Donation or Investment – Part Two

“When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist.”   Dom Helder Camara

A reason that I do not like asking for donations is that whatever we contribute to  has a remarkable way of staying the same ….. no matter how much money gets thrown at it.

There seems to be a literal acceptance of Jesus’ words, “The poor you will have with you always…” [Mark 14, 7] and this almost always comes as a handy absolution for people who are in not poor.   I do not like it and I do have to include myself in this radical accusation.

One of my heroes from my university days and my first missionary zeal was Dom Helder Camara.  He was a Brazilian bishop, better known as the Bishop of the Poor, who wrote about the link between poverty and violence.   He also wrote a small book called “Spiral of Violence” that supported my opposition to the Vietnam War and placed it in a larger religious context. 

I remember him now for his perspective on understanding social injustices by suggesting a needed paradigm shift.   He wrote, “When shall we have the courage to outgrow the charity mentality and see that at the bottom of all relations between rich and poor there is a problem of justice?”

Not only do I see poverty as “a problem of justice”; I see that justice is a problem for us all by itself.   Charity implies kindness and voluntariness while justice calls for duty and obligations.   Being charitable makes us feel good and virtuous, while doing our duty well is just that – doing what we should.   There are no “virtue” benefits; however, a failure of duty leaves us shamed.  Not good.     

It is no wonder that we prefer the world of the charitable rather than the demands of justice.    Who feels good about paying their taxes?  Obeying red lights?  Getting to work on time?  Feeding your children?   Who gets a reward for doing what they should?   In fact, when we are told what our duty [or fair share] is, we get downright hostile.    I would rather have the feelings that I get from doing good deeds that are outside, over and above the realms of obligation.

Since Camara and others have been unsuccessful in making any significant changes with their logic, let’s just pretend the demands of justice do not exist.  

 

Recently, I read an article by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett from the Sheldon Chumir Foundation.    I liked the article because it agreed with me, but was better at expressing my beliefs.  I‘ll just stretch some of their local and country-wide conclusions to a world application

The evidence shows unmistakably that more equal societies – those with smaller income differences between rich and poor – are friendlier and more cohesive:  community life is stronger, people trust each other more, and there is less crime and violence. So the deep human intuition that inequality is divisive and socially corrosive is true.

While the authors were speaking of a city or a country, I think their conclusions are applicable to the whole globe.  This is why I wrote in my last blog, “I am not asking for saintly altruism; I can accept ‘informed selfishness’”.    A world that has a more equitable sharing of its resources will benefit everyone at home and abroad.  If we want to improve our lives – social, health, economic, that improvement may be intimately connected with the improvement of everyone’s life.  

Ever since those days of youthful idealism, global problems seemed past my comprehension and certainly my abilities to fix – Vietnam War, Civil Rights, Farm Workers.   I focused my energies first on improving the small darkroom of a Chicano newspaper, then a small department in a hospital, and now a small school of nursing in a small hospital in a small country.     I know I will not change the world, nor Guyana, nor even the nursing school.   I have already changed, and will change, the lives of a few students.   They will have to change the hospital and health/health care in Guyana.   

I need your help to provide these two dozen students with the best resources and tools possible for their studies, and for their future responsibilities to make Guyana a more equal society with all the benefits that come with that – safer, more peaceful, less violent, friendlier and healthier……

And since we agreed to pretend that you don’t have any obligations to make a donation, just think of how virtuous you will feel!  

Here, however, is another thought from Camara:  “More and more I pray for the Prodigal Son’s brother… The Prodigal awoke from his life of sins. As for his brother, when will he awake from his life of virtue?”

Enough …… I’ll try a Part Three later...

Reflecting Back on 2010

I have been home now for some time:  visited the family and some friends in Ontario over Christmas and New Year; printed and mailed close to 1,000 photographs back to the girls at St. Ann’s and the students.  I’m recognizing the flakes flying through the air as snow and not ash from the cane fields, and I’ve begun to tolerate cooking with chicken and rice.   I take some time “pondering” my life, contribution, experience and frustrations of volunteering at Mercy and Guyana.   It sets the stage for me to decide about doing it one more time in 2011.  

