Thursday, April 7, 2011

How does it work?

As far as I can remember, I’ve always wanted to discover the world. When I was a kid, there was a TV show I loved and would religiously watched every week, called: “La Course Destination Monde” (“The Race Around the World”). It was a few young journalists who where sent in the world to get stories of whatever they wanted, to interview people, film them and broadcast the news in 20 minutes or so. They had to have a different story every week and they needed to be in a different part of the world every other week. Each journalist had the choice of where to go and what to report on; they had only a small budget to make it happen. They were competing against each other, so they had to be awesome, and most of the time, they were, at least to the eyes of a 7 year old like me. I was inspired and I remember I wanted to be part of it when I’d grow up. Unfortunately, after a few years, the show stopped for a lack of funds, and I was never part of it. So I guess my being here, my writing this blog is my own way of reporting about what I see and sense in a world far, in so many ways, from the one I left behind.

I’m excited to be here, to live in a challenging and different scene, to be part of the change that is slowly occurring.  I humbly recognize that I’m not going to be the main reason why things change, but I will always be proud of myself for working hard at trying to make a difference, for being here on the front line and if anything else, for bringing more awareness to the Western world and hopefully changing your views and perspectives on what needs to happen, my dear readers.

I’ve been in Malawi for just over a month now, and I’ve already realized a bunch of things. I’ve had great discussions with people open to change and some frustrating ones with people who don’t want to be part of it. Change is at the door step of conventionalism, it’s waiting for people to let it in. A great example of this is what is happening right now in some universities in Malawi. The president had three excellent teachers fired a few weeks ago because they talked about the government in a negative way. I’m not quite sure what they said to their class (if anyone knows, please comment on this blog, I’d love to learn more), but the President of Malawi got upset and scared of the effect of such discussions about them on the students who are the next generation of decision makers. This is a clear evidence that freedom of speech is not yet part of Malawi. But what is surprising and different than before, and what shows a hint of willingness of student for change is that, by firing these teachers, the government created a lot of frustration at the university level; the students and some other teachers are now on strike, in the street, showing their desire for a different type of leadership. For the time being, such a behaviour will certainly be accused and reprimanded by the government, but the fact they are they are ready to cope with that to push boundaries is fantastic. I’m curious to see what is going to happen next.

I often wonder what made our society change. Not so long ago, I’m thinking about my grandparents’ generation, people in Canada use to be poor and underdeveloped. Schools and governments were under the influence or power of the Church. People were being told by the Church that they needed to procreate otherwise they were going to hell, so families would keep expending. Parents were poor, farming in some cases or working in some dodgy industry with no regulations for a small pay check. A lot of kids were not sent to school because they were too far and the families did not have the money to afford sending their kids to secondary schools, especially the girls. They would eventually get married and stay at home to raise their kids and do cores, so why bother? The road system between villages and towns was terrible. Electricity was not affordable or not provided at all, so people were using candles and fire oven. Women were washing clothes and dishes by hands. Computers were not being used and internet did not exist. And community sense was way more developed, people less selfish and individualistic. Not so long ago in Canada, things were not that different than they are here in Malawi. Even my mom grew up in such a reality and she’s only 60 year old.

I can’t help but wonder what happened, what are the steps we took to change the behaviours of an entire society. I’m not saying that all the changes we made in Canada are for the best and should be applied here, not at all, but I’m curious to see what triggers change in mind sets. The reality and culture in Canada over the last 40 years have dramatically being modified, in so many ways. What was the catalysis to all this or what were the walls that needed to fall for the rest to follow: what it religion?; what is education?; was it desire for equality and equity? was it getting better system, regulations and laws to help people?; or, was it the use of computers and eventually internet? What happened exactly, who made it happened? Can we learn from these things to help changing ways, mind sets and behaviours here in Africa. And don’t get me wrong, I don’t think the same exact things should occur here, I believe some of the habits and values that followed the changes we had in Canada are bad and are restraining us to evolve towards a right and sustainable direction.  All I want is to be able to see if we can learn from the mechanisms, from our experience to help drive changes here. So if anyone has good thoughts on this subject, feel free to let me know.

I’ll leave you to your reflection on this, but I’m asking your feed back on these questions. What do you think was good and bad in the changes we made? What do you think was the catalyst reaction to change and/or what walls had to fell for the rest to follow?

Thanks and have a great day

Hope this can lead to some fantastic reflections and discussions with you guys.

Ge

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