ADAPTABLE AND FLUID – NAVIGATIONAL SKILLS

ADAPTABLE AND FLUID – NAVIGATIONAL SKILLS

One of the results of the economic downturn and loss of jobs is that many folks have to be retrained to do something else as the prospect of finding a job, especially if you used to be in banking or the finance sector, is quite dim. Hence, I followed with interest one story where a former highly paid person enrolled on a crash course in plumbing. And lest you are thinking so, I will not do any “spinning” on the word “crash”!

This story got me thinking about the wisdom of my father’s insistence that we should all learn a skill besides getting an academic qualification. By skills he meant the ability to do your own plumbing, carpentry, electrical works, masonry, repairing cars and even building your own small house etc. All these and many more he taught us. While my siblings and I use to resist his urgings, thinking that our degrees and academic qualifications will open the world before us, we are now grateful that he (a mechanical engineer) taught us these skills as, over the years, they have served and continue to serve us very well.

While my parents insisted on the importance of an education, they also saw, within the boundaries of their own worldview, great wisdom in their children being adaptable and able to do anything or something should the circumstances of one’s life change. They knew through bitter experiences in a poor land that nothing is secure or guaranteed. This wisdom and insight have served all of us well and now I am thinking of doing an intensive course in either plumbing or masonry to update skills I have missed having buried myself too much in books, writing and office stuff over the years.

In their own way, the wisdom of my parents ensured that my siblings and I were taught something that is critical for one’s journey in life: navigational skills and the employment of common sense. They instilled in us the ability to be adaptable, flexible and curious. Or, put differently, we were taught to think big, out of the box and broadly. How do I share these insights with our sons and prepare them for their present and future remains a challenge that I will take up as my parents rightly insisted on.

I also wonder if there are not insights here for Churches. Knowledge is certainly important. Yet of equal (and if not greater) importance is the ability to be adaptable, to learn a variety of skills and to nurture open, curious, expansive and imaginative minds. However, I cannot help but think that Churches have been so concerned about certain kinds of knowledge and truth that they have perfected the art of majoring in “fossilized bodies of knowledge” or “dead memories”. Hence, the inability to adapt or nurture necessary navigational skills. Too much dwelling on memories or on the historical past of our traditions means that we are burdened with memory overload, which neutralizes our ability to dream or to think broadly. In such a case the end is nearer than we really wish to admit.

© copyright Jagessar November 22nd, 2008 image credit jagessar

WORDS, WORDS and MORE WORDS

One of the good things about the present economic turmoil is the way one is forced, in the midst of the gloom, to come to grips with the operations of the holy of holies of the economic temple. For the uninitiated this is like a painful journey through a difficult maze. For the jargons are as numerous as they are mind-boggling in terms of a lay-person trying to make sense out of the intricacies of the operation our economic life.

Hence, we read of the “flight of capital”, the “dissipation of confidence”, “loss of faith”, “emerging economies”, “seizure in the credit market”, “globalised finance”, “economic fallout” “asset prices decline”, “asset bubbles”, “public debt”, “credit growth” and many more jargons and coded language. The bottom line however, is that as confidence dissipates there is costly pain all around, with the smaller and poorer nation (and poor people within nations) being the most vulnerable. In this situation it is not uncommon for the survival of the fittest to become the order of the day.

Indeed, the economy and our economic lives are in intensive care – though for those who have been affected the reality is more morgue-like. Neo-liberal capitalism and privatisation, we are told operate on the premise of profits for stakeholders. Yet, a most ironical fact is that it is public funds (that is, the money of tax payers) now being used to bail out private adventurers! And this is only one example of how public funds are used to fund private ventures. No wonder the word “private” in the Latin root has among its meanings that of “stolen”!

As the full impact of economic thievery continues to be revealed daily, we now hear, as one news report suggests, that the “R” word is on the lips and hearts of people who dictate our economies. And that “R” word is recession, as economies take a downturn.

There are, of course, other related “R” words that should also feature. There is “redundancy” as many lose their jobs, houses and much more. Regret is yet to genuinely flow forth from any of the lips. Responses of government can at best be likened to that of confused, dysfunctional and overprotective parents trying to pamper spoilt children by creating more bubbles in the bubble bath to cool down panic, divert attention and cloud reality. And the greatest challenge remains that of radically rethinking our economic lives so that the common good will be more than good: it will be just!

© copyright Jagessar November 2nd, 2008

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