Those of you who have been with me in the previous seven times will have found, like me, that much of what happened in Guyana happened almost all the other years.  There is some comforting familiarity with repetition of both successes and frustrations.    My time in Guyana has become part of the rhythm of my retirement.   My ever-helpful wife, Anne, just passed and commented, “You know, people who think that you go to Guyana for three months are wrong.  You are actually there at least half the year.”  Probably true.

This year I had some new experiences:

The most different and exciting development was the introduction of a problem-based learning approach to the first year students at the Mercy Hospital School of Nursing.    This was made possible by my esteemed colleague, Tony.   To tell you the truth, before we left I couldn’t decide whether I was more worried about introducing PBL or working with Tony.   However, neither worry ever came to fruition.   Tony and I worked extremely well together.   [The students would listen to one of us and then immediately look to the other for a dissenting opinion.]  I know that I could not have achieved the same richness, depth and comprehensiveness without him.   We had some interesting skirmishes, but no one drew blood or got a knockdown.  We were amazingly compatible on our learning objectives and assessments of the day’s work.    I hate to admit this but it would be hard for me to go back without him.   I think that this “odd couple” did a good job.   

Our students had been educated through high school with the main pedagogical intervention being a teacher [or often another student because the teacher wasn’t there] reading from the one textbook for the course and the students writing down verbatim what the teacher re-read slowly.    They are criticized for wrong answers; they are not looked-to for opinions or previous knowledge; they sit and write.   So the introduction of an adult and PBL approach was going to be risky.  However, it was risky only in our minds.   They jumped on it, right from our introductory problem, in which we decided to “do” a case rather than talk about the differences of PBL.   We played with a “Contract Pregnancy” one, in which some rich couple wanted to pay for their schooling in exchange for the conception of a light-skinned girl for them.  Some genetics, some anatomy, some ethics, some psychology, a little of everything.  They had so many questions and problems and ideas and quandaries, it was wonderful.  They wanted to learn and were eager to read, to get resources on the net, to find local consultants on staff to bother with their questions…   

   

This made leaving harder this year, as there were no faculty that seemed to have even the tiniest interest in our project.   The students would return from our classes to the tutor reading from a lone text, pouring in the truth via their sitting butts and their writing hands, through some unknown neuro pathway to their awaiting memory receptors…   Ugh.   Our inability to get any interest in PBL from others was a major failure and disappointment of this tour.   It didn’t outweigh the positive student reactions, though it did interfere with our fantasies of leaving an enduring legacy.    It was my biggest disappointment.

Speaking of disappointments, another big one was with my country, Canada.   Some anonymous visa official who was probably overworked and probably had been watching bad detective movies for too long and probably liked reading even less than my students, refused a short visa for my friend, Taju.  He wanted to attend an ice-cream-making course at University of Guelph in Ontario.  [He had paid the tuition and the airfare; a friend of Anne’s was putting him up in his home near the university; someone else was picking him up at the airport and was going to return him after a trip to Niagara Falls.]   Well, he was rejected basically because the reviewer could not see any connection between ice cream and Taju’s previous life as a student nurse.   Therefore, they “had no choice” but to refuse the request because Taju might not return to Guyana – to his wife, two kids, his own restaurant, internet store, home, truck and car, his plans to finish his degree in Nursing and improve his ice-cream-making business.    [An email from Taju in January read in part:

“....... I've signed a contract with the Government Of Guyana through GOINVEST Guyana that will give us duty free concessions to bring in Ice Cream equipment and vehicles based on the business proposal that I submitted to them.  Hopefully that will keep some dollars in our pocket when the operation eventually commences.   The struggle continues. ....”    ]
 

It is too bad that the reviewer did not read the documentation submitted, including a supporting letter from Tony and myself.   The officer did not even ask for clarification or make a long distance phone call.  [There are no visa services in Guyana; all visa requests are sent to Trinidad.].    

I was upset with the refusal, but much more upset with the fact that it is impossible to appeal a decision.   I have recently received an official letter from the Minister responsible, Jason Kenny, who just reiterated the words of the original reviewer.   To say the least – not helpful.     It is way too late for Taju to attend the course, but it is not too late for others to be treated with respect when applying to visit Canada.    This process is surely not the “Canadian way”.

As with professional articles, authors must declare benefits received that might influence their decision.   Therefore, I declare that Tony and I are recipients of Free Ice Cream for Life at the Princess Restaurant on Durban Street in Georgetown.  Taju and his wife Alison are the owners.

