Latest update April 24th, 2024 12:59 AM
Dec 09, 2010 Letters
Dear Editor,
The term outliers refers to things, events or persons that lie outside our everyday “normal” experience. In his book Outliers, the author Malcolm Caldwell demonstrated through countless research and examples the vital role cultural legacy plays in determining familial, communal, regional and national efficacy in industry, governance, academia, national development and so on.
Caldwell, the author of Blink and the Tipping Point as well, used the term outliers to denote persons who have made fundamental strides in their field of endeavour. Rather than examine the intellectual capacity of these persons to get a better understanding of their route to and maintenance of success, Galdwell explores environmental factors such as cultural legacies, family upbringing, work habits, opportunities and so on. Galdwell’s work is Seminal and resting at the number one spot in the New Times for 11 consecutive weeks.
Extremely influential and successful persons such as Bill Gates and Oprah are often praised and esteemed for their intellect and business savvy. Galdwell, however, noted that, in the case of Bill Gates he was extremely fortunate to have a rich family and unlimited access to a cutting edge computer (cutting edge more than 40 years ago) which helped shape his interest and skills in computer technologies. Forty years ago, hardly anyone in the world had access to this type of computer much less young people in the same age category as Bill Gates was during this time.
In other words, opportunity, interest and dedication led Bill Gates to where he is, he was not born this way.
Another environmental factor highlighted by Galdwell is Cultural Legacy. He gave the example of a cockpit pilot and first officer working for Korean Airlines. This airline had grown a reputation as one of the worst in the world. After being black listed by major aviation boards and on the verge of bankruptcy, Korean Airlines undertook research to determine why these skilled first officers were not performing up to task in the cockpit during flights. The research determined that one of the reasons for the airline’s colossal failure was the relationship between the pilot and first officer.
You see seniority and leadership are heavily valued in Korean culture, thus Korean first officers whose jobs were to be a pair of second eyes, ear and hands for the pilot were unable to perform due to the cultural baggage of unlimited respect for their superior no matter the occasion.
Thus in their effort to maintain this taught value, they were unable to adequately advise the pilot when it mattered most, because they were taught that to do so would be to undermine the leadership role and skills of the pilot, especially if they held contradictory views.
The author cited another example this time using a scientific scale termed Hofstede’s Dimensions which measures among other things, cultural practices, traits and dispositions relating to respect and value of authority and authority figures using what is called the Power Distance Index. The lower a country or particular culture is on this index, the more likely its members are to speak up, act, feel a sense of closeness to their leaders, etc.
On the flip side, the higher a country or community is on this index, the more likely it is that these members feel distant from their leaders, experience antagonism with their leaders, will not speak up and/or act when it is vitally necessary, etc.
You might now be wondering why I chose to share this story. Well it seems to me that Guyana has been on a path for some time now, where we simply follow the examples of those nations we most admire. We import models of education,
development, etc. without the necessary understanding of what we are doing and how such practices affect the human capital of our citizenry. A primary example is the recent controversy over the failing of some students at a Linden school.
These students did not perform well and we assume that they are intellectually lacking, the school is not adequately staffed, etc. What we have not examined are other contextual factors in Linden such as the lack of constructive recreational centres, the time these students spend reading and engaged in academic activity away from school, the way they learn, etc.
We basically have a general system that assumes we all learn in the same way and what we are doing is short-changing the least privileged in favour of the most privileged. In other words those who are more positioned to learn and benefit from the current system will do so and those who are not as well positioned will not.
It is not because they are not smart or didn’t take advantage of an opportunity, it’s simply because the system is not as responsive to their particular needs. This example is visible across many other sectors in Guyana and while we are engaged in a lot of reform to adjust these inefficiencies, we must also take cognizance of those environmental factors that are least visible, but more vital to the successful development of our children and youth population.
Development is more than a home and a car, sustainable development involves changing attitudes, mindsets and cultural legacies that keep us less competitive and underachieving. There is sufficient space for all of us to be great achievers.
I deviate here and make a call for more research, not the pre-determined donor driven type of research, but social research done by Guyanese for Guyanese. For example, it would be interesting to learn why many Guyanese thrive in North America, Europe and the Caribbean as compared to Guyana. Is it because they simply have greater opportunities or because they simply make up their minds to work harder? Or what are the main barriers to Diaspora investment (social and financial) in Guyana?
Until and unless we better understand the root causes of these and other pertinent Guyanese issues, our material development, as good as this may seem, will only mask the root causes of socioeconomic challenges we experience daily and have been experiencing for decades.
R. Small
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