April 20, 2008
TOLERATION IN RELIGION
THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
TOLERATION IN RELIGION
Religion can never be one. Individuals differ in temperament, but each strives for the same goal.
Sri Ramkrishna on the Right Attitudes to Religious differences puts it this way:
Dispute not. As you rest firmly on your own faith and opinion, allow others to stand by their own faith and opinion. By mere disputation you will never succeed in convincing another of his error. When the Grace of God descends, every man will understand his own mistakes.
Someone else has said: “If you criticise another’s religion, you do not understand your own.”
Randall Butisngh
April 19, 2008
EDUCATION
THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
EDUCATION
“We are faced with the paradoxical fact that education has become one of the chief obstacles to intelligence and freedom of thought.”
— Bertrand Russell
“We are shut up in schools and college recitation rooms for ten or fifteen years, and come out at last with a bellyful of words and do not know a thing.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson
“An education isn’t how much you have committed to memory, or even how much you know. It’s being able to differentiate between what you know and what you don’t.” –
— Malcolm Forbes
“Beware of the man who works hard to learn something, learns it, and finds himself no wiser than before. He is full of murderous resentment of people who are ignorant without having come by their ignorance the hard way.”
— Kurt Vonnegut
“If I ran a school, I’d give the average grade to the ones who gave me all the right answers, for being good parrots. I’d give the top grades to those who made a lot of mistakes and told me about them, and then told me what they learned from them.”
— Buckminster Fuller
April 18, 2008
TWO WOLVES
THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
TWO WOLVES
One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside all people. He said, “My son, the battle is between two “wolves” inside us all.
One is Evil. It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.
The other is Good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith.”
The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather: “Which wolf wins?”
The old Cherokee simply replied, “The one you feed.”
April 17, 2008
THOUGHT FOR TODAY
MAHATMA GANDHI – QUOTATIONS
“When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem invincible but in the end, they always fall – think of it, always.” –
“What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is brought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty or democracy?” –
“Nonviolence is the greatest force at the disposal of mankind. It is mightier than the mightiest weapon of destruction devised by the ingenuity of man.” –
“I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent.”
“First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win.” –
— Mahatma Gandhi
April 16, 2008
FREEDOM
THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
FREEDOM
Freedom comes from the knowledge of Truth. Liberty is not Freedom. Only knowing and being guided by truth can one gain Freedom. Liberty is license, the permission to act in any way, seemly or unseemly. Freedom is a state of being. It cannot be taken from anyone…
Stonewalls do not a prison make
Nor iron bars a cage;
Minds quiet and innocent take
That for a heritage.
If I have freedom in my love
And in my soul am free,
Angels alone that soar above
Enjoy such liberty__
— Robert Lovelace
In its truest sense, freedom cannot be bestowed. It must be earned.
— Franklin Roosevelt
April 15, 2008
British Guiana in the days of Colonialism
THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
British Guiana in the days of Colonialism
Excerpts from ”REMINISCENCES”, by Randall Butisingh –(unpublished)
British Guiana, which was named Guyana after Independence, was one of the most beautiful tropical countries among its neighbours and the Caribbean. It enjoyed for most of the year the refreshing Trade Winds of the Atlantic, lush green vegetation on the coastlands, extensive forests with a wide variety of woods and many rivers with cataracts and waterfalls. The Kaieteur Fall, on the Potaro River in the heart of the interior, with a total drop of over eight hundred feet is a magnificent spectacle and a great tourist attraction.
Apart from floods in some areas on the coastlands which were below sea level, British Guiana enjoyed freedom from natural disasters. Foreigners who visited thoroughly enjoyed the equable and salubrious climate. It was in those days the Bread Basket of the Caribbean. Sugar and Rice were its chief exports and there was abundance of vegetables and fruits that it produced all the year round. British Guiana was known then as the Magnificent Province. It was also called the Land of Many Waters because of the many rivers and streams which provide transportation, boating and abundant fish of every variety.