My other “new” was living away from the Mercy Compound and occupying the parsonage at Calvary Lutheran Church on the outskirts of the Bourda Market.   It wasn’t until the end of my time that I realized that the congregation at Calvary were my biggest financial supporters in that they gifted me with the lodging.   I did reimburse them by providing “security” and also delivering two sermons ..…  I think I easily got the best part of that deal.   Of course, there are many others who support me in various ways; it is just that Calvary’s support seemed pretty amazing.  [Living “off campus” had some small drawbacks, in that I had to provide more of my own meals and there was commuting time involved.]

 

My next other “new” was the realization that everything changes ..…  Yes, I knew that before and remembered it again as my colleague, Pastor Dick Young, announced that he would be leaving before I might return in 2011.   He has always been there for me since I started going to Guyana.   He has been an inspiration to me, especially as I struggled with the frustrations of doing anything in Guyana.     He has arrived back home at his farm in Oregon where the growing season will be a little shorter.     I’ll wait till next year -- until he misses Guyana -- to see if he wants to come and join us at Mercy!

My last “new” probably wasn’t really new to anyone but me; however, I did seem to notice a much larger number of old students who were still in Guyana.   This was pure joy for me as I have given my “Think About Staying In Guyana” speech every year.     I would like to think that some of them actually listened to me.   Maybe, it also has to do with a degree programme in nursing at the University of Guyana and a few better opportunities for employment, like the Caribbean Heart Institute.    Their working presence, along with the establishing of families, was one of the most encouraging aspects of my time there.    These are bright women [and a few guys] and as they gather experience they will increase the competency of nursing everywhere in Guyana’s health system. 

My biggest worry was and is about the future of St. Joseph Mercy Hospital.   The fire has had an ongoing impact in almost every area of operations.    For the first time in their history they laid off “family”; the level of acute patient cases has decreased and the majority are chronic; staff optimism is pretty low; the new graduates were told that none of them were to be hired at Mercy; the redevelopment hasn’t begun, so the emptiness is there every day…  When I combine all this with several other “up and coming” hospitals and health services – with better pay and working conditions for nurses -- it is hard to feel optimistic.  I do know that CEO Helen and the Board are working hard to improve the hospital and get the rebuilding under way and I am still worried.    What does provide a never-ending source of optimism is the energy and dedication of the “old girls,”  Sisters Kenneth, Judith, and Noel, who are out there every day trying to raise funds for the new hospital; they continue to amaze me.

Speaking of amazing women, this was probably my last time to see Sister Beatrice Fernandes, although .....  I didn’t think she would have lived till I arrived in September 2010, and she was still alive when I left.     So who knows with these old nuns, eh?

I have been attacking this last blog for a month, and will now call it quits.

Take care, and I’ll write again when my plan for Fall 2011 is decided,

John

Justice, Confidentiality and an "Iota" of Just[ice] is not Enough

Tony and I have two hours on Tuesday when we aren’t doing pbl.  This Tuesday, Tony gave out our exam! … And I gave them Pineapple Turnovers – or Pine Tarts. [And Tony can’t figure out why they like me better.]   There are now 10 students from the original 13; I say that I have a surprise for them…  I randomly hand out 5 "pines" and then return to begin my comments on Justice…  I don’t get very far before the student grumbling is too much to ignore… none who had the pine tarts were complaining.   [And maybe that is the essence of human justice – those “with stuff” think that it is fine; those “without stuff” are quick to claim violations of fairness.]  

I ask them why they are upset…. “Not Fair”, they cry…  “What isn’t fair?  Can’t I do what I want with my money?”   [Liberty ah yes,  best argued by those who have the “stuff”.]  

“How could I make it more fair?…   Maybe you should get a pine because you deserve it?”… 

So I gave out a short test and whoever gets the right answer gets the tarts.  …..  Only four right answers.  I retrieved the five pines from the first group [Actually, there were threats of violence to my person as I took back the tarts as none of the original recipients got the answer] and gave them to the four correct answers – one got two.  They did not like Merit any better… as it, too, was quite random… "What about attendance?"  “I have the highest class average.”    So bemoaned the pine-less students.

