THE FINALE
on My VSO Ethiopian Adventures (Ethiopia), 30/Nov/2011 15:29, 34 days ago
For a final blog I thought I would answer a question that I was asked to consider before I left, but which is not easy and has required much thought and deliberation. I was asked what I thought we, in the UK, and the West generally could learn from Ethiopian society. I am writing this 2 months after being back home in the UK which has given me more time to reflect on my year's experience.It would be easy to talk platitudes and cliches about values and materialism etc and all that is true, but let me talk about potential areas of learning in some sort of context with some sort of background which is important for a better understanding.Life is hard for the majority of Ethiopians. The following gives examples.The climate is challenging in much of the country and this can result in disease and cause real difficulties with basic food production, as well as uncomfortable living conditions. A lack of protective housing and adequate clothing makes torrential rain and/or cold (much of the country lies at high altitude) difficult to bear, rain destroys soil and crops, and frequently roads and thus communication. It can also be so hot it is difficult to work or operate properly and crops and animals die through drought and people die from famine.Government action can affect many people and there is a lot of current dissatisfaction about; unavailable finance, crippling bureaucracy and corruption, non-existing support and welfare and discrimination between sections of the population, as well as human rights issues.Jobs are very limited and most are controlled by the Government. People have to be resilient and individually enterprising, with initiative and energy to work any hours at any or all times of any day where there is an opportunity to earn any money to stay alive and feed and support a family. Even teachers frequently have a second job where possible and at university the majority of teachers continue to work right through the summer teaching on summer programmes in order to earn extra money. They can not afford to do otherwise and thus have no rest, no holiday and most likely will not see their families from one year to another. And they are relatively speaking the lucky ones!People die all the time in Ethiopia. I experienced deaths and illness over a year just amongst the candidates on my programme and their families. Eye disease, chest infections are common. Early death for no apparent reason is a given. Parents die at an early age compared to our longevity. People frequently can not afford medical treatment and what is available is limited, outside the capital, to regular every day illnesses.How do they cope?Above all, people are what is important in Ethiopian society. A great deal of time is spent just talking to other people. Relationships are warm, even if you are not close. Greetings are ritualistic and through this are warm and welcoming. They are tactile people who will often hold your hand while they talk to you. Men are particularly tactile to each other which is a bit disconcerting to an outsider till you get used to it. People come before tasks and tasks are achieved through other people. Animals are neglected in favour of people (see my earlier blog), children are valued and nurtured by both parents (where they are lucky enough to have two!). Despite difficult lives they appear happy people who smile and enter discourse as if they have not a care in the world. I am not saying that below the surface there are not practices, attitudes and behaviour that belie everything I have observed (eg. attitudes to women and behaviours in domestic life), but there is a genuine happy, helpful, caring and welcoming side towards others in most Ethiopians' approach to life. Regardless of what else is going on they are courteous and respectful people who are accepting and non-judgemental.Undoubtedly they are a stoic people and this leads to a lack of show of emotion. Whereas we have been encouraged to recognise, express and manage ours in more recent years, Ethiopians seem to have buried theirs. Are they buried so deep they do not recognise feelings or are they just not emotional beings? Does this help or hinder a healthy existence, who knows?So people die and friends and relatives are as upset there as they are here. But they accept it. They can not blame the medical profession or a national health service. It is counterproductive to ask why. That is life, people die. Death is part of life and there are institutinalised coping mechanisms and mourning rituals and routines which help them, which we do not have. Perhaps they have a healthier attitude to death. Every day we hear blame laid at the door of the NHS/medical profession for mistakes and neglect. Never-ending legislation proliferates in vain attempts to protect and defend. Of course we should expect higher standards in a rich economy, and mistakes are made, but often our attitude to death and injury seems to be that it shouldn't happen, people shouldn't die, and if it does it must be someone's fault. We do not expect to die of AIDS now, they do. And perhaps we could also better cope with death. In societies such as Ethiopia grief is supported by others in a ritualised manner over a lengthy period of time. This may not be everyone's cup of tea, but maybe it is a more healthly approach to getting through a period of mourning and accepting loss and death as a natural part of life.Religion is central to most Ethiopian lives and the arena in which emotion is most often manifested. It is with commitment and fervour that Ethiopians continue to put their faith in a celestial being to relieve their sufferings and bring them a better life. It is beyond their ken that someone would not have a belief in God. I came to understand that given that they have so little control over their lives, and the future is so unpredictable, it is quite understandable that they feel they have to trust in what they see as a bigger and benevolent force to do the work for them. At one time faith played the same role for us but now many of us feel we have total control over our lives, so what role can God play? With growing unpredictability in our own lives, including increasing environmental threats and economic and financial crisis for many, I wonder if this will change?Ethiopia is often cited as a model of tolerance and peaceful co-existance between Orthodox Christians and Muslims and from my experience of living in a town where this proportion is evenly balanced, this appears to be absolutely true. There appears to be total