Georgetown, its Capital was known as the Garden City. In it were tall Saaman trees on both sides of the avenues to give shelter to the pedestrian and to protect them from the traffic. The streets were not macadamized as they are today, but were paved with burnt earth rolled flat and wetted by water carts several times in the day to keep down the dust. There was a network of tram cars which went around the city and through it as well, and the horse and buggy which took passengers from the railway station to the commercial areas of the City. Those were the early days. Later, in the twenties the motor car and motor bus came.
The Stabroek Market, or Big Market, as it was called by the Creoles was situated at the mouth of the Demerara River on its right bank. It was one of the chief attractions. It had a tower on which was a huge clock with three faces which could be seen from a good distance. It would ring out the hours and half-hours very loudly. This market was a conglomerate of shops and stores with nearly every conceivable item needed in those days by the consumer.
It also had parlours and eating shops where the consumer, for a small sum could get refreshment on the spot. But for children, what was most exciting was the variety of candy in all shapes colours and flavours, homemade by African women. Along Water Street going north from the market were the wholesale and retail stores selling all kinds of goods; there was a 5, 10, 15 and 25 cent store where you could pick up many useful household articles.
Other places of interest were the Museum where there were local and exotic birds and animals, some in their natural habitat; the Botanic Gardens, a huge garden of all types of trees and a Zoo with a variety of mammals like the manatee, a huge vegetarian animal which was placed in canals to keep them clear of weeds; birds and reptiles.
There was the Promenade Gardens, a much smaller garden cultivated with flowers of many kinds. In this garden was a band-stand where the Militia Band would perform every week for an appreciative audience. This band would also play on the sea-wall on certain occasions. After Independence, it became known as the Police Band. Another place of interest was the Saint George’s Cathedral said to be the tallest wooden building in the world. It was a landmark as its tower could be seen from great distances around.
British Guiana was the attraction for workers and miners from the Caribbean islands and aLSO for foreigners who would thoroughly enjoy their stay.
Randall Butisingh
April 14, 2008
EDUCATION AUTOMATION-
EDUCATION AUTOMATION
By: R. Buckminster Fuller 1895-1983 – inventor of the geodesic dome and many futuristic products. The following entry is from his book: “Education Automation – freeing the student to return to his studies”, published in 1962:
I am convinced that humanity is characterized by extraordinary love for its new life and yet has been misinforming its new life to such an extent that the new life is continually at a greater disadvantage than it would be if abandoned in the wilderness by the parents. For an instance of misconception extension there is my own case. I was born in 1895. The airplane was invented when I was nine years old. Up to the time I was nine years old, the idea that man could fly was held to be preposterous, and anybody could tell you so. My own boyhood attempts to make flying machines were considered wasted time. I have lived deeply into the period when flying is no longer impossible, but nonetheless a period in which the supremely ruling social conventions and economic dogma have continued to presuppose a non-flying-man ecology.
My daughter was not born into the kind of a world that I was; so she doesn’t have to struggle to sustain the validity of the particular set of spontaneously-logical conceptions that were pronounced “impossible” in my day, nor need she deal with the seemingly illogical concepts that the older life thought to be “evident”‘ and “obvious” in my day. The new life is continually born into a set of conditions where it is easier for it to acquire more accurate information, generated almost entirely outside of family life and folklore, regarding what is going on in human affairs and in nature in general; and, therefore, the new life has the advantage of much more unshaken intellectual courage with respect to the total experiences than have its as yet living elders who have had to overcome these errors, but who retain deep-rooted delusively-conditioned, subconscious reflexes
I said I started a number of years ago exploring for ways in which the individual could employ his experience analytically to reorganize patterns around him by design of impersonal tools. To be effective, this reorganization must incorporate the latest knowledge gained by man. It also should make it an increasingly facile matter for the new life to apprehend what is going on. It should eliminate the necessity of new life asking questions of people who don’t know the answers, thereby avoiding cluttering up the new minds with bad answers which would soon have to be discarded. I felt that the evolving inventory of information “decontaminated” through competent design might be “piped” right into the environment of the home. Please remember my philosophy is one which had always to be translated into inanimate artifacts. My self-discipline ruled that it would be all right for me to talk after I had translated my philosophy and thoughts into actions and artifacts, but I must never talk about the thoughts until I have developed a physical invention — not a social reform.