“How could I make it more fair?”… 

“I really need a pine, Rev. John.”  “Me too!” went the chorus.  “Great, and how do we determine need?”  There are two really thin students … so I gathered up the five from the merit-ers and split the tarts 3 and 2 between them.  A Need-based system was not to their liking either.   “I am hungrier than they are.”  Okay.  “So who is going to eat their pine right now and who will save it for later?”   Five said that they would eat it now… So the pines moved to the five hungry.   And the refrain was similar… “They just had lunch; they are hogs, not hungry.”

“How could I make it more fair?”… 

“Look at me.  I am fit and eat only what I should.”   Okay… “So we shall exclude those who abuse food.”  So I picked out 4 of the class who are on the heavy side… and the two thin ones… and one is diabetic…  and two can’t stay awake in class- so obviously are abusing something. So the five pines moved to the most virtuous. “Hey it is not my fault I am diabetic.”  “It is not my fault I fall asleep; I have to travel an hour to get here and that is after I look after my chores.”  “And Miss Good person never does her own homework, she copies mine.”  [All is fair in love, war and pines.  So much for Personal Responsibility.] 

“How could I make it more fair?”… 

“We are all your students… You must treat us equally.”   Okay.  “As you have all five pines, are you willing to share with your batchmate equals?”   She was not obviously thrilled with this solution … and in the resiliency of the human spirit announced, “Well, if I keep two; you can split the other three in thirds and everyone can have an equal share.”  [If you have the “stuff” Equality means something different than if you don’t.]

I got through the major concepts of justice including Retribution and Utilitarianism.   I ended with, of course, giving them all a pine tart.  And then the diabetic and a few of the others said that they didn’t like or couldn’t have a pine tart and what was I going to substitute…   [Yes, I know that a pine is not the healthiest, but it is hard to see a carrot as a reward for anything.]

Next, I had them pair up and gave them one extra pine tart between them.  They had to decide whom they would give it to …and a justice reason… Now the chorus was “Rev John, it is unfair for you to make us work so hard for one pine!”   In the end, 4 pines were given on the basis of perceived need.- beggar on street, housekeeper, porter, and Dr. Tony… and one on a sameness principle… school secretary.

All in all, a good hour… and like most students before them, they will remember the “pines” and have no recall of the why, just that they were good.  Plus, I gave Sister Catherine my tart, as she was one of those fired last week.

Confidentiality – Yes and No

It will come as no surprise to anyone who knows me that Neurology is not one of my strong suits… and when I do try I usually mess it up.   Naturally, it can happen the other way round, too.  Tony took on Ethics this week…   As you remember, we had a student who had to leave because she was diagnosed with active TB.  Tony and I have tried to support her get good care and fairly soon.   A doctor at Mercy agreed to see her and CEO Helen agreed that the hospital would pick up her bills here… Students don’t usually get assisted till they are in second year…  Anyhow, on examination, she was found to be pregnant as well.   This was a surprise!   She was distraught as she was on a pill and already had a child … and … and…  Well, on Wednesday evening Tony and I made a visit to her home with her mom and siblings and daughter; and she was coping better. 

The day before, when the doc had told her she was pregnant, the doctor got her permission to tell Tony and me about her pregnancy.   On Thursday this student came to our class to say hello and... good bye to her batchmates.    Now Tony jumped on the chance to demonstrate his ethical prowess with a great example of how Dr. Devi had gotten the student’s permission to share the fact that she not only had TB, but was pregnant.    Now this would have been an excellent example of how to maintain confidentiality in real life –except for the fact that she had not told her batchmates that she was pregnant .......    In true Doctor form, he quickly indicated that while she hadn’t told them, she really wanted to share it… and “many things are true” again…  [And nerves are those thingys that make you nervous.]    Her batchmates did support her and encouraged her to return to nursing next year…

Some Things of Note

• ·         Reformation Sunday

 

This was the Premier Performance by the Calvary Lutheran Church Melody Makers.

The King of Glory - Reformation Crowd? Chris Klafs is in there somewhere.

Tony chaired a distinguished panel:  Pastor Young, Chris Clafs – the Florida Synod representative to Guyana, Errol Ramdhany, a local scholar and myself.  We waxed on [and waxed off] wisely beneath the shade of a Silk Cotton Tree to an audience of all ages about how the Reformation has impacted the present.   One thing which I didn’t share at the time was that with all the freedom of information that the Reformation brought, most of what I said came from a Unitarian Universalist source – a sermon that Anne delivered to a UU Congregation in Canada.  This must fit under the rubric of “priesthood of all”!