acceptance of and respect for others faith and different religious practices. Can we learn anything here?People value education very highly. They know that education is the way out of poverty and like all parents, they want their children (regrettably sometimes only boys!) to have a better life. Education is the answer. There is no option of fame as a short cut to wealth and everyone knows it is only through sheer hard work that a better life is possible, and skills and knowledge will open the door to jobs and opportunities. The Government, with the help of international donor organisations such as the World Bank is supporting an enormous expansion of education at all levels across the country and enrolment rates are increasing. However, when you see the inside story you begin to realise that the statistics tell only half the story. The quality and standards of education are generally poor, due to a lack of resources and poor standards of teaching and the length of time kids are able to stay in school all tell another story. Contrast this with our society where we have resources to support the quality of education at every level that other countries can only dream of and yet kids frequently do not value the opportunity to learn and resent schooling. For many, education is no longer the route to success and fulfilment in life and fame is an aspirational shortcut.Perhaps much of what I have said is manifested above all in the children. So many people who visit Africa from the west comment on the children. In contrast to what we are used to seeing in our own society, children there seem happy, carefree, completely natural and at home with just being a child. I rarely heard a child, even a baby, cry. They seem to learn at a very early age to just put up with their lot and adapt accordingly. They have little, and thus expect little. If they are not hungry or in pain or discomfort, what is there to cry about. They are very likely to come from large families with many other siblings and cousins so there are many mouths to feed and special treatment is out of the question. They happily and without adult supervision play in dirty roads and paths. They play with other children of all ages, (the older ones are probably given the responsibility for their younger brothers and sisters), they play with stones, rubbish, they make primitive toys out of bits of materials lying around. If they are lucky they have marbles - a very popular game and the older boys just love kicking a football around. They demand nothing except contact with other adults and children. They are disciplined, obedient and responsive to adult directives. Are there adults with malevolent intentions towards children in Ethiopia?They all walk to school in their colourful uniforms (of very varying degrees of repair!) and often with their little plastic, Chinese made lunch boxes and cheap and cheerful kiddie bags. Often they will come and shake hands with us and if they know us they learn quickly to expect a little game of some sort. At this they get very excited! They readily practice their limited English if they are old enough; 'What is your name? How are you? Where you go? 'How many differences can you spot between these and our children!The work context is an interesting one. The positives, with the help of Maslow's hierarchy of needs, are that by and large they have not yet reached the individualistic, achieving stage. Needs and motives around egos and personal achievement are still low but, inevitably some are motivated by that level in the hierarchy. Culturally the sense of belonging and collectivism is more important and this influences the work place. There tends to be a lack of judgement about others, as workplace performance is normally not measured. This made me realise just how, in this country, we live in a workplace environment which is constantly about relative performance and if someone is working below par, they are often openly criticised and judged. This constant judgement of others is reflected in outside life as well. I sensed a lack of this in the Ethiopian workplace and a greater acceptance of people as people who are doing their best. However, on the flip side, it is probably fair to say that a lack of judgement fits a culture where face-saving is very important.The potential negative is interesting. Everyone from 'the West' working in the country moans about the lack of management skills in Ethiopia and this is a reality which is very difficult to work with and frequently leads volunteers to experience real problems in their jobs. One of the main problems is that they have no concept of planning or time management. While I agree that being in the present and living for the day is healthy and good, an organisation simply must have a idea about time and the future if anything is going to get done. This I believe is a contributory factor in the lack of economic development and it is a massive frustration for those of us who are tasked with trying to help Ethiopians with skills for the 21st century. This involves a massive cultural shift and there are 2 reasons for this entrenched resistence to thinking about and planning for the future. Firstly, traditionally, they have always lived from day to day because they did not know what tomorrow would bring and all their efforts needed to be put into daily survivial. Linked to this is the feeling of a lack of control over their lives and thus that the future is in the hands of God.Perhaps because of the above, most importantly, the language has no future tense! Amharic has a past tense but no future. How can we expect a nation to become future oriented when they can not express themselves linguistically.Hopefully, some insights to help understanding and some points to reflect on, maybe there is something here that will strike a chord with someone. Maybe a reflection on comparative values, or our attitude towards rights and entitlement when we see others with no rights and entitlements. I write this on the day of the national public sector strike! Thinking about materialism, maybe it is not surprising that we have high expectations and aspirations about how our material world can answer our every need and bring us happiness, because we are bombarded by these facilities and resources and the promises that go with them and they are available, and we can afford it, and our mind sets, experiences and education are focused on the idea of relentless progress and improvement to our lives. Is this really possible? Is this really the answer and what do we lose in the process? Maybe our own futures will answer these questions.