Natalia Lopez
Word Count – 1994/PIN 10541
Bliss or Misery? —Contemplating the Engagement of Cultural Forms and Economic Progress
Natalia Lopez
An ancient Chinese proverb says “Give a man a fish and he will eat for one day, but teach him how to fish and he will eat for the rest of his life”. What relationship this proverb can have with cultural and economic development, one may ask. Education is the base of any human being’s behavior and the way people are educated at their own home makes that person “programmed” for the rest of his life. These teachings, which we will call a person’s “home culture”, dominate the way in which a person’s brain creates, and produces thoughts and feelings. Other institutions such as school, church, civil associations and others act as compliments to this “home culture”, but these compliments are not as strong as the one that should exist at home. A person’s home is the base for how these individuals will behave themselves in society. So, this takes us to our first point: The numerous cases of teenage pregnancy that have flooded Central American countries in recent years. The responsibility that parents have over their children is something irreplaceable. Teenagers have not reached the appropriate state of mind to raise a child, for they do not have an idea of what to do with their own lives, neither a strong income, nor the maturity needed to give a child all the information he needs to become a successful person. By information, we mean the set of moral values that can help him engage in critical thinking and become a valuable member of society. The cases of teenage pregnancy are especially numerous in rural areas, and in poor urban sectors of Central American cities. Children springing out of these sorts of cases, normally have no education, for they have to work to from an early age (some since the pristine age of three are sent to beg for money on the streets). They have no set of values on which to base their experiences upon, and therefore as having an example of a mother that doesn’t work or try to overcome her current situation, they choose “the easy life” by becoming burglars, thieves or gang members. Being born into these types of homes people have stopped thinking in terms of honor, leadership and responsibility, this leads them to live unsatisfied lives and it limits their ability to be able to live in society, because they value everything basing themselves with the benefits of the what immediate satisfaction can give them. In a gang, these children feel like they have a role model to look up to, in this case it is the gang lord. Children take the example he exhorts (killing, bribing, torturing, threatening…) as the role model they didn’t have at home; Allowing children emerging from single parent homes to become more susceptible to grow up with the incorrect set of values, or no values at all. Thus a big part of the young population in Central American countries is growing without the correct 1
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formation, allowing the local culture be set on the incorrect form of moral values, allowing the local culture to be based in the wrong set of beliefs. Take for example countries in Central America such as El Salvador or Honduras who have been plagued with this problem during the past two decades. When the stated members of these sorts of groups feel that their very own haven is under danger, they will react violently, not accepting any type of change that could “damage” their beloved “institution” (gang). If members in these sorts of conglomerates are not taught to involve themselves in the correct institutions with the correct values, all the efforts made to confront these organizations would be useless. One can agree up to a certain point that things like the abridgement of an educational policy, no educational continuity, the lack of experience of personnel in the Ministries, and the unavailability of education being enforced in a major scale (which limits the accumulative rhythm of production and productivity factors), have resulted in stranded economic policies which are simply fleeting and inefficient. This last example brings us to our second point: the gargantuan levels of corruption in Central American countries.
The lack of scrutiny on behalf of the governments on the problems that their countries are facing, because of excessive centralism and corruption (taking for example that all the educational reforms are proposed by the FAO, UN, or the World Bank, and not by the local government) has many Central American economies stuck on the same loophole for years to come. Governments are granted loans on the promise that, those loans will be used to enhance educational policies and institute new educational reforms. However, because of the before stated corruption problem, this goals are not fully achieved. Goals stated by these institutions are only maintained temporarily, or up to the date where a loan is approved, but after this allowance is approved those projects are completely abandoned, or simply disregarded. One should nevertheless see the corruption problem from another angle, and this is where we ask: Why do Central American governments have no concern over their own people? Let us retrace ourselves back to the time of the Spanish colony in Central America. It was not the case of a vigorous nationalism emerging to overthrow an oppressing Spanish dominion like in the case of Mexico, but an idea that spread out only to some members of Central American societies, being these members the “Criollos” (sons of Spaniards born in Central American territory, or a mix between a Spaniard and a local). The Criollos wanted to seize control of the local colonies and drive out any Spanish influence that could interfere with them. This is how the only people who got the benefits of an independence movement were the Criollos. It is historically proven that there were people in other towns, beside the capitals, who heard that they had achieved independence from Spain many years later. As a result of all of these matters there was no base culture to give cohesion to the population that was left in the former colonies. There were people who were not killed during the trivialities 2
Global Initiatives Symposium in Taiwan 2009
