SUPERMARKET CHECKOUTS

Who would have thought that a supermarket checkout point would be the site for a linguistic dispute? This is according to a recent news item which noted that The Plain English Campaign was on to one of our big supermarkets to get them to replace its present “10 items or less” notice with something much simpler, such as “Up to 10 items”. I wonder how much difference this will make! I am sure, however, that “The Plain English Campaign” must be overworked given that there are many businesses that do not care a hoot about language – even schools!!!!

One recent encounter at a supermarket checkout was not about linguistic clarity. It was more about general knowledge and about a long queue that was moving at a snail’s pace. I only discovered why the slow pace when it was my turn to checkout. The pleasant and lively youth was clearly enjoying his holiday job. One can sense that he was new, and given time I would be falling over in order to get my items into our worn shopping bag and creaky trolley cart.

His problem, however, was that he was using a scanner that could not pick up the code on every other item and some of the bar-codes were difficult to decipher. But the telling bit is this: he could not identify some of the items. He could not, for instance, identify loose limes, mangoes, or Sharon fruit. He was confused between an orange and a grapefruit. But who can blame him with all the genetic modifying! And you can imagine the problem he would have had, had I picked up a few dudhi’s or loose okras. He did manage not to mistake the bananas with the plantains!

I was struck by the difficulty that the young man had with identifying items that I assume most folks would know – even if they do not use them. Is it that he may have never accompanied his parents on their supermarket pilgrimage? Or maybe these were too exotic items to expect the lad to identify? I would have thought, however, that at least in school he would have come across the names of these items, especially in a city like Birmingham. And I wonder what kind of induction he was given by the supermarket?

It may be that our young people are growing up in a world, in cities and in contexts where things are too easily packaged, nicely squeezed and pulped, attractively prepared, cooked and packaged – ready to be consumed without any thought (except that of the calories/fat counts) of what the ingredients actually look like, where they come from, and what they are called.

Ignorance is certainly not bliss! It is what supermarkets, conglomerates and huge chains thrive on. They literally wish to have us remain shackled in ignorance in order to exploit. They then produce fancy names and labels and we pay exorbitant prices for them. At this checkout point the young man was pleasant enough for me to want to return again with my non-normative array of items (more than 10) and a lesson in at least trying to learn to name the foods we eat, working the brain cells at the checkpoint instead of only arms and scanning devices.

In the meantime I would be more than pleased if The Plain English Campaign can help me with some of the contracts that broadband, electricity, phone and credit-card Providers try to sell me daily। Besides trying to discern what they are saying, there is the matter of labouring through their "encrypted" English documentation.

© copyright Jagessar August 22, 2008

JAMAICAN GOLD

With Caribbean Cricket in demise (now slowly rising back), I am thrilled to follow the Caribbean Olympians – though they are competing on behalf of respective flags and countries. It is good to see Cuba, Jamaica, Netherlands Antilles, Bahamas, Barbados, Trinidad & Tobago and even Guyana competing. But it is the Jamaican sprinters who have stolen the hearts of the crowds around the world – especially ‘Lighting’ Bolt.

Interestingly, however, while there has been admiration and praise from some Western commentators and media over the ease with some of the records have been broken and the Jamaica “celebratory run”, others have queried (in their disbelief) about the possible use of drugs/steroids even suggesting that there is no proper system back in Jamaica to monitor this. Needless to say, from the Jamaican camp, there is much disquiet over the excessive testing of their athletes in an effort to “catch” them out. But this is not the only unfair thing. Think of the billions that some countries have pumped in for preparation and try comparing these figures with that of the Caribbean islands! Or even better try an alternative method of scoring as on the BBC website to see the top scoring countries.

It is amazing, but not surprising, how the western mind operates when it comes to the exceptional performance of an athlete from the majority world, who excels as an Olympian and set new records. No wonder the Chinese contingent have to produce passports to show the age of their athletes! Something dodgy must be in the air, for majority world people cannot rise from their mud-huts and banana farms.

Do not get me wrong: I am all for testing Olympians to screen for any drug enhancing towards victory. But my point is this: which Western media person has queried the possibility of their superboy/hero swimmer using drugs and steroids. I even wonder if the thought ever crossed their monochrome minds!

In the meantime, thank God for Jamaican yams (soon to be patented by some foreign drug conglomerate), Blue Mountain Coffee (the best) and the generations of runaway Maroons - those who defied enslavement. It is the spirit of the latter that propels the Jamaican athletes, past, present and future!

Cool Runnings!

© copyright Jagessar August 22, 2008

THE ANATOMY OF APOLOGY

THE ANATOMY OF APOLOGY

Among the many things I learnt from my parents is that “to apologise” is to not only generate good karma but to also release oneself and others from the grips of evil spirits (or jumbies/duppies). Knowingly or unknowingly, if one’s actions or that of a member of one’s family (and this means extended) have caused harm to another, to apologise and make good is imperative in order to exorcise these evil spirits and restore harmony to the community. There must have been elements of their Hindu and Muslim heritages at work here. My parents also taught me that to apologise is not necessarily to give up any commitment to fight against every kind of oppressive act. To apologise is not about being nice, gentle or proper.

During the last year (2007), I was looking forward for the British government to apologise for the Transatlantic Slave Trade. The best that oozed out was regret for the actions. Some ecclesial establishments did slightly better – though regret was the general mood. The present Australian government have done much better for the role of their ancestors in the exploitation of Aboriginal communities. They, like the Canadians, finally understood how they have benefited from that exploitation and what it means to take corporate responsibility for the evil logic of an earlier time that was premised on the notion that Aboriginal children were in need of “civilising” by inculcating them with European values through experimenting with an early form of eugenics that will “breed out their colour” [try viewing the movie The Rabbit Proof Fence].

Yes, there are still those who refuse to apologise claiming, for instance, that the Transatlantic Slave Trade has nothing to do with them, as they were not authors of these policies: so why should they apologise. No wonder the spirits are still roaming and a nation like Britain remains shackled to her drooping tail of bad karma. And the fact that we live as obsessive individualists and are conditioned to only remember the events of the last 48 hours work against any notion of a corporate responsibility.

Historical amnesia is geared towards wiping out peoples. I wonder how many British folks are aware of how their ancestors exterminated almost the entire tribe of Tasmanian Aborigines. And I also wonder how many are aware that mantelpieces in London were decorated with the skulls of some of those Tasmanain Aborigines! And what, may I ask, was the role of Fabian socialists in justifying the idea of eugenics? And how did the espoused theology of day supported this?

Britain has much to answer to and it is time to move beyond the usual disgusting English rhetoric of “lessons are to be learned”, properly apologise and mean it. For, the ability to apologise is significant in the shaping of a necessary morality for the common good society strives after. Apologies can add moral weight to ”social, political and economic reforms” if they are followed by tangible benefits. Citing the case of the Canadian government’s financial commitment to first nation peoples economic development and self-governing initiatives (among others), Melissa Nobles writes that “what gives them weight are the policies and actions that surround them”. Churches also need to do more in this regard – especially as we scrutinise our theology.

Our inability to apologise as individuals, ecclesial communities and nation(s), mean that we remain shackled individuals, communities and nation,s whose utterances on matters of justice smacks of hypocrisy and gives the Divine chronic heartburns.

© copyright Jagessar August 5, 2008