by Marie-Therese Belisle Nweke
Saturday, July 27, 2024
Education! Education! Education! The importance of education cannot be over-emphasized in fighting drug use and addiction in all societies, whether the US or Belize. In the case of the US, that country going for years after the source of hard drugs entering America, which destroy millions of lives, has clearly not worked. How does catching the notorious drug baron, El Mayo, after 35 years of eluding American authorities, affect drug addiction in the US? After fentanyl, which is now the current scourge among druggies in America, in due course, another drug more destructive than fentanyl will emerge. So, will US authorities continue going after the source of the drugs and not its users?
Doing the same thing repeatedly and obtaining the same results, clearly means that it is a losing situation. Hence, you must stop and try some other remedy.
Americans must be educated from cradle to grave, that becoming a drug addict is not only the most stupid thing ever, but it is, in the final analysis, totally negative and life-denying. Once the demand for a product no longer exists, its source, in lacking a lifeline, dries up and disappears.
The US government does not seem to realize, much less understand, that the greatest resource of a nation is its human capital.
That was what Singapore’s greatest leader and the founder of modern Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew, knew and practicalized, by truly educating and enlightening ALL Singaporeans, irrespective of their being Malay, or Indian, or Chinese. Singapore has absolutely no natural resources, is a city state and much smaller than Belize. Yet it is one of the most prosperous and safest countries in the world. Its educational system is rated higher than those of most so-called “developed” countries. A good number of the world’s largest companies are located in Singapore, because of the highly skilled nature of the Singaporean work-force. You can neither chew gum nor dare to throw it on the streets of Singapore. Imbibing or trafficking in drugs, and corruption, are rewarded with the death penalty.
One of my greatest musical heroes, Miles Davis, was a heroin user for many years. He died at just 65 from pneumonia and breathing problems. His pneumonia was brought on by years of using dirty needles as a heroin addict. After entering the hospital, he also experienced a series of massive strokes which, with the pneumonia, finally felled him. His, in my view, was a needless death. Yet, there are thousands every day in America, exactly like his.
For me, education has never been about clocking up degrees and various certificates. That is called being “schooled”. There is a big difference between being schooled and being educated. Being truly educated equips you to deal with life, so life does not deal with you. Education equips you to “read the room”, know when, why and how to act, or shut up. That is why nations which do not put much store on “education” for all their people are unable to read the world and tend to operate like a bull in a China shop, or in other contexts behave like “a shrinking violet”.
Education! Education! Education!
(AMANDALA Ed. Note: Could it be that we are overlooking the great behind-the-scenes power-brokers in the USA? War is big business for the “military industrial complex”. The decades-long “war on drugs” seems unwinnable as long as it is illegal, and lots of guns and ammunition are needed by both the cartels and law enforcement authorities in this unending war.)