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THE VINCENTIAN. FRIDAY, JANUARY 30, 2015. 11.
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Amid Snipers and Snakes (Part 2)
“Look before you leap, for snakes among sweet flowers do creep.” Proverb A DOMINICAN NATIONAL sat beside me on my LIAT flight from St. Vincent to Trinidad last Friday, January 23, 2015. She had read my In Touch column entitled “Amid Snipers and Snakes” in that day’s publication of The Vincentian Newspaper. She commended me for the insights shared, but noted that I had stopped short of cautioning our young people about some of the specific snipers and snakes that emerge from their Internet activities. Using examples to strengthen her points, the young adult commented that there are many “snakes” who frequent Internet sites (such as Facebook) in search of the innocent and gullible. She also noted that some “older men” also engage in predatory activities via the whatsapp features on the modern cell phones. She remarked that in both instances (Facebook and whatsapp), they engage in “fishing activities” by sending out “innocent messages” aimed at luring readers to respond, develop relationships, and seeking to fleece them of possessions or lure them to meet where they attempt to entice the unsuspecting to get involved in activities that are, in some cases, immoral. Parents and guardians need to be very diligent in monitoring the activities that our young people are engaged in on the Internet. We need to supervise their use of telephones and androids. Parents and guardians should learn enough about the technology so that we can provide adequate guidance to these valuable members of our family. We need to put them on alert that there are snipers and snakes out there; persons who are looking at how they can satisfy their selfish needs at the expense of others. This guidance is especially important during the adolescent phase when they are most vulnerable. The young, intelligent professional referred to in the opening paragraph, then shared an incident where her eight-year-old relative (who was provided with a telephone so that she could communicate with her parents after school), received a whatsapp from a “friend” who indicated that she intended to “limit their friendship” because she (the person receiving the message) was “too fat”. Could you imagine that? A young, insensitive, uncaring, tactless “friend” sending through a message like that. And while we may seek to excuse the damaging note by indicating that children at this age will express their feeling openly (uninhibited), this is no excuse for the hurtful expression. One of the things that concerned me about this example was that, on receiving this traumatising note, the eight-year-old then proceeded to reduce her food intake, with the hope of losing weight and retaining the friendship. Children at this age should not have to go through such trauma. They should not be exposed to such snipers and snakes; individuals who bruise their egos and damage their self-esteem. At this point, some readers may conclude that I am being harsh to describe such behaviours by a young child as fitting into the categories of snipers and snakes. However, we need to understand and appreciate that unacceptable, selfish, uncaring, and insensitive behaviours can emerge
from young children too. We need to train our children (from a very young age) to avoid doing and saying things that will be hurtful to others — especially individuals that they deem to be their friends. The preceding paragraph invites a host of comments. However, because we are limited in space and time, we will merely have to highlight the fact that, while the technology can be used to generate a lot of good, there will be others who will use the very technology as avenues and conduits for bad/evil. And while some of the activities may be performed in innocence (not intending to hurt), there are individuals who will communicate via such media with the clear intention of causing social and emotional harm. We must be forever on guard. We must be vigilant in monitoring the activities of the young ones around us, and ensure, as best we can, that we alert them to the dangers that they are exposed to via these modes of communication. It is also necessary for us to monitor and guide them in relation to friend selection and relationship building. This is not only important in relation to the face-to-face relationships that they engage in; it is especially important to do so with those relationships that emerge in cyberspace where we are limited in relation to our ability to assess the character of the individuals. There are dangerous snipers and snakes lurking in the shady, dark corners of the Internet. We would be naive and foolish to think otherwise. Within recent weeks, we have observed the re-emergence of the Internet snipers and snakes that seek to get us to share our banking information with them. Some offer to transfer funds from dormant accounts in Africa or Europe. Others seek to give the impression that our online banking security has been breached and we need to provide them with our username and password so that they could re-establish the security of the account. In both instances, these fraudsters are seeking to get access to bank accounts that they can deplete. We are to be on guard. We are to be vigilant. We are to be constantly on the lookout for these snipers and snakes in Cyberspace. Finally, this is a good time to remind our precious wards that they should “look before they leap, for snakes among sweet flowers do creep”. There is wisdom in such ancient proverbs. We can learn from them. We can be guided by the insights that they impart. We are to be so very cautious about the lures that emerge on so many of the “innocent Internet sites”. Some engage in colour combinations and graphics that will entice the viewers. It takes discipline and determination to resist the temptations that so often emerge when scouting for information and/or entertainment on the Internet. But even as we do so, we should be aware of and beware the snipers and snakes that lurk among the sweet flowers. Send comments, criticisms & suggestions to julesferdinand@gmail.com
