Formal Education and Business: Some Aphorisms

By Stephen Ainsah-Mensah

1. The purpose of formal education is to produce graduates with triple qualities: a cultured mind, an imaginative power that can execute relevant practical production, and, above all, moral discipline.

2. A cultured mind eliminates the tendency to catch upon oneself unnecessary arrogance; relevant practical production entails being fully aware of the needs of the society and helping to produce in accordance with the needs. This principle warns against unrestrained production to satisfy personal caprice. Imaginative power enables the individual to formulate outstanding ideas, which are then utilized in relevant practical production; and, finally, moral discipline brings about fellow-feeling sentiments that are essential for equitable relationships, equitable access and use of resources (and other available things). Equity guards against bigotry.

3. If this is the purpose of formal education, which may, somehow, be viewed as axiomatic, why is it then so difficult to attain them? Does the difficulty reside in the individual or the institutions that spawn formal education?

4. It is well known that most high institutions now enjoy from the massive infusion of technology, thanks to the massive advancement in technology. The impact of technology on students has been momentous. Students can now access all kinds of course-related information readily on the internet, and they can also facilitate coursework by using the computer to type and print. But the technical facility in studying and managing academic stuff has also stifled originality. If students can readily get access to course-related information, then they can also readily misuse such information in their writings and pretend they are their own. Plagiarism is partly born from this enterprise.

5. The idea - by professors - of encouraging students to study the great works of great scholars as the means to earn rightful places in academic circles is an academic sin. Instead of encouraging students to use the powerful imagination in producing original papers, what usually happens is padding supplemented with tedious quotations, references, and a writing format that belittles one’s creative prowess or mental preparedness. Whether this is meant to preserve the clout of the professor, one is not sure. It seems it is!

6. The concerns of businesses, of the business class, that many contemporary graduates underperform may be all too common. A dearth of originality among students in school could end up at the workplace. A boss may entrust a challenging task to a new graduate whose paper qualifications are excellent. The grievances of the boss that the graduate lacks what it takes to be innovative will be entirely legitimate if the graduate cannot connect the tasks to the confidence held in him/her that he/she has practical flair.

7. If the triple requirements of formal education – a cultured mind, an imaginative power and moral discipline - are stifled, then the graduate does not lack talent but the suppression of talent. One has to go back to the natural home of this problem, which would be where the student was formally trained to undertake challenging duties or tasks at the workplace. Moreover, instead of prioritizing school programs, there should be no need for prioritization. Prioritization kills talents. One has the talent to pursue a line of formal education. One suppresses this talent because this line of formal education is not prioritized. Here, one may pursue a kind of prioritized formal education without being talented in it. The society thereby has done a great disservice to such a person; for talent is wasted, and creativity, if any, fails to reach its desired or finest level. Much of the imperfections in academia and practical production arise from this spectrum. Hence, there is the need for policy makers, authorities at high places, to address the issue of prioritized school programs and, perhaps, purge them. Emphasis ought to be placed on where the student’s talent is. The student should then be encouraged to pursue this talent, both in school and at the workplace. One may call this “academic democracy”. The application of academic democracy at the workplace naturally leads to business democracy.

8. The great mistake of business managers is to think that the best person for business is the specialist, meaning the person who specialized in the formal study of business. But in business, the dominant element is the human being. The human being who is engaged, directly or in some way, in business has a string of interests: business relations, social skills, leadership abilities, creative potential, broadmindedness, general proficiency, logical capability, wide-ranging verbal and non-verbal communication skills, among others. Since a study in the human sciences gives one more of these traits than a specialized study in business, it may be stated - startling as it may seem - that those who fare better in business could be more of the graduates in the human sciences than in specialized fields of business.

9. There is nothing special about a culture that is partly constructed on the principles of the stock multiplier. What happens here is that there is the proliferation of stocks that helps to advance the mood of the economy while physical production tends to ebb. A continuation of this state of affairs engages the enterprise of all sorts of people in market and financial speculations; so, money begets money instead of actual production proliferating money. This kind of parasitism is unsustainable.

Multiculturalism and Human Affiliations

By: Stephen Ainsah-Mensah

You try to retrieve the pride and dignity that is rightly yours. You do so whenever you examine a multi-culture that is bound to you and is claimed to be yours. But you believe this is not your own authentic culture but a loose-fitting conglomeration of cultures. You feel that this kind of culture is not truly yours because it lacks the natural magnet to enliven your restless soul; so, you begin to sob in silence and act with a pained heart. Then, you ask yourself: “why is this dominant culture that directs the temper of the multi-culture not professing elements of kinship with me?” You continue: “am I a lost soul, a creature whose pathways in life lacks inward vitality?”