That is the philosophy I evolved in 1927 when at thirty-two I began my own thinking. I have been operating since then on the 1927 premises, looking exploratorily for tasks that needed to be done, which would, when done, provide tool complexes that would begin to operate inanimately at higher advantage for the new life. I am the opposite of a reformer; I am what I call a new former. The new form must be spontaneously complimentary to the innate faculties and capabilities of life. I am quite confident that humanity is born with its total intellectual capability already on inventory and that human beings do not add anything to any other human being in the way of faculties and capacities. What usually happens in the educational process is that the faculties are dulled, overloaded, stuffed and paralyzed, so that by the time that most people are mature they have lost use of many of their innate capabilities. My long-time hope is that we may soon begin to realize what we are doing and may alter the “education” process in such a way as only to help the new life to demonstrate some of its very powerful innate capabilities.
— Buckminster Fuller – 1962
COMMENT by Cyril Bryan:
I have selected the above entry and I do hope that it is informative.
Buckminster Fuller (1895-1983), the creator of the geodesic dome and many unique products, was truly one of the great thinkers and inventors of the 20th century. His life story and books are truly fascinating, and demonstrates how a university dropout can achieve the pinnacle of success in science using the intuitive processes that are innate in everyone, but which can be dulled by the “education factories” teaching yesterday knowledge.
Many of the concepts and words like Synergy, Holistic, “Paradigm shift”, ” “Thinking outside the box” “Comprehensive thinking”, and research methods used today have their geneses in his writings.
His ideas have influenced architecture, mathematics, philosophy, religion, urban development and design, naturalism, physics, numerology, art and literature, industry and technology. I have been influenced by his life story and philosophy and have read most of his books, the most interesting being his two-volume “Synergetics” – Explorations in the Geometry of Thinking.
I would suggest that readers learn more about his life and works by visiting the following website of the Buckminster Fuller Institute:
— Cyril Bryan – Guest Contributor
April 13, 2008
The Hindi language in multicultural Guyana -1994
THE HINDI LANGUAGE IN MULTICULTURAL GUYANA -1994
A paper by Randall Butisingh, read at a gathering for RACE AND ETHNIC STUDIES IN GUYANA in April 1994.
First of all let me pose the question. Is the Guyanese society truly multicultural? If the answer is yes, then it must be a multilingual society as language is a major component of culture. If it is not multilingual, to what extent is it multicultural and what effort has been made to restore, revive or improve the language component.
Sixteen years ago, in 1978, there was an upsurge of interest in Hindi in Guyana. This interest was awakened by the Guyana Hindi Prachar Sabha, a non-political, non-sectarian organization of Hindi lovers. The Sabha’s chief aim was the revival of Hindi as a spoken language. Throughout the country, classes were held in temples, schools and other places. By the Sabha’s efforts Hindi was introduced in the Secondary Schools, wherever there was a teacher on the staff who could teach it. This fell through because of the unavailability of qualified teachers in the schools. The Cove and John Secondary School and the Tagore Memorial School, Corentyne are now the only Government Schools where Hindi is taught.
About this same time, there had been efforts by Afro-Guyanese to teach Swahili as a means of social identification for the group. Some Afro Guyanese even assumed African names. Unfortunately the flame of enthusiasm dwindled to a flicker, then to smoldering embers.