of the Independence Movement, many Mestizos (mix between black slaves and the local Indian tribes) and Indians were left behind without any purpose, education and culture. There were many group conflicts following for there were regional battles between the same Criollos, for the seizing of territory in the former Spanish colonies. There was no unifying identity between the different groups left; they had nothing in common. Income disparity and “Hacienda” lifestyles were developed as a result. There was no need for a country, it surged because some people agreed to it, but those countries that emerged are not something one could call a nation. All of these factors plus many more have led to mold a Central American society where everyone wants to pursue their own ideas. There is no group effort into supporting a common goal thus leading to an inequality in the overall objectives regarding not only the economy, but shifting abnormally the whole direction in which the country should go. Central America offers many examples of which we could benefit juxtaposing, but in this case we will contemplate the reforms in Costa Rica. What made Costa Rica stand out from the rest of Central America and even earn its reputation as the Switzerland of Central America? Well, it is not easy but many years ago Costa Rica signed series of treaties called EPA-1 and EPA-2, which abolished the military in the country. After having abolished the military the Costa Rican government transferred all the money that was usually destined to military projects into education. As a result Costa Rica experienced a substantial increment in its literacy rate (recent statistics show that less than 4% of the population is illiterate). Professionals became more qualified and the overall lifestyle of the average Costarican changed drastically over the following years. The EPA-1 and EPA-2 also included a series of loans from different international organizations, which also were invested into education. These EPA projects had short-term effects, for they were not continually supported by the following governments. All the money that was asked in the loans was invested in schools only and even though education does help a country, it really was not invested into diverse sectors that could also help repay the debt. These events (the scantiness of continuity on behalf of the government to support the EPA treaties and the lack of financial advice to what was best to be done to ensure return of investment in the loans that had been acquired) lead Costa Rica to compass a behemotic foreign debt, which is nowadays considered “unpayable”, and has Costa Rica going through many predicaments to acquire new loans for future development plans. As seen with the example above, countries in Central America do have the potential to overcome all their predicaments and eventuate themselves into the road towards development. Central America has bounteous natural resources, outstanding weather conditions, and human talent to be able to achieve any quantity of goals that would like to be overcome. By having a strongvalued based cultural reform, which focuses on general development but also seizes its time and space limits to define progressive objectives of development that are compatible with the current forces of production, (this means remembering that agricultural reforms, in Central America were not influenced by mass consumption, and that the majority of the agricultural grounds in 3
Bliss or Misery? Contemplating the Engagement of Cultural Forms and Economic Progress
Natalia Lopez
the countries are still under a slanted model of family agriculture) beginning from a dynamic vision of the society (social groups). Before completely heading unto our final point one should remember two types of conflict: Informational Conflict (which deals with how much a person knows and understands) and Communications Conflict (which deals with how ideas and messages are transported), we have analyzed that very few people around the world, as in Central America are willing to question their beliefs to try to understand new and different things. As a famous French professor once said “Every reform emerges by proving the inadequacy of the institutions to the reality of current situations”. As we have stated in the example of the “maras” above trying to deal with a problem as deep as that without overcoming these latter two conflicts will lead to nowhere. From these arguments we must conclude that priority number one would be to establish a new government program based on values so that can people can learn to work with will, heart and the correct attitudes, focusing on educational reforms in schools and universities so that the population can slowly develop a new sense of nationality. The great Honduran Eduardo Ordoñez once wrote “A government will not change its country through the charities of other countries in the world; it will change the country when it delivers itself to truth and sacrifice” Government implementations like the one Taiwan had many years ago where the government slogan was “Home is the factory” would work only if at the same time the government involves new fiscal policy disciplines, civic participation, a huge fight against corruption in all levels, (not only in the high spheres), redirection of public spending from subsidies toward broad-based provision of pro-growth, competitive exchange rates, liberalization of inward foreign direct investment (like what El Salvador has done in the past years) gradual trade liberalization, but most importantly people will have to unite to find the common solution to their problems, like what Taiwan did in giving 100% support to the Information Technology sector 15 years ago. We can conclude that it is an individual’s initiative that impels progress; with problems like illiteracy and lack of will it would be hard to achieve any sort of amelioration. Education (based on values like will, courage, imagination…) should be the main focus of every country, and as Che Guevara said “A country that doesn’t know how to read is easy to be fooled”.
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Works Cited 1.
La FAO y la Reforma Agraria en América Latina: hacia una nueva visión. Paolo Groppo. May 20th 1997. Pgs 1-12
2. Reformas Educativas en LatinoAmerica en tiempos de Crisis. Melchor Huamán Cosi. Pgs 1-10 3. Los Procesos de la Reforma de la Educacion en America Latina. Melchor Huamán Cosi. A-MÉRIKA Magazine. www.revistaamerika.deusto.es. June 5th 2008.Pgs 1-10 4. Sentido en Comun. Eduardo A.Ordoñez. Bueso. www.sencomun.com
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Bliss or Misery? Contemplating the Engagement of Cultural Forms and Economic Progress
Natalia Lopez
Global Initiatives Symposium in Taiwan 2009