9
GUYANA CHRONICLE Friday July 15, 2016
Preserving our provincial history THE MIND of most youth, including the eternal devotees of Peter Pan [Big Youths], always feel that the time encircling their current references is all there is; that all that went before is of no consequence. Each of us in that youthful age inculcated that very delusion, but our elders did sit us down and set us straight. With no TV, smart-phones or Internet distractions up to the early 80s, we were able to absorb mostly all oral history and explanations of custom practices, which enabled us much later to compare and appreciate the transition from then to now; to realise that in many areas, the human world has not changed severely; that just the theories and costumes have been upgraded. New technologies have coerced us into new ways of interpreting our world, with specific reference to the world within the Republic of Guyana. Recently, a friend of mine lost her smart-phone, and, almost in hysteria, related the event that caused her to lose this very expensive gadget. I soon came to realise, as we spoke, that the cost of
the phone was not her main peeve; that the source of distraught was the fact that she had lost all her human connections. I tried to console her that it would only take an hour a day, for three days tops, to put back her directory, once she had written down everything clearly. She paused, looked at me, and soberly enquired, “Wait Barry, you feel that I’s write down people phone numbers! People don’t do that no more!” CULTURAL ADJUSTMENT “I still write phone numbers down,” I quietly replied. We may have slipped into a mode of cultural adjustment similar to adolescent conceit, adopting practices we consider en vogue, while abandoning the proven and necessary. These practices seem to include the reading of books, which, when done in the pursuit of most interests, also require cross-reading for better understanding, and to eliminate hidden interest agendas. We do not yet fully understand that the Internet, in most cases, merely provides a précised insight into a biography or
event; that further reading is suggested through the many referred links that accompany these articles. ‘We’, especially, must be cautious about how we accelerate culturally, because we are not in the esoteric circles of the technologies that are transforming our thinking. This brings me to the statement made by Elon Musk, engineer and inventor of IT products, as reported in The Economist. In a speech in October 2014 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Mr Musk described artificial intelligence [AI] as “summoning the demon”, and the creation of a rival to human intelligence as “probably the biggest threat facing the world.” When this current administration curtailed the eternal nightclub bacchanal culture with its violent and upsetting by-products which had pervaded the human world of the townships across Guyana for too long, what was reined in was not only a moral and family-life hazard, but one of physical health also, which I am surprised that our medical people did not comment on. As such, I am forced to present yet another quote to
elaborate what was at stake, this time from Jennifer Barone in the July-August 2009 edition of the science magazine, ‘DISCOVER’: “We live in a sonic world, immersed in vibrations that stimulate microscopic hair cells deep inside our ears. “This unseen energy influences our mood, our learning, even our health. We experience it as comforting music, as information-laden speech, or all too often as irritating noise, a by-product of our increasingly mechanised world.” We understood those things before that scientific evaluation was made, in terms like, “Turn down the music; the children are doing homework.” Or “I have a letter to write,” etc. Sunday mornings carried a certain kind of music. Our suburban dancehalls were occasion-based; and punch-box ‘Beer Gardens’ closed off at about 1011pm, or closed the doors with final patrons. OLD-SCHOOL The fact is the ‘oldschool’ might have been the wiser formula, in this respect, than what was allowed to develop over the past fifteen years and was
only recently intercepted. Preserving ‘old-school’ has been proven to matter in many cases. I have a cousin whose potential to enter the nursing profession was derailed by a suitor whose financial gifts dwarfed sustainable ambitions or vision. What followed were years of unnecessary trial and error. The fact is, rebuilding the nation’s humanity has to be discussed, and sometimes the popular slogans waved by special interests have to be reviewed objectively. However, the ‘oldschool’ secrecies of the past, of abuse and of close abusers is one past custom that has to be erased. ‘Don’t hang yuh linen fuh everybody to see” is no longer applicable. The community must protect its young; their mental and physical health is a serious responsibility, and the sick in our midst have to be acknowledged and regulated. Preserving what was good in our heritage defeats another profound creole proverb, ‘Nah throw away de baby wid de bath watah.” I didn’t grow up with my father, but we spent more good days together than bad; he subscribed to
several magazines which he encouraged me to read. Two that readily come to mind are the Reader’s Digest and Popular Mechanics. I liked the latter more, as it carried illustrations of WW2 tanks, ‘tommy guns’ etc. I took my father’s materials to make furniture for clients, and a state-of-the-art ‘tommy gun’ just like the ones in the movies. He was so angry, he ranted and railed at me for a long time; but didn’t hit me. I was banished for a while. He later showed his friends my ‘tommy gun’ with extracting magazine and stock workings, and concluded that I would make an excellent joine r. B u t t h a t ’s a n o t h e r story. That reference is related to a current incident related to me by a friend, about some students complaining that a certain professor was failing their papers. He spoke to this professor, and explained to me, that this higher teacher was treating them less harsh, because they could be treated extremely for rampant plagiarism. What kind of officials, if left unchecked, would they graduate to be?