The moment you are told or see for yourself that studies in your missing subculture have begun - or will begin - in structured schools that connect to your, so far, bandied personality, you comprehend, for the first time, the idea of true liberation deep down your hitherto disquieted soul. That marks the beginning of your glorious empowerment freed from the impurities of an intrusive culture, disturbing to you at heart, but which you have superficially treasured. There and then, you say to yourself: “At last, my innate personality has been brought to light. I have, in the past, slept for so long in an alien encasement that was draped in darkness. I could see my way about alright, but I was confused as my sleeping and awakenings were not naturally connected.” So, your thoughts were darkened by the forces of inverted brilliance; your passions were equally dark, so too your dispositions. Now, you have begun a new vigorous life with a new light that knows no retreat, the light that embraces the natural forces of cultural identity set in a multi-culture that you, nevertheless, relish in principle. Now, you understand yourself and them, so you can fully integrate in a multi-culture without any tinge of gloom. If your true redemption can be seen by all and cherished in the true light of humanity, it is because your authentic personality is not merely natural but also economic, social and political. You assert: “observe my role in these three spheres, and you will see me as competitive as anybody else that you care to compliment unless you place in my way, without any justification, barriers that are dangerously unnatural.” You have redeemed yourself!

The above poetic narrative ought to awake in us a feeling of cultural family-hood; so one may go back to assess multiculturalism from the perspective of whether it encourages family-hood, not merely in principle but also in practice, in the realm of life, in particular, whereby advancing the course of the society entails giving fair room for all to animate personal identity via cultural identity. The tension that arises in multiculturalism is about how subculture members integrate yet degenerate, chiefly in social-economic matters. Problems such as these cause the edifice of multiculturalism to wobble. It may be asked: should subculture members be raised - or allowed to raise themselves – to the level of self-determination just like dominant culture members? Or, should subculture members be gauged according to their striking dissimilarities, in whichever form, in contradictory fashion to dominant culture members, thus stripping the former of the tendency to gain equality with the latter?

It is obvious that in applying the latter question, the fabric of multiculturalism gets eating up by some forces of non-cooperation from the side of subculture members to the extent that any previous expectation of the purification of multiculturalism gets postponed indefinitely until the time that the coalescence of dominant cultures and subcultures prevail; and this ideal condition is predictable in a civilization that experiences, with time, a proliferation of subcultures in the face of a receding dominant culture. Besides, this condition simply shows that the prevailing laws, mores, which are derived from the dominant culture, may not be sustainable - indefinitely.

But the conscious detachment of oneself despite the clarion call to serve one's nation as an incontestable duty must be rejected outright. There can be no excuse for a legitimate grumbler who refuses such a call on the grounds that his/her pressing needs as a subculture individual go unmet. This individual is promoting at such decisive moments untimely divisiveness. He/She is a bad example that must be halted at all cost. If not, the multicultural edifice could quake at surprising turns. And it seems likely that our deviant guy here is not the type that will be considered or viewed as a usual individual in a multicultural system. The system undergoes trials, challenges that are essential for it to finally liberate itself from concrete inconsistencies. Therefore, the retention of subcultures is entirely consistent with the expedient homogeneity of multiculturalism whenever the need arises - as it is, for example, in the case of having to save a nation from a danger. At this time, all individuals, irrespective of cultural affiliations, have to set aside their diverse cultural leanings while proving oneness in the framework of multiculturalism. And this is a special beauty of a multicultural civilization.

Black-Centred Schools in a Multicultural Society

By Stephen Ainsah-Mensah

There is a growing feeling among Black Community Leaders in Toronto that the time is ripe to establish Black-centred schools aimed at addressing the multifaceted problems of Blacks. This impression is not out of place neither is it naïve nor strange. It is the entire style of this kind of school that may not attract, at this time, the anticipated consensus though establishing the school itself may be a thankful addition to mainstream schools that are designed for all shades of students. The question is: what will be the curricula and teaching style of Black-centred schools? People just have to wait! In fact, a Black-centred school is relevant when viewed within the context of the economic, educational, social and cultural circumstances of Blacks in comparison to, say, Whites. This untested academic experiment, styled Black-focused schools, ought to be initiated sooner than later. The outcome of such schools will enable policy makers to put in place hitherto untried kind of innovative policies that could tidy up the disorderliness of multiculturalism and shape the society for the better or in the right direction. Generally, in multicultural societies such as Toronto, the doings of Blacks crisscross those of Whites (and others), yet there are glaring disparities in how these different social groups understand, emotionalize and will actions in accordance with dissenting worldviews. Are we to say that, in the main, the entire human machinery of Blacks here is wired in a fashion different from, say, Whites? No, for sure! The problem is one of how an alienated Black culture can be made to fit into the dominant culture. Some leading community members see Black-centred schools as an answer to this problem.

