THOUGHT FOR TODAY

CLOTHING IN CIVILISED COMMUNITIES

This article written in the sixties when male teachers were allowed to remove their jackets in school; later they were allowed to come to school without jackets, but they could wear a shirt-jac or shirt and tie… During the seventies, the tie was discarded.

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In an article captioned “Mini-skirted teacher” by Lucian, I would like to add that clothing in civilized communities is not only an article for the protection and adornment of the body, but it has a religious and cultural significance as well.

Among the religions, there is a tendency to dress in a manner which is sexually sobering, hence the purdah which is an extreme system of covering the whole body, including the face, by Muslim women. The shalwar and sari of the Hindus are garments which cover the whole body, but are elegant in appearance.

On the other hand, the tendency of primitive peoples is to wear as little clothing, if you may call it so, as possible. In most cases, only the regions for which Eve and Adam improvised their attire with the leaves of the fig tree are covered.

The argument that this or that piece of garment is superfluous or inconvenient cannot hold water. Usage and adaptability will take care of that.

Guyana is a hot country and from the point of view of suitability where comfort is concerned, would be that worn by the Arawaks. Our belles will be cool and attractive in the outfit worn by Miss Guyana for world scrutiny; but after all we are civilized, and this type of apparel, notwithstanding its practical utility, will be regarded as indecent.

The teaching profession calls for a certain dignity in appearance, and this dignity is dictated by convention and as Lucian rightly said, obligation. Dignified clothes hide contours, even deformities, both of which attract either salacious or morbid interest.

In our society the use of the tie as a cultural symbol is voluntary in certain categories of workers, but obligatory in the teaching profession where it is the duty of the members to main cultural standards.

Teachers are not models for fashion in the classroom. Fashion is an ephemeral phenomenon. Its designers pander to the excitement and attraction which current taste can reject. Teachers, too, must not initiate changes, but must confirm to what is accepted by society.

The time for discarding the tie by the male, even if reason prompts, and for permitting teachers to dress unconventionally and without modesty has not yet arrived… Let whatever is dignified and decent in apparel be retained in the classroom until such time as custom otherwise decrees. Perhaps a dignified national costume may be evolved.

Footnote: When a Miss Guyana entered for a Miss World contest in the seventies, she displayed what was worn by the Arawaks, an indigenous Amerindian tribe in Guyana.

. - Randall Butisingh

THOUGHT FOR TODAY

REDUCING POVERTY IN AFRICA

This is my letter to Brian and Kristen Konkol, recently appointed as missionaries in South Africa. They are dedicated and committed individuals, who were missionaries in Guyana before moving to South Africa a few months ago. They are now settling in and have asked my advice on: “How to reduce Poverty in Africa”. Here is my reply dated April 21, 2008. Your comments and advice on this most important subject are welcome. Feel free to contact Brian and Kristen Konkol with your help and ideas at: (bekonkol@yahoo.com

To: Brian and Kristen Konkol:

Before I attempt to give my opinion on “how to reduce Poverty in Africa”, I will attempt to define Poverty. In my opinion Poverty is a relative term. How? An individual may have very little, and it takes very little to sustain life. He may live in a one room shack with one or no shirt on his back, but he works honestly for the little that he has; he is always cheerful and will gladly share the little he has and his shack with a needy stranger. He is the personification of contentment; his conscience is clear, his sleep at night is sound and unbroken and he lives without fear. Would you call such an individual poor?

On the other hand a person may be laden with this world’s goods, like an overlade camel, much more above his needs; But he is the personification of greed; he cannot have enough; he is discontented; always wants more and more, never share what he has with the needy for concern that it will diminish him. This makes him grouchy, irritable, and cheerless. His sleep at nights is unsound and broken because of fear that someone may come and rob him of what he has. Would you call such an individual rich?

Now, how about reducing Poverty in Africa! Africa is a continent, beautiful and potentially rich, but it has been exploited by foreigners and recently, after independence by its own leaders. There were very few leaders, among them being Nelson Mandela, who did not succumb to the plague of corruption. Billions of the country’s wealth and foreign aid have been stashed away in foreign banks by corrupt politicians while those whom they have been supposed to serve go hungry.