“Language,” as U.N. Tiwari, first lecturer of Hindi at the University of Guyana puts it ,”is an awakened act of civilization and poetry, its divine blossom.”. I have made this statement on the basis of what these two elements, language and poetry have contributed to the quality of life and character of a once oppressed people. Language, be it spoken or written, conveys the feelings and emotions of individuals or groups of people. It is a system of communication by which thoughts are expressed, and a medium by which cultural traditions are handed to future generations. I may say an accurate judgment of any civilization can be determined by the language of its people.
To illustrate my point, let us look at the word ‘love’. There is no word for it in the vocabulary of primitive peoples The virtue love is a development of civilization, and the word love – a flower of its language. The emotions of love, kindness, sympathy and the like are expressed in the languaage of all civilized peoples.
However, there are words in some civilized languages that cannot find equivalents in other civilized languages. For example, I quote from Hindi, the language that I study and teach: There is no single word equivalent for the word DHARAM. Dharam is variously connoted as Religion,; Duty; Justice; Righteousness and the like; but its application is wider. To the Hindu, there is Dharam in everything and whatever thing loses its Dharam, that thing perishes. In short, it is Dharam that supports the universe. Another word ATITHI; the guest who comes unexpectedly and is treated like a god. This type of hospitality is only found in the social structure of Hinduism.. Hence the uniqueness of the word itself..
Now, let us look at the social behaviour of the second person in Hindi; the pronoun “YOU” This word has three dimensions, Tu, Tum and Aap. Tu is used when addressing an inferior, a child , a very dear person or God. Tum is used for equals like friends and lovers and Aap is used for superiors, strangers and husbands, even a beggar must be addressed as Aap; a mother can be fondly addressed as tu, but never the father; to address a friend as aap means that something has gone sour in the friendship.. So, you see, one has only to place oneself in the social environment of a people so as to understand how they feel and act, and what language they use to express their feelings. Language is the symbol of social and cultural identification. When a people loses its language, it loses its identity.
Hindi first came to Guyana, then British Guiana when the sailing vessel Hesperus dropped anchor in the Demerara River and deposited its human cargo on a Georgetown wharf in 1837. These immigrants, chiefly hardworking peasants, were the first batch of indentured labourers from India. Other batches were to follow until the year 1917 when the last batch arrived. A small number of these immigrants returned after their contract ended; some renewed their contracts, but most of them remained and made Guyana their home.. Today Indo-Guyanese make up nearly half the population of this country. Most of the immigrants came from Bhojpur, a province where Hindi was spoken. Hindi, therefore was the medium of communication among them.
That Hindi has survived in various aspects of Guyanese life up to the present time has been due chiefly to the deep religious beliefs of the Hindus and the high value they place on their customs and traditions. Hindi was not just for them a bread- and- butter language. Here is where poetry comes in as a motivator and a sustainer of the Indian spirit. The small number of them that was literate brought with them their religious books, the most prized among them was the Ramayan, an epic which treats of the life of Lord Rama, their much beloved hero who was the incarnation of Vishnu – the preserver God of the Hindu Trinity. The Ramayan is written in Hindi verse and Hindus never tire listening to the exploits of their hero, the devotion of Sita, his consort and the fidelity of Lakshman, his brother. Many of the listeners were illiterate, but they carried the stories in their heads. This was acquired by frequently listening to readings of the Holy Book.
The Ramayan was the chief of inspiration for the immigrants. In it they found comfort and hope and the fortitude required for the slave labour they had to perform. It was not unusual that after a hard day’s work, these devout people would sit in groups in the flickering lights of diyas and listen to the great story.
Other favourite books were the Hanuman Chalisa and the Danlila. The former extols the power of Hanuman, the greatest of Lord Rama’s devotees, while the other treats of the exploits of their most beloved Incarnation, Lord Krishna, when he was a child.