Canada is becoming very multicultural as her massive integration of immigrant social groups is changing her cultural landscape. Toronto, which is the heart of Canadian commerce, best demonstrates Canadian multiculturalism. Thus, Toronto’s growth and development, while economic, is also socio-cultural because one can see there a vibrant mix of all shades of people from all kinds of cultural backgrounds. This beauty about Toronto also generates her ugliness, for the great multicultural advancement has brought about a sense of insecurity and a variety of incipient or mature confrontations between the dominant culture spearheaded by Whites and minority social groups, the most visible - in terms of composite disadvantages - of which is Blacks. Multicultural advancement has also nurtured multicultural divergences. So what must have gone wrong? Why this cultural and - for sure - economic degeneration of Blacks? The problems, furthermore, could not be said to fall in the province of destiny, nor, worse of all, can it be said to be a matter of biological or cultural inadequacies. If we do know that the level of cultural integrity is the best measure of a people’s progress, then it is doubtless why Blacks in Toronto face insurmountable hurdles in trying to better their positions in life compared to other species of people, chiefly Whites. There is simply not a competing sense of pride and dignity in an objective, existing Black culture - and history – that correlates with the present circumstance of Blacks in terms, especially, of knowledge acquisition. The best places to impart such knowledge - in schools - do not do so.

It is, therefore, true to say that socio-cultural degeneration could be corrected through the right kind of school education. The object here is to let flow into the receiving student rich information that is culture-centred, objectively taught and believed to manifest the genuine personality of Blacks. Put differently, it may be postulated that Black students ought to be taught their history, culture, and allied courses with the hope of redirecting their lives, particularly their psyche, into proper tracts. If the biochemistry of “my” life is enriched - and if, in particular, my psyche is reorganized in line with my culture - then I regain my authentic cultural identity, my real poise, and I will be ready to participate actively in the affairs of the society in a manner that could lead to my untainted social-economic advancement. This, in general, seems to be the standpoint of proponents of Black-centred schools. Now, the point ought to be emphasized that if there is anything like a Black culture in Toronto, it is a subculture. Since the dominant culture is - so one may say - White, including, of course, the academic culture, there is bound to be among Blacks a sense of alienation, unexpressed inferiority or deformed superiority, implicit or declared anger, and recurrent frustration about the system in place as well as the people who uphold the system.

It is now known that by the age of sixteen, over half of Black male youths in Toronto public schools do not have the required credits to enable them to pursue further education - meaning most of these Blacks are likely to drop out of school. The problem to be discerned here is that a large number of Black male youths are unable to connect with the academic culture that is made available to them with the result that they feel isolated, unbalanced and mystified. Lingering in their minds is likely to be the question: “where do Blacks fit in all this teaching stuff?” The offshoot of this question is erratic thoughts and dispositions - though this may be more of a generalization. Is it any wonder, then, that Black male students are claimed to be underperformers and underperforming? Observe the public school system and you will see that what resonates as a system of knowledge belongs to the dominant culture. Members of this culture are going to feel more secure, superior (though questionable in many respects), confident, ambitious, daring, career-bent, and more structured (though not necessarily wise) than members of subcultures, particularly Blacks. This kind of feeling could generate stubborn arrogance in the sense that, time and again, members of subcultures may be belittled and their grievances viewed as premature, unwarranted or - simply - sidelined. Besides, it becomes a frequent phenomenon that members of the dominant culture shield themselves with economic power by making sure that prominent careers are reserved for their kind.

The argument may, therefore, be put forward - and rightly so - that if Blacks, just like Whites or some others, are situated in an academic culture that enables them to study Black history, culture, outstanding scholars and role models from the dawn of history up to the present, among others, then the proficiency of Black students or graduates from Black-centred schools could squarely match those of other species of people. Academic proficiency, in that case, may be said to connect to a profusion of culture-based knowledge. Graduates’mental and emotional temperaments will prove to be well conditioned to respond to the social, economic and political needs of the society. The reverse could dislocate mental and emotional readiness, and graduates could thereby face an intricate worldview that is pretty disturbing and unwelcome to them.

The question, then, is: who are to be the teachers in Black-centred schools? Are the teachers going to be totally Blacks, or will there be opportunities for equally eligible - or, perhaps, more eligible – non-Black teachers?