This brings us to the question of education. If the populace is not adequately educated in order to understand the issues and the ability to confront injustice wherever it rears its ugly head, exploitation and corruption will continue to have a field day. Recently two benevolent Americans have been working in this field. They are Oprah Winfrey who is spending millions to educate over a hundred girls in South Africa to become leaders in the future and Bill Clinton who is spending millions to improve Agriculture in one of the countries in Africa.

It should also be noted that Poverty is an attitude in some of the countries. The men leave all the hard work to the women. When they do not hunt or fish, they gather in groups and idle away their time while the women work in the fields. Recently a group of women banded together in a community, and refused to slave for their idle husbands.

We need people who can educate, motivate and inspire these people, raising them from their present level, especially the women to one of respectability. Here is where you and Kirsten can fit in and I know that with the meager physical resources you have but the abundance of will, dedication and commitment, you will make things happen.
Africa does not need to be spoon fed. But while they are given the tools to progress, effort should be made meanwhile to eliminate hunger and disease.
Remitting of debts will be of little help if attitudes do not change.
Love, joy and peace,

Randall

randallbutisingh@hotmail.com

THOUGHT FOR TODAY

SCIENCE AND EVOLUTION

Quotes by Charles Darwin – 1809-1882

“A scientific man ought to have no wishes, no affections, — a mere heart of stone.”

“We can allow satellites, planets, suns, universe, nay whole systems of universe[s], to be governed by laws, but the smallest insect, we wish to be created at once by special act.”

“Nothing before had ever made me thoroughly realize, though I had read various scientific books, that science consists in grouping facts so that general laws or conclusions may be drawn from them.”

“It is those who know little, and not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science.” -

“”The fact of evolution is the backbone of biology, and biology is thus in the peculiar position of being a science founded on an improved theory, is it then a science or faith?” “In the struggle for survival, the fittest win out at the expense of their rivals because they succeed in adapting themselves best to their environment.”

– Charles Darwin – author “The Origin of Species”

One of the most influential scientists of the nineteenth century, Charles Darwin (1809-1882) is best known for establishing the theory of organic evolution by natural selection. This English naturalist discovered that natural selection was the agent for the transmutation of organisms during evolution, as did Alfred Russell Wallace independently. Darwin presented his theory in Origin of Species.

The concept of evolution by descent dates at least from classical Greek philosophers. In the eighteenth century Carl Linnaeus postulated limited mutability of species by descent. But most naturalists were concerned with identifying species, the stability of which was considered essential for their work. Natural theology regarded the perfection of adaptation between structure and mode of life in organisms as evidence for a predetermined divine plan

After University, Darwin to join the crew on a British government survey ship, the H.M.S. Beagle, as an unpaid naturalist on a five-year voyage to South America and the South Pacific Islands.

While in Brazil, Darwin found various fossils and made geological and biological observations, took records, and collected specimens of every kind as the ship cruised back and forth along the coasts of South America. Darwin had begun to notice evidence that animals and plants had undergone evolutionary changes. In some areas, species had become extinct, yet Darwin noticed similar but not identical species in other areas nearby.

He was perplexed over the fact that existing species had demonstrated characteristics similar to those of extinct species. He also found slightly similar, though clearly different, species located in a variety of places around the world, but also completely lacking in other parts of the world. Moreover, Darwin was intrigued that the flora and fauna of oceanic islands were likely to resemble the same animal and plant species found on the neighboring continents. He thought it peculiar that islands with the same geological and physical features could be home to completely different animal species.

Four years after having set sail, Darwin landed in the Galápagos Islands, where he would make the most significant observations of the expedition. Darwin noticed that there were around 14 different types of finch birds on different islands of the Galápagos. Each type of finch appeared to have adapted completely to the island on which it lived. Moreover, some with sharper, finer beaks fed on insects and were more suited to stabbing their prey, while others ate seeds and had more powerful, parrot-like bills for breaking the shells. Another curiosity was the giant tortoises that appeared similar but possessed many distinctive features. The local island inhabitants could tell at sight from which island any of the giant creatures had come. Darwin began to ask if all of this biological diversity was arbitrary or whether a pattern of meaning could be discerned. Then a possible explanation began to emerge; he realized that species had to be mutable and diverged instead of fixed in form according to their original ancestry. A common ancestor could explain the similarities, but Darwin began to guess that each species could have given rise to new ones.