Music also is a potent factor in the preservation of Hindi. The Indo-Guyanese is a lover of music, and there is hardly a religious or social function in the mandirs or private homes where this exercise is not given prominence. Old and young contribute to the programmes accompanied by the dholak, dantal, the sarangi and the harmonium. Music was another sustainer of the Indian spirit. After a hard day’s work in the fields which was usually a long way from home, the women would sing along the way drumming on their saucepans while the men would beat the time on their cutlasses with their files, thus relieving the strain of a hard day’s work and the long walk towards home. In addition to ceremonial music, the advent of Hindi films has played a significant role in Indian music. Songs like Suhani Raat and a few others have found favour with other ethnic groups. I again quote U.N. Tiwari here. In his article “Modern Hindi Poetry”, he states: “Musicality of Hindi poetry is self-evident from the single fact that film songs predominantly composed in Hindi are cravings, not only in India, but other lands such as the Soviet Union, the Arab world, the Caribbean including Guyana. The people of these countries – both young and old alike – go on humming the tunes; and their non-understanding of the Hindi language does not create any hindrance to their enjoyment and appreciation.”
Although as a spoken language Hindi is almost out, yet it still persists in various aspects of the Guyanese Culture. There are still some old Indo-Guyanese who can speak it, some understand but do not speak, and there are a few Afro-Guyanese who can both understand and speak.
The motives for learning Hindi in the past were various. Chinese businessmen learnt it for the purpose of trade,; White Christian missionaries for the purpose of proselytizing, but the Africans who learnt it did so through cultural appreciation. Some of these Afro-Guyanese assumed names like Rajaram and Paltu das. The late Rev. V.V. Gray, an Afro- Guyanese scholar in both Hindi and Utdu, called himself Pandit V.V. Gray before he was ordained.
Hindi has persisted in the names of Indo-Guyanese, be they Christian or Hindu. The Tiwaris, the Dases, The Persauds, the Singhs are common Hindu names. Hindi has also persisted in the greetings among Indians; Ram Ram, invoking the name of a beloved deity; Pranaam and Namaskar or Namaste are greetings used. Most of the Indians still address their relatives as nana, nani; aja aji for maternal and paternal grandparents respectively and so on. Other words which have been retained in the local vocabulary are Bhaji, dal, massala, sari, orhni, phagwah, divali, dost, roti, puri, and others. The words pundit, thug and jungle are Hindi words used internationally and have found a place in the English dictionary.
Hindi is an inter national language, used and understood to a various extent in over fifty countries and was recently introduced in the United Nations. It is the official language of India and the mother tongue of 200,000,000 people. A major component in Indian Culture, it has a significant role in forging a world culture. BASUDAIVA KUTUMBHAN, the whole universe, constitutes one family and is the language flower of Hindu Thought.
Hindi is very among us today in Guyana. It is a part of the culture of one of the major ethnic groups. It is their mother tongue also. It should be given precedence over languages like Spanish and Portuguese in the curricula of our schools. If given the encouragement and help it deserves from all sections of the community, educational institutions and Government, Hindi will play a significant role in the social and cultural life of our multicultural nation. If it is allowed to decline, we may well witness the decline of those qualities which have helped to make the forefathers of the Indo-Guyanese a hardworking, devout, peaceful and law-abiding people who helped to build this Nation..
Finally, let me add, Nationhood , whether in the context of a Multiracial Society or not is a unit. It is a projection and extension of the individual. If there is any distrust, suspicion or other wise among the multicultural ethnic components, the goal and ideal of One People, One Nation, and One Destiny cannot be realized. Hindi , as a language for all Guyanese can play a significant role in National Unity.
— Randall Butisingh
April 12, 2008
ERNEST HEMINGWAY
ERNEST HEMINGWAY
“There are some things which cannot be learned quickly, and time, which is all we have, must be paid heavily for their acquiring. They are the very simplest things and because it takes a man’s life to know them the little new that each man gets from life is very costly and the only heritage he has to leave.”
