he has repressed part of himself. The tragedy on the other side is that a woman doesn’t even have this false individuality and dignity. She is only a part of the man, like Adam’s rib. She has individuality and dignity vicariously: She must repress the part other psyche that demands these things and project this part onto her man. He opens all doors for her, he blazes a path through the world for both of them. One wonders what men do with their emotions and what women do with their aggressions. What does a man do inside himself when he would weep? What does a woman do inside herself when she would be forceful and take over a situation? There must be murders and imprisonments inside, amputations and other tortures, punishments and deformities.
What is the feminine view of the world? It is a preoccupation with the relationship between things rather than with the things themselves. Men believe they are objective because they take careful note of individual things but they are coming more to realise that the object is not alone, it is inseparable from all the objects around it. In fact, it is the whole that must be understood before anyone object can be understood. This is a more feminine point of view: In conversation, a woman is more occupied with the way things are said, the tone of voice, gesture, body language, than is a man. A man is more occupied with the content of the words. In modern psychology, body language is studied by intuitive persons because they find that words can lie but the body cannot. This is a field in which women are unconscious adepts.
Because of her peculiar orientation, woman has developed talents to see where men cannot see, to see from angles he cannot see. In this patriarchy, what men see is what mankind sees. Woman is silent about what she sees. She does not see what she sees. Now is the time when we are beginning to look at ourselves and reassess our possibilities.
Why is it there have been no women of genius, only an occasional one who even aspired? Because woman has always had to play a part for man’s sake. She has had to be his missing part, so that he can be whole and survive his own unbalanced state. The danger of woman’s desire for independence, for a life of her own, has always been felt by those who train her for this role. Let us hope we can heal a universal neurosis, that we can effect an alchemy that will give back to man his soul, his emotions, his imagination, all that he now sees in woman, and free woman to enjoy her individuality.
There is a renaissance for woman. Once her creativity is allowed to come forth boldly and with its own peculiar mark of femininity, we will see women of genius. It is the flowering of experience from a particular point of view of an individual who is courageous enough to experience life deeply, to experience all the pangs and joys, the awesome vision of death and infinity: Genius and madness and sainthood are all entwined in the vision of life being greater than oneself, and if one can stand the vision and speak of it, though never really capturing it in words and symbols, that is the work of the genius. One can see the mark of psychic courage in these words. They seem to demand that one have such a vision oneself: They haunt one and lead one on to unimaginable goals, like fairy paths through an enchanted forest.
Women could come out with immortal facts without having any so called scientific research and yet they are true. It is in this background we need to look at the contribution women make to the society: perceiving without seeing, comprehending without listening, understanding without any help from the senses. They are able to prove a logic without logical procedures and conclusions. If asked for the logic behind their facts, we find no tactile experience but intuitive grasp of reality which is hard to comprehend for science.
We derive solutions from the female psyche for the problems. It is not based on mathematics and logic but based on intuition and extra sensory perception; not from outside but from inside. The feminine genius is inviting us to get back to that forgotten traits that used to be and still guides silently the universe, the solar system and the human mind relentlessly. That which guides with no apparent logic of mathematical calculation; that which attracts us incessantly. The question is : how much of it can we comprehend ?
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