Upon returning to Britain in October 1836, Darwin’s ideas came into focus and he began to synthesize a theory to explain his premonition. He began by asserting that if species had transformed, the issue of diversity was satisfied, and species were related by descent from common ancestors. Recent study of Darwin’s unpublished manuscripts and entire works reveal a continuity of purpose and integrity of effort to establish the high probability of the genetic relationship through descent in all forms of life. Darwin work created a paradigm shift of consummate importance to the history of science and ideas.

(By Cyril Bryan with excerpts from Discover and Sociology Magazines)

THOUGHT FOR TODAY

AGRICULTURE, A NOBLE PROFESSION
and the peasant the most important of all people.

Excerpts from poem, THE DESERTED VILLAGE
BY OLIVER GOLDSMITH (1728 - 1774)

“Ill fares the land to hastening ills a prey,
Where wealth accumulates and men decay;
Princes and lords may flourish or may fade,
A breath can make them, as a breath has made;
But a bold peasantry, their country’s pride,
When once destroyed can never be supplied.”

— Oliver Goldsmith

Oliver Goldsmith is one of my favourite poets. In the poem
above he depicts the destruction of the peasantry when they
were evicted from the land by greedy landowners. Many were forced by  to leave the land and hie to the towns where they worked long hours, for hard task masters, in an unhealthy environment for meagre wages and suffered poverty and ill health. This is what happens in any part of the world where wealth accumulates to the few who sit on it, while the majority labour for a pittance to continue to feed their greed.
Injustice, an evil can only flourish for a time.  The DAY of reckoning is not far off.
— Randall Butisingh

THOUGHT FOR TODAY

CONSCIOUS SUBMISSION

When men are subdued by force they do not submit in their minds, but only because their strength is inadequate. When men are subdued by power in personality they are pleased to their very heart’s core and do really submit.

Mencius (Meng Tzu}

The power of personality or charisma or ideas can be more powerful than the might of the sword, or the cannon or the bomb. The use of force can capture and suppress but it usually cannot maintain allegiance when the force is removed. True power is invisible and accepted consciously through acceptance of the ruler and his methods of governance - conscious submission.

Great leaders have the ability to enthuse others and to garner support with their words and actions and their leadership qualities. People follow and obey their wishes and such leaders thrive in the power vested and bequeathed to them by their people. They have little fear that the people will rise up against them.

The same concepts ccould be applied to the conquering armies of the old civilizations of the Greeks and the Romans. Later, the great European colonial powers of the Industrial Age showed their longevity in controlling millions of subjects with minimum physical force. In some cases they may have conquered initially by force, but they were only able to retain their power through mutually beneficial policies like trade and power brokering with the local factions in their colonies e.g. The Indian Raj of Britiin’s colonialism of India.

Even in the historical writings of little Demerara, now Guyana, that the Dutch ruled from 1581-1781 it is said that the Dutch settlers did not subjugate the native indigenous Amerindian tribes. The Dutch settler policy was to actively befriend local tribes with gifts and trade so that they became allies and protectors of the Dutch interests there. This policy also ensured that their slaves, imported from Africa, did not successfully escape as they were quickly tracked down and returned by the Amerindians.

It can therefore be said that the likeable personality, like the pen, is mightier than the sword. That endearing personality can be embodied in an individual or in a whole nation or people, as they are perceived by others. Their rule is accepted by their subjects who consciously submit as they are pleased with their method of governance.

Cyril Bryan

THOUGHT FOR TODAY

ECONOMIC GROWTH

If economic growth is founded on the ever-increasing reliance on chemicals, toxins, poisons, and energy by-products, then we will choke on the growth that is supposed to save us.

Paul Hawken

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We all live on Planet Earth -with ecosystems that were once balanced. Our “scientists” have “created ” products that have disrupted this ecological balance. Many of these products will eventually affect the human DNA and global warming may create devastating reactions as many ecosystems collapse due to the destruction of the natural environment which has accelerated over the last 50 years.

The economists, politicians and most of the populace have been programmed to believe that economic growth measured in GDP and GNP are the only true measures of progress. To them, the qualitative aspects of life due to the effects of growth are just footnotes to a statistical analysis. Now that the evidence is in regarding global warming, chemical pollution, and ecological destruction, few can honestly dismiss the stark realities that the world now faces.

