SOWING SEEDS OF TOLERANCE
By Leela Ramdeen, Chair of the Catholic Commission for Social Justice
“We must learn to live together as brothers and sisters or perish together as fools.” (Martin Luther King Jr).
November 16th marks the UN International Day of Tolerance. We should all be familiar with that word since it is one of T&T’s watchwords: “Discipline, Production, and Tolerance.”
Tolerance is one of the virtues that is indispensable in creating community, the necessary loom to knit community. It calls for spiritual and ethical intelligence and constitutes a moral virtue which should penetrate all spheres of social life. As Rene Dubos said, human diversity makes tolerance more than a virtue; it makes it a requirement for survival. UNESCO’s Declaration of Principles on Tolerance (1995) is instructive:
“ Tolerance is respect, acceptance and appreciation of the rich diversity of our world’s cultures, our forms of expression and ways of being human. It is fostered by knowledge, openness, communication, and freedom of thought, conscience and belief. Tolerance is harmony in difference. It is not only a moral duty, it is a political and legal requirement.
“… Tolerance is the responsibility that upholds human rights, pluralism (including cultural pluralism), democracy and the rule of law… the practice of tolerance does not mean toleration of social injustice or the abandonment or weakening of one’s convictions. It means that one is free to adhere to one’s own convictions and accepts that others adhere to theirs.
“…Tolerance at the State level requires …that economic and social opportunities be made available to each person without any discrimination. Exclusion and marginalization can lead to frustration, hostility and fanaticism…Without tolerance there can be no peace, and without peace there can be no development or democracy.”
Diversity should be seen as a strength. However, the media shows us that both in T&T and in our world today, human beings are still failing to co-exist with each other; to respect alternative points of view; to neither dominate nor be dominated.
Gandhi said: “Anger and intolerance are the twin enemies of correct understanding”. But, as the saying goes, when the only tool you own is a hammer, every problem begins to resemble a nail. And so, some Trinbagonians continue to hammer away relentlessly, careless about the harm they are causing.
I believe in Karl Popper’s philosophy that in the name of tolerance, we have the right not to tolerate the intolerant. Therefore, when people who should know better in our society talk ‘stupidness’ we should speak out. I have had numerous calls from teachers, from various ethnic groups, asking me to tell people like Dr Selwyn Cudjoe to stop stirring up disunity in our Country.
They were referring to Dr Cudjoe’s claim that African boys in our schools are under-performing because Indian teachers are not teaching them effectively.
I would like to see the research – empirical or otherwise, on which his claim is based.
There is also the handling of the mysterious phrase that appeared in the Government’s Social and Economic Policy Framework Matrix 2004 – 2006 document that in order to “promote improved student recruitment, retention and graduation rates,” COSTATT should “establish targeted recruitment programmes for male Trinidadians aged 17 -24, especially Afro-Trinidadians.”
We must throw away the hammer and take up other tools to resolve problems in society. There is a difference between affirmative action and positive action. Perhaps if our society were a more tolerant one, we would stop seeing every problem as a nail. George Eliot said: “The responsibility of tolerance lies in those who have the wider vision.” If we broaden our vision we may be able to devise appropriate strategies to deal with key social issues that need addressing.
Where is the vision in blaming teachers of one ethnic group for the failure of male students from another ethnic group? Where is the vision of ‘targeting’ one educational institution to promote the achievement of African boys? I recall my years in the 1980s as Director of a team of teachers who were appointed to promote success among students of Caribbean origin in the then Inner London Education Authority’s 750 primary schools. African-Caribbean boys, in particular, were grossly underachieving.
Not everyone agreed with my approach. Some members of the community believed that if schools were failing black students, parents should take them out of mainstream schools and the community should establish more supplementary schools where black teachers can educate these students.
My view was/is that all children have a fundamental right to be educated to the highest standard within mainstream schools – according to their age, aptitude, ability and so on, and assessment of these should not be based on myths and stereotypes relating to the ethnicity of the students; that there were not enough black teachers in the system to teach in supplementary schools; not all black parents would have the finances to pay for their children to attend these schools etc.
In T&T somehow we do things topsy-turvy. We are engaged in Curriculum Reform and a number of other educational initiatives while we fail to reform the system itself. How will increasing access to certain educational institutions promote success among ALL African students? How will that help us to banish the manifestations of intolerance in T&T, namely social exclusion?
We misdirect/dissipate the energy we desperately need to move our nation forward by seeing each other as the ‘enemy’. And the goal of unity constantly eludes us. How can we build/sustain unity in the midst of intolerance?
True tolerance should enable us to be open to each other; to communicate effectively with each other, even when we agree to disagree about our different perspectives; to engage in authentic dialogue; to manage conflict more effectively; to disassemble the stereotypes on which we have relied for so long and that only serve to build barriers between us. Let’s build unity in diversity, openness, trust, mutual listening and solidarity as a people. Let’s practise inclusion. Our collective future depends on it.
Building tolerance in diverse communities such as ours is not done overnight. It takes time and commitment. It requires ‘tolerance education’ at all levels of our society. We should use the opportunity of the UN International Day of Tolerance to take stock of where we are at the moment as a nation in terms of tolerance and to devise and implement new policies and programmes that will truly assist us in the process of becoming a more ‘tolerant’ nation.
For the creation of a democratic culture of tolerance the work of our educational institutions is important. Students must learn more about tolerance, intolerance and their consequences. Education can help to shape lifelong attitudes and furnish young people with interpersonal skills. There are many activities that can promote recognition of the need for tolerance and understanding of the practice of tolerance.
Education of the wider public is also an urgent imperative. The media should play a constructive role in generating public awareness, disseminating the values of tolerance, the dangers of intolerance, and mobilizing public opinion in favour of tolerance.
We need to reap love, not hatred, out of diversity. To do so, we need to relearn the value of tolerance. Let’s work towards this noble ideal.