Let us begin with the Black teachers. These are teachers who have been emotionally and mentally wounded by the fact that pertinent curricula about Black scholars and role models have either been ignored or omitted from the records. They are fully aware of this issue; they are likely to incorporate this issue in the teaching process. Much as the teaching process will be new, vital, essentially cultural, it may also foster in the students a sense of pride, dignity, yet outrage as to why the system discouraged, in the first place, such significant knowledge. Suppose graduates of Black-centred schools enter the non-school world, they will feel empowered to access and challenge the social and economic status quo.

Students or graduates who are far more emotionally charged may perceive the dominant culture as adversarial. They may strive to directly confront it. What transpires here is that, even though multiculturalism is real and has come to stay, it trembles from the seemingly irreconcilable course of action of those who believe the dominant culture has, for far too long, obstructed the teaching and grasping of key subjects about other cultures such as Black culture. It may, in addition, be stated - by some or many people - that a Black-centred school entails segregation. If it does, it is constructive segregation. The object is not to build a community of Blacks separated from others. It is to build a system of school graduates whose life histories can connect with the social-culture of their past. After that, it is a matter of integrating into the wider society.

Now, will a Black-centred school hire qualified non-Black teachers - that is, teachers who have a firm grasp of what Black students lack and how to address them? This question appears tricky precisely because it hits right at the heart of discrimination - or worse, racism. Suppose non-Black teachers are not employed, then there will be a public outcry of the form: “Uh-huh, everything about the school is Black! The school practices discrimination and frowns upon statutory anti-discrimination codes without fail.” To hire only Black teachers may however be a practice that the students, on the hand, may welcome. To them, it is a matter of commonsense that a teacher who can properly identify to their needs is the teacher who is of their own kind. I suggest a cautious blend of both Black and non-Black teachers, which could aid in bringing cultural objectivity and a feeling of non-bias dissemination of the standard curricular to the public domain.

There has not been a Black-centred school in Toronto before - or so it seems - though there have been, and are, for-Blacks community organizations. The point that there is an increasing rate of Black student drop-out cannot continue. It shows that something is definitely wrong. It may be held that Blacks need economic empowerment in a system that, admittedly, has been biased towards ambitious and enterprising Blacks who are bent on achieving high-level successes through an access to public finance or funds. But one is dealing with Blacks whose social-culture has been warped, stamped down or uprooted - as the history and practice of thralldom and colonialism will show. Species of people who have - directly or indirectly - passed through this terrible phase in life naturally need a revival of their social-culture, for that will ultimately realign their individual and collective psyche, the biochemistry of their lives, so to speak.

Perhaps, the old generation of Blacks should proceed in life without having to immerse themselves pretty fully into the question of social-culture, but children and youths may have to do otherwise. The latter constitute, as we know, the backbone of the future. One is inclined to say that, in general, the apparent success of Black folks should not begin from economic empowerment. There is the tendency to mess up somewhere due to uncoordinated forms of private and social consciousness if economic empowerment begins the curative process instead of being an adjunct. The process ought to begin from how the psyche can be coordinated on the basis of a genuine social-culture. Advocates of Black-centred schools are attempting to do this job. A postponement of this untested academic experiment could lead to more public debates, more confrontations, and hence more problems, especially with policy makers.

An Impeachment of War

It is the gift of reasoning that largely separates humans from non-human animals. And to use the term "human nature" to refer to humans has been a common thing with regard to the stated point. Unless, therefore, reasoning is abandoned in the doing of things, there is no good reason to question whatever is done. In cases that human actions appear strange rather than normal, it may be inferred that passion displaced reason. While a good dose of passion is crucial to energize reason and bring about the desired action, it is improper for passion to overrule reason, since there is the tendency to overdo things and cause unwarranted problems. Reason nourished with sensible passion depicts human nature. This is the area of humanness that brings about peace, socialization, moral and economic correctness - and family-hood; otherwise, irrationality may arise.

The question of war is, perhaps, the most difficult to understand among all human actions since it echoes the issue of irrationality and brings to mind the urge to evaluate human nature. While the concept of war may puzzle the mind if we care to introspect about it, war, nevertheless, is praised for its outcome by the victor and a majority of the victor's citizenry whenever it dishes out prosperity, nationalistic fervour. It would seem, at first glance, that the victor showed far more bravery than the vanquished; yet, it is usually not asked whether a fair balance of reason and passion instigated the war.

Of course, in life, the brave is usually claimed to be far more successful than the weak. The brave is daring, fears not to go to even dangerous places to face all kinds of challenges and get what was desired; the brave is better positioned to be a leader, undertake and manage risks that are crucial for growth and development. The brave, moreover, is