Education for the future of an ailing society.

Today I was at the cemetery where one of my nieces was laid to rest being operated upon to remove two boils according to my cousin. She suffered from internal bleeding and I wonder what the doctors diagnosis would say of the cause of death. Would they take the trouble to look into this matter or would it just pass as another unexplainable complication or worse yet just one neighbor suggested; she is a victim of the 'dark arts', the black magic She was barely thirty years of age and physical flaw was being overweight. Her father is naturally overwrought with grieve over the loss of his only girl but...such is. It wold be hard for me to imagine loosing my daughter in this manner not without an explanation from the medical board of enquiry. My cousin being the good Muslim that he is accepts the loss as God's will and its fated, case close, end of story.

What is this so call quality of life that we strive for? How do we as common citizen ensure that our right to this good standard of living be protected from abuse or taken for granted by those who holds the power over us like doctors and lawyers, government agencies and the lot that is suppose to serve us to the best of their capabilities? Again it cost a fortune for the hospitalization and the operation being done but yet there is no sense of urgency when a life is lost in the process, not the least decency to provide a cause of what went wrong. All hands are washed, steralized clean and business as usual at the operation theater; blame it on the demon.

Our lives are in the hands of robots with human bodies, minds that are incapable to imagine the grief of those who suffer through their inept and carelessness,their lack of humane sensitivity, their worship of the AlMighty dollar. Nope, this not generalizing but suffice to say, if you are aware and listen hard enough to the day to day moan and groans of the common folks you will hear these feelings being expressed every so often sometimes leaving us wondering if we are living in the New Millenium or back in the dark ages.

There are two instruments available to the human being - the instrument of knowledge which enables him to gain mastery over technical skills, and intelligence which is born of observation and self-knowing. In our modern day education system the later is under-develop or less emphasized and the transmission of this instrument to students by teachers and instructors is often overlooked. To discover the areas where knowledge and technical skills are necessary and where they are irrelevant and even harmful, is one of the fundamental tasks of education, because it is only when the mind learns the significance of the existence of areas where knowledge is irrelevant that a totally new dimension is realized, new energies generated and the unused potentialities of the human mind activated.

For this to happen most thinkers and philosophers would point out that there has to be freedom and inner order of being. The freedom to doubt and question, the freedom to see beyond what is and be assured that such freedom is beyond any judgement or criticism that aims at undermining rather than help to cultivate and improve. Students has to feel safe to explore and experiment beyond the scope of classroom or intellectual domains. They should be guided rather than barred from reaching out into uncharted frontiers of the mind within and without, to grasp what is and has always been forbidden,; to challenge the authority of the present structure, system. society etc. They should be encouraged to explore their own inner being, their psyche and emotions, their ghosts and skeletons, their dreams and nightmares such that they become free of these hidden blocks and enlightened from their dark influences manifesting often in the forms of greed, hate and ignorance; the three illnesses that haunts the human race since the beginning of time.

Thus begins the journey towards self discovery for the student as the basis of his education towards becoming more than just another piece of cog and screw for the existing society to function with, replacing the older worn out ones. He becomes the pioneer for a new far superior generation of movers and shakers that would lead the existing decadent society out of the blight of exploitation, bondage and corruption. He would create a new environment where man would be more sensitive towards each other as well all that is around him. His expertise, in whatever field of vocation, would then be wholesome and more humane in approach when serving society with the realization that; he is society. With this realization he will be able to acknowledge that it is not all about money or getting ahead of the next guy, his wealth is the wealth of the nation, he is the next guy.