The problem is that the solutions that are required would mean a revolutionary paradigm shift, or complete change in how the world is run, how we live and what is really important in life. We will have to accept that there are limits of growth; that products must be eco-friendly; that the quality of life must be paramount and that blind consumerism is destructive and mindless as well as spiritually empty. This change in human behavior may not come about unless forced to through a global economic collapse.

Entrenched vested interests that control the present economic systems will not easily surrender their power or corporations to a new world where they may not be influential. We have the capability of transforming the world with solar, wind and tidal energy systems. We can reduce the uses of fossil fuels and stop the use of destructive chemicals. … but could we do so quickly enough - before we annihilate ourselves and future generations. It is truly a difficult situation as we are told that there will be famines if we stopped using pesticides, herbicides and other deadly agricultural chemicals.

We do not have much time left to listen to the international organizations, governments, corporations and influential people who state the problems but take no real action. All we have had over the last 30 years or so are conferences and lip service rather than concrete solutions. Delays are in the interests of the vested entrenched thinking of those who look for corporate profits, while others suppress solutions and alternate discoveries for their own personal economic and political reasons.

The time for ACTION is NOW, before the ecosystems of Planet Earth self-destruct.

Cyril Bryan

THOUGHT FOR TODAY

EVERYTHING CREATED HAS A PURPOSE

Remember at all times that moderation in all things is essential for good health, and temperance is good medicine. Eat and drink in moderation; food is a means for our sustenance and not an end in itself, and so is sex and work. Abuse or perversion of any of these will have dire consequences in sickness and severe illnesses. Wine is good. Our Lord used it and gave it to His disciples, but if you use it to the point of addiction, it becomes bad. Addiction is being slave to a habit; this diminishes character and integrity becomes vulnerable.

Remember also that all creation has a purpose, so do not go about trampling every insect in your path or killing a snake. Every living creature has a right to live, just the same as you have. Try to find out the purpose of its existence. Today, our very existence is threatened because we are consistently endangering and eliminating our animal friends. Do not kill the bee because it stings. The sting is for its protection and survival so that it can pollinate your crops and give you honey and wax.

Today we are faced with the prospect of starvation. Millions of honey bees are dying because of pollution by harmful chemicals in the air. This will have dire consequences: food shortage, high prices, and consequent starvation, especially of the poor in this rich country, some of whom have to scrounge in the garbage for sustenance.

Alas for man, the apex of God’s creation, the intellectual who has invented the computer, who can capture sights and sounds for his enjoyment, who can invade space and land on the moon, he can also invent weapons of mass destruction to annihilate his brother man, and can so reduce himself to less than a brute to satisfy his greed and lust.

It is time for all men of goodwill to shake off complacency and shout against the injustice and tyranny of the few, and do not maintain their neutrality in this hour of Crisis.

Randall Butisingh

THOUGHT FOR TODAY

THE IMPENDING CALAMITY

We are gradually sliding down an abyss created by the cupidity of a minority of reckless individuals who are condoned by a misinformed majority.  If this continues, the slide will sooner or later become precipitate and reach a point of no return. It is already argued by some that it has reached that point.  All that is necessary to sustain life has been made hazardous by pollution, global warming, destruction of the forests, the lungs of the earth.  What a legacy for the coming generations!  Hats off to those individuals and groups that are doing their best to warn mankind of this impending calamity.

Randall Butisingh

THOUGHT FOR TODAY

The instinctive Bee, our teacher of industry and diligence, and the  indispensable friend of the farmer, is being threatened with extinction by the activities of intellectual man, the apex of  God’s creation, who, through greed for short time gains, is polluting the environment with noxious chemicals sprayed in the air.  Yet those who are promising to bring change, and alleviate  suffering, rant about the economy, and terrorism. and ignore the possibility of starvation if this trend should continue.

The plunge into unprovoked warfare by a born again christian has opened a Pandora’s Box and also landed the nation into a quagmire; now this violation of nature is threatening our very survival as a species..

 Randall Butisingh

THOUGHT FOR TODAY

Thought from FLASHES OF LIGHT
by Randall Butisingh

In the eyes of God, every human being has the same intrinsic and potential value - a child of God and an inheritor of the Kingdom of Heaven.

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