Message-ID: <32DBA20B.167E@visidel.cau.edu> Date: Tue, 14 Jan 1997 10:11:07 -0500 From: Daaim Shabazz <mailto:daaim@VISIDEL.CAU.EDU> Subject: Re: Who speaks for Jamaica? To: Multiple recipients of list DEVEL-L <mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU>
Steve,I take offense to your ethnocentric comments concerning literacy. We often fall prey to evaluating people based on our own standard and criterion. Illiterate patois-speaking people...? Many times those of us who are raised in countries where the written form of communication is the standard, often forget that "original people" communicated very well for thousands of years. Just because someone doesn't speak, read, or write YOUR language doesn't mean that they are without intelligence. You implied that only "university-trained" people can speak to such issues.
What universities are you talking about? In fact, it is THESE "illiterate" people that can tell you a whole lot about development. Ask Squibb and Phizer. They go into the jungles of Africa and South America to ask the indigenous people how to cure certain ailments with ancient remedies and herbs, then go back and manufacture it in a pill. Who gets credit? The "literate, university-trained" scientist! Of course, the "illiterate" person in the jungle could not know ANYTHING about development. Right?
Your ethnocentrism is imputable to Self-Reference Criterion (SRC). Thus, you cannot even BEGIN to contribute to a discussion about development for developing countries. You would do us a favor by sitting on the sidelines and keeping quiet for awhile.
Mr. Daaim Shabazz Clark Atlanta University Box 222 Atlanta, GA 30314 U.S.A.
mailto:EUNSteve@AOL.COM wrote: >
> Is it Yvonne Sobers?
>
> But she is literate, probably university-trained, with access to computers
> and modems and the international communication system.
>
> Does she really speak for the illiterate patois-speaking people of Jamaica?
>
>
> Steve Eskow
>
> Dr. Steve Eskow, President
> The Electronic University Network
> 288 Stone Island Road
> Enterprise, FL 32725
> 407.321.8770;Fax:407.321.4861
> January 13, 1997