Today, Dr. Bipulesh Goit, the PKMMH dentist, along with our marketing team and Lab In-charge started a school dental health program. We went to a government school in Karjanha, Siraha and talked to two classes, girls sitting on one side and boys on the other. Dr. Goit's talk lasted about 1/2 hour and when finished he asked the students some questions; the rewards being toothpaste, toothbrush and sometimes dental floss. What I observed was that the boy's side was very active and received a number of rewards; whereas the girl's side was quiet and reserved. Even when questions were directed at the girls, instead of responding, they often looked down.
A few hours later I had the honor, thanks to the PKMM Trust, of handing out blankets to some of the more than 500 poorer citizens of the Karjanha area. I tried to look at each person's face as i handed them a blanket; only a very few made eye contact with me and smiled. Most looked down at their plastic wrapped blanket.
I know that social status, caste, gender, etc. all leave tremendous gaps, which to my American eyes and sense of fairness are huge divisive issues. In our dental program the boys, the teacher, might have encouraged the girls; in our blanket program we might have had some livelihood discussions about how to get people out of poverty so that next year they could afford their own blankets, discussed health issues or talked about children's education. Maybe we should have had some NGOs discussing their programs for assisting people.
I've recently been reading some materials on creativity from Gerard Puccio. He talks about divergent vs. convergent thinking, i.e. lateral vs. vertical thinking. Living overseas for a number of years, broadening my experiences, I think I tend towards more divergent thinking, because nothing is ever the way that it might have seemed in the US. Explanations are always multi-part, circuitous, and gray. Even some things that might have sounded outrageous at one point now sometimes fit within the realm of possibilities.
I think about the phrase, "Give a man (woman) a fish and you feed him (her) for a day; teach a man (woman) to fish and you feed him (her) for a lifetime". If this phrase could be universally implemented would there no longer be any need for caste or gender divides? Maybe we can't go that far but somehow if we treated others with the dignity which we want for ourselves, could we at least glimpse into each other's eyes, no matter what job we performed or type of life which we lead?
In the movie the Giver we observe a society in which people are slaves to a system which chooses one's life, from birth to death. There are no choices, everyone speaks the same precise language and people are forced to not stand out; there are no emotions, per se, removed by a daily injection. People lose their humanness but on some level, there seems to be more equality, i.e. there is nothing to be jealous of.
Utopia is not something that is possible for human beings. My life experiences are hardly similar to those of others throughout most of the world and there is tremendous misunderstanding on all sides. But there is fact that I see in the phrase, Give a person a fish.... that I find undeniable.
I believe in teaching people to fish, but how do we apply our knowledge in a more lateral direction taking account of the life experiences from others, making this part of the variety of solutions? The concept of drilling down thinking suggests that we are moving in a vertical direction instead of spreading out roots to truly determine the multiple solutions to any issue.
If we go back to the school issue and girls, maybe it's a matter of separating genders, creating a greater comfort level to answer basic health issues or maybe it's a matter of having boys and girls sit together and collaboratively work on issues. In giving out blankets, maybe it's about enabling the poor to have voices to discuss the types of jobs that might be developed to help them out of poverty or how to ensure that their children can receive a better education stopping the cycle of poverty. When we're thinking laterally the list goes on ad infinitum.
Eventually we either create a flatter surface or risk greater divide. At this point it seems that we are leaning towards greater divide through fundamentalism, capital, and inordinate use of resources by some at the expense of the masses, etc. It might be too late to tip the scales on a macro level but at a community level, at least where I sit, it does seem possible to teach more people how to fish.
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