The black man and governance

In the present PNM administration, there are many who think that it’s their time to access lucrative government contracts and senior management positions in State enterprises. The same can be said when the UNC administration took over the governance of TT .

The dilemma for the political leaders occurs when they are confronted with the reality that many seeking these positions are not qualified or equipped to deliver the results which will determine the success or failure of the government.

One can conclude that Eric Williams in the early 60s felt that the dearth of qualified blacks was a lack of education and attempted to address this conundrum by ensuring that free education was available to all.

When that failed to make the kind of impact he anticipated, he apparently felt that the solution was economic and so introduced shortterm employment with wages that were much better than was available through agriculture.

That too did not solve the problem.

One may wish to suggest that the problem within the black community has very little to do with race and a lot to do with culture. The culture of poverty.

Anthropologist Oscar Lewis in his 1959 book, Five Families: Mexican Case Studies in the Culture of Poverty, states that this culture is characterised by pervasive feelings of helplessness, dependency, marginality, and powerlessness.

Furthermore, Lewis described individuals living within a culture of poverty as having little or no sense of history and therefore lacking the knowledge to alleviate their own conditions through collective action, instead focusing solely on their own troubles.

He further suggested that attitudes developed within a culture of poverty get passed down to subsequent generations through socialisation processes.

In 1965 USA, Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, in a report titled “The Negro Family: The Case for National Action,” suggested that poor blacks in the US were caught in a “tangle of pathology,” the core reason for which was the breakdown of the black family.

His report conceived the family breakdown was responsible for the failure of black males to succeed, both in school and later in jobs, and that this failure was transmitted down generations.

As the people of TT enter a period of economic decline, political organisations will find it increasingly difficult to satisfy their core supporters who live within a culture of poverty. Many have tried with the failed response of handouts and welfare.

The solution may simply be to change the environment that supports such a culture.

It is almost impossible to change the minds of individuals with legislation.

There are reports that suggest that cancer cannot survive in conditions that do not support its growth. Similarly, the attributes of a culture of poverty cannot prevail in an environment that is not conducive to its growth.

If Rowley really wants to deal effectively with the issues facing the black community, he may be well advised to consider building better roads, offering access to better housing, ensuring that the communities have a reliable water supply, early childhood education, healthcare and access to affordable business space for factories, services and manufacturing.

This issue needs more discussion and I look forward to a national discussion on addressing our economic and social challenges in a rapidly changing economy.

STEVE ALVAREZ via email