Musing on Societal Systems
As someone who grew up in the most free, individualistic, capitalistic society in the history of the earth, it's difficult from me to grasp other cultures sometimes. I witnessed another example this week of the Islander culture that does not reward individual achievement and success, but rather condemns it. Someone who gets a good job or a college degree with higher earnings is not particularly admired, but rather envied and attacked, and taken advantage of by the family.
A foreign woman is trying to develop tourism and get money into the hands of poor families in villages for homestays, and to increase toursim (and thus overall island economy) by website and postcards, and she is attacked for stealing from the locals (though her income hardly meets expenses, if at all).
A couple of friends from the Outer Islands both had good government jobs, but had a very unhappy life here. Because their extended family (nieces, cousins, nephews from all over the islands) came to their house to live and sponge off them. These uninvited guests were unhelpful, and didn't help in the garden or house because that was "her" duty. She worked all day and then cooked dinner for 26 people. There was no invitation to live there, because one is not necessary by custom. This couple were quite relieved to lose their government jobs and go to the national capitol for other work, so they could enjoy living with their own children and not have the 20-or-so other relatives there.
A man works very hard to create and operate a metal recycling business, only to be attacked by his neighbors and rumored to be stealing the public funds. For no other reason than that he is working hard to clean up the island. He tells me he is not getting much money for it, and I believe him.
Danka grew up under Communist governments in Czechoslovakia, and she relates it as much the same. If someone strove to achieve, they were regarded with suspicion, distrust, and often slandered as corrupt, criminal or connected. She welcomed the 1989 Velvet Revolution and start of a society where she could get educated and work hard.
A foreign woman is trying to develop tourism and get money into the hands of poor families in villages for homestays, and to increase toursim (and thus overall island economy) by website and postcards, and she is attacked for stealing from the locals (though her income hardly meets expenses, if at all).
A couple of friends from the Outer Islands both had good government jobs, but had a very unhappy life here. Because their extended family (nieces, cousins, nephews from all over the islands) came to their house to live and sponge off them. These uninvited guests were unhelpful, and didn't help in the garden or house because that was "her" duty. She worked all day and then cooked dinner for 26 people. There was no invitation to live there, because one is not necessary by custom. This couple were quite relieved to lose their government jobs and go to the national capitol for other work, so they could enjoy living with their own children and not have the 20-or-so other relatives there.
A man works very hard to create and operate a metal recycling business, only to be attacked by his neighbors and rumored to be stealing the public funds. For no other reason than that he is working hard to clean up the island. He tells me he is not getting much money for it, and I believe him.
Danka grew up under Communist governments in Czechoslovakia, and she relates it as much the same. If someone strove to achieve, they were regarded with suspicion, distrust, and often slandered as corrupt, criminal or connected. She welcomed the 1989 Velvet Revolution and start of a society where she could get educated and work hard.