• ·         “The Little Apple of Death” 

Also beneath the Silk Cotton Tree [there are no Jumbies in this one, I think], there was a beautiful and bright red tomato-ish fruit… Very lovely and just at a height where even the smallest child can appreciate it.   However… Mancinella, as it is known in Florida, contain strong toxins in all its parts. It will secrete a white milky substance during rainfall.  Allegedly, standing beneath the tree during rain may cause blistering of the skin from mere contact with this liquid.  Burning the tree may cause blindness if the smoke reaches the eyes.  The fruit can also be fatal if eaten. Many trees carry a warning sign, while others are marked with a red "X" on the trunk to indicate danger.  [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchineel]    This is not exactly what you’d like your kids to be playing with most days!

·         A Friendly Canadian and Barely Clothed Women

Our newly found friend, Ian MacKay, a consultant who is down here to help upgrade a local hotel and restaurant, Grand Costal, invited us and any stragglers over for a swim and to be his guests for dinner.  So we invited Sylvia, a Scarboro volunteer.  She walked over to the internet-deprived Mercy Volunteers and got them to come as well.   

We had a wonderful time and will return this Friday with our First Year Class for their outing with snacks.   If I get this out after we have swum, [or swimmed, swummed, had swum, went swimming or…] I’ll add the pics to the blog’s top slideshow.   And don’t worry, I won’t get too excited with all those beautiful young women; I’ll fantasize about their grandmothers!

Of note also was that we picked up another Consultant, who had previously been in Iraq for several years and had just been in Guyana for a few weeks.   When we asked him what he thought of Guyana, he said, “I think that I may return to Iraq as it is better there.”    He didn’t seem to be kidding… Ugh!    Update:  He has chosen to work in Afghanistan..   [Are you kidding me?  Double Ugh.]

• ·         Diwali

Friday was the Hindu festival of lights. Diwali means a row or cluster of lights which symbolizes Light over Darkness, Knowledge over Ignorance, Good over Evil and Love over Hate.  How can you be against that, eh?

Diwali falls on the lunar month of Kartik meaning the month of October or November on the darkest night of the Hindu lunar year.   This is an occasion for the young and the old, men and women, rich and poor - for everyone irrespective of their religious and economic background who seeks light, knowledge and love.    The festival is celebrated throughout the world to ward off the darkness and welcome the light into our lives.  As William Shakespeare said,  “See ye that light yonder?  So shines a good deed in a naughty world”.  This festival is also celebrated as the beginning of New Year, and the blessings of Lakshmi, the celestial consort of Lord Vishnu, are invoked with prayers.   Lakshmi is a wonderful manifestation of the Brahman as she is considered the intermediary for beauty and wealth!  Nice combination, sort of a Virgin Mary, Martha Stewart and Beyoncé. 

• ·         Free Ice Cream Equals No Canadian VISA

After Tony and I made our home visit to our student, we had to stop at Taju’s for dinner and a few beers [for John] and ice cream, as we were made Honorary Life Members of the Free Ice Cream Club.   While I was there I remembered to ask Taju for a price on 20 gallons of ice cream that the School of Nursing is responsible for providing to the Mercy Hospital Christmas Party.   I thought that I could get a good discount.  He said, “No charge.” As it was his alma mater, he would donate it.  His only question was whether they wanted it in gallon jugs or individual cups.  You would think that makes him a good guy?

The next day he was denied a Canadian Visa to attend a week-long ice-cream marketing course at the University of Guelph because he was at risk of remaining illegally in Canada.   God save me from those faceless bureaucrats who are keeping Canada safe from hard-working entrepreneurs.    There is really no appeal, as the course starts at the beginning of December.  

I have been proud to be an immigrant to Canada as I have always thought it to be a kinder and more welcoming nation than so many others.   Today it is not true.   While I was firing off letters in my “Righteous Anger” phase, Taju wrote back, “Oh Reverend John don't be upset; for every disappointment there's an iota of blessing hidden somewhere.”

 Thanks for reading and may your blessings not be hidden.   John