“Writing, at its best, is a lonely life. Organizations for writers palliate the writer’s loneliness, but I doubt if they improve his writing. He grows in public stature as he sheds his loneliness and often his work deteriorates. For he does his work alone and if he is a good enough writer he must face eternity, or the lack of it, each day.”
– Ernest Hemingway
April 11, 2008
MALENKOV’S VISIT TO BRITAIN
THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
MALENKOV’S VISIT TO BRITAIN
(a peep into history)
Georgy Malenkov (1902-1988) was a Soviet politician, Communist Party leader and close collaborator of Joseph Stalin. He briefly became leader of the Soviet Union (from March to September 1953) after Stalin’s death and was Premier from 1953 to 1955. During these years, he was opposed to nuclear weapons, declaring “a nuclear war could lead to global destruction.” He also advocated refocusing the economy on the production of consumer goods and away from heavy industry, which his successor Nikita Khrushchev (1955-1964) would escalate.
Malenkov made a three week state visit to Britain in April 1956, and was well received by many. However there were protests as reported in this Time magazine article:-
… “Not everyone was so misty-eyed. One evening last week Manchester’s ornate old Free Trade Hall, a familiar shrine of well-intentioned protests, was jammed with 2,500 Britons and East European refugees (including the famed Polish World War II General Anders), who had gathered at a shilling a head to protest the forthcoming visit of Russians Khrushchev and Bulganin. The meeting was called by waspish Punch Editor Malcolm Muggeridge. Resolving with a group of friends to “do something about these murderers coming here,” Muggeridge had tried to rent London’s own sedate Albert Hall for the occasion, but he was turned down cold. “They told me,” he said, “that Billy Graham was all right, but that I was too hot.” Time Magazine – April 9, 1956.
………………………………………………………………
Letter to the Editor: of the GUIANA GRAPHIC, in 1956.
MALENKOV’s VISIT TO BRITAIN – By: Randall Butisingh
There seems to be some suspicion among readers as regards the visits of prominent leaders like Malenkov, the Premier of Russia to the Mother Country. I, as a layman in power politics, think that much good can be derived from regular interchange of visits.
Mankind is the same all over the world and ideologies and religious beliefs are the convictions of individuals and not of entire nations. That the Russian ideology is Communistic is only true to the extent that the government, by the strength of its military power, has been able to give it that semblance…Every other country of the world has its band of deep-dyed Communists whose activities are frustrated by the Government.
My opinion in this matter is: that since the death of the arch Communist Dictator, Stalin, his inhibited satellites have been able to sniff the air of freedom. Malenkov’s lack of restraint in public is psychological proof of the inhibition of the Russian people. If the masses are not free, rulers cannot be free. The escape of prominent Russians, time and again has provided proof that all is not well in Russia. It will not be easy for any Government to keep a people permanently in bondage; “the worms will turn.”
Soviet Atheistic Communism is not an inevitable process in the evolution of society; it is a reaction to despotism and must eventually pass. It is the bitter medicine for a very bad disease and its service can only be temporary, or else it will poison the whole system of the body politic.
Democracy must necessarily survive. As professor Radhakrishna puts it: “Democracy is not a political arrangement, it is an urge of the soul.”
So, even in Communist dominated countries, Democracy with its timeless value is making inroads in the hearts of individuals, including leaders. We may suspect leaders, but if we suspect nations, we suspect ourselves and deny brotherhood which De Lawrence says: “is not a matter of sentiment but a fact of nature.” At this critical moment in history, nothing can be achieved by suspicion and mistrust. Mutual understanding must predominate over statesmanship and diplomacy in order to solve the present problem. The needs of all humanity are the same. All mankind is one and have one spiritual goal. If the question of real peace is not approached in a spirit of love, we will have a forced peace beneath the rubble of a shattered civilization.
2008 Update: After many years we have seen the downfall of Communism in the Soviet Union; the break-down of the Berlin Wall and the lessening of tensions between East and West.
Randall Butisingh
Randall Butisingh's Weblog 