Importance of teaching Black History MALCOLM X was fond of saying, "Our history did not begin in chains." Yet, every year, lesson plans on Black History Month in schools begin telling the story of our history -- black history -- in chains. Young black school children don't learn that our people mapped, calculated and erected some of the greatest monuments ever, like the pyramids, the sphinx and the obelisks; or that our people were literally the lifeblood of some of history's greatest civilizations. They don't learn that calculus, trigonometry and geometry, all trace their origins back to African scholars. Black History Month lessons never begin with Haile Selassie I, ruler of Ethiopia, who could trace his ancestry to King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, and beyond that to Cush in 6280 B.C. Never mind that Selassie actually has the most ancient lineage of any human being in history. Black History Month lessons certainly never begin with one of the greatest conquerors the world has ever known, Hannibal, an African who conquered and extended the rule of his African Empire into Italy and Spain. The lessons about our history don't ever begin with the kingdoms of Mali, Songhai, Cush or Ghana, all of which rivalled the dominance and territorial acquirement of ancient Greece or Rome. They don't begin by teaching school children about the ancient Egyptians, who were clearly black Africans, and who had arguably the most influential civilization of all time. Ever heard of the Ishango bone? What about the Lebombo bone? They're only two of the most important developments in the history of mathematics. The Lebombo bone, dating back to around 37,000 B.C., was one of the first calendars ever created, and the Ishango bone has been called "The oldest testimonial of numerical calculus" in human history. Both were created by Africans. Our history isn't taught in popular culture, and it is absent from the history that most teachers deem to be important. That's why Black History Month was created. It wasn't a chance to glow over the achievements we've heard about time and time again, and to recount stories of Africa’s majesty. Black History Month was a time to bring to light the stories of people from Africa, who have contributed so much to who and what we all are today in human society. When Carter G. Woodson (Miseducation of the Negro) created Negro History Week in 1926, his goal was to teach children and adults throughout the African Diaspora, about the proud history and tradition that Africans have. He wanted to teach young boys and girls in the U.S. and around the world that Africa was and is so much more than people living in huts, hunting lions and dancing around campfires. He wanted all people to know and understand that being African was not something to be ashamed of, but instead should be a point of pride and confidence. Woodson, one of the first black men ever to graduate with a Ph.D from Harvard, doing so in 1912, was devoted to teaching all people about the contributions in our society that come from Africa and Africans; and it
pains me to say, so far, we have failed in his mission. If you don't believe me, find anyone still in school, and ask them to tell you something about black history that predates the slave trade. During the month of February, you can generally count on lessons to begin with some sanitized retelling of a black historical figure like Frederick Douglass, the great orator who counseled Abraham Lincoln and wrote numerous articulate and moving tomes about his life as a slave. Or they'll begin with Abraham Lincoln, "freeing" the slaves with the Emancipation Proclamation (and will conveniently leave out the fact that the Emancipation Proclamation didn't actually free any slaves Lincoln had the authority to free, and allowed slavery to continue in the Northern states where his words could actually have carried some weight). At most schools, you'll be lucky to get a lesson beyond Martin Luther King's dream and Rosa Parks' defiant bus ride. Perhaps some devoted teacher will pay a nod to Booker T. Washington or Jackie Robinson or, in recent years, President Barack Obama; but that seems to be about where it ends. Those people were all luminaries and pioneers in their fields, and certainly worthy of our admiration; but they are not the whole of Black History. Black History Month is about Mansa Musa, the King of Mali, who extended the empire's reach into one of the largest on the planet, and imposed the system of provinces and territorial mayors and governors. It's about Lewis Latimer, the man who invented the filament that took Thomas Edison's light bulb into the next century. It's about Robert Abbott, the United States' first black newspaper publisher and one of the nation's first ever black millionaires. Black History Month is about Kwame Nkrumah, Bill Pickett, Imhotep I, Samori Toure, Belva Davis, Walter Rodney, Chatoyer, Samuel ‘Sheriff’ Lewis, Fedon, Nanny, Cuffy, Amilchar Cabral, Samoro Machel, Crispus Attucks, Dr. Ivan van Sertima, Fritz Pollard, Stokely Carmichael, Aaron Douglas, Denmark Vesey, Tousaint L'Ouverture, Nat Turner, Shirley Chisholm, Mae Jemison, Fred Hampton, Scott Joplin, Ramses II, Zumbi dos Palmares, and hundreds of other men and women of whom you have probably never heard. The march from slavery clearly demonstrated the struggle and the power that black people are capable of, but it's not all we have contributed to the world. It's time we used the month of February to extend the dialogue beyond the banal and onto the tremendous accomplishments of Africans throughout history; Africans who have advanced math, music, language, the sciences and so much more for thousands of years. Then and only then will we truly be celebrating Black History Month.