Don't play with it

Long Independence Day weekend - what did I do? Sleep... a LOT.

School is really making me indifferent to some things, like holidays. I remember one of my professors saying that the most challenging thing that happened to him in college, was to un-learn everything he knew before.

I used to tell my high school students the same thing... that when they get to college, they're going to feel so deceived. Not because of any deliberate actions of the teacher, or false information as the syllabus is set with their supposed best interest. Instead, more along the lines of how pivoting details are left out of the story and alters your entire perception.

For example, I'm tutoring a girl right now that's in high school. When we're covering History and I ask her a question as it pertains to the abolition of slavery, or why the slaves were enslaved, etc etc... I get to hear about how concerned the Abolitionists were on a humanitarian level, or how backward the Africans were like sitting ducks. You reach college level and you start to hear about the economic pressures of maintaining the plantations in the islands, in the midst of all the slave rebellions, compared to the profits of newly colonized India... Suddenly these humanitarian efforts start to sound a little more like economics talking and falls under that legal category (which I can't remember the term it's called) where the action is just/legal and moral correct - but the motive is all wrong. I'm not saying there weren't concerned humanitarians somewhere in there, I'm just saying they only got a chance because it was no longer profitable to maintain the plantations, under slave labour (and perhaps otherwise) in the islands.

Every time we get on the topic I tend to go a lil' off-track until she has a blank expression on her face, and I query why she's looking like she doesn't know this from before... and then she shows me the textbook - the same textbook I learned from. *sigh* Africans weren't even backward people... Naive perhaps, but naivety does not equate backward. They were far more developed than England at that time... And England has just came out of it's Middle Ages to catch up with the rest of the world... Christopher Columbus wasn't the first to grace the islands, but that's still the story we're told - even though it's popular knowledge. OoOoOh... the deception.

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So, how does this relate to holidays. My politics classes are not being very encouraging... Well, in actuality, how independent are we really? We're independently poor (lol). Like a child that fights to leave their parents house for the sake of, to struggle - literally and indefinitely - on their own. Our strings as an independent, developing territory is still being pulled by other larger countries and corporations. If you're truly independent, surely you'd have some power and influence over your writing your own script, eh? Therefore, how independent are we? We're not even "a big man... in we own house." (as my prof. loves to say)

And, I haven't done that much reading into the text as yet - I'll do that this week - aside from class lectures... But it seems to strike me as reminiscent of American politics. Not in the "look how successful" they are, because they're in debt and for the most part, they rule by arms. What struck me most about my American Poli. Sci. class in NY was that despite the general collective appearance to the rest of the world as a "United" body of states..... It couldn't be more divided... Sure they have some standard laws that the constitution governs over entirely... But each state has their own set of laws. What goes for one, doesn't necessarily go for the other. They move like smaller autonomous bodies within a larger body. Perhaps it's just my misconception, but I never saw how divided it was. Furthermore, the President doesn't (or didn't...I don't know if it's changed with Obama seeing the existing economic circumstances dictate more actual leadership and less puppeteering) have that much power or influence beyond a signature because the last thing they want is anything resembling a monarchy. It's almost as if their laws go fine, until something stops them. This blockade no matter how tiny is seen as an offense against their person, a threat to their liberty and somehow *confused face* bares semblance to rule under the monarch........And there commences the petition for a new law passed to guarantee their rights. For example, the right to burn the American flag. I really don't think this is the right way to engage in "symbolic speech" by flag desecration. (Click on the last sentence for the Wikipedia reference on this..)

Looking at the failure of Federation, the little arguments and such... The efforts to get CSME project on stream and such.... reminds me of the inter-state bickering of the US... which brings forth the next questions, would it work? Can it work? And does it really work?

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On a minor aside, what I found most amusing about this weekend though... was the irony that while in school everyone complains about the mandatory uniform. Now that we're out of school, any theme event is an excuse for many of those same people to be willing to dress like everyone else. (..lol..) Furthermore, beyond the actual day celebrations, how many of them are actually that patriotic? Hmmm...? How many even voted last elections? And if yes, how many voted from actually thinking and making a proper decision, rather than under the political marketing with free concerts and t-shirts....?

End of rant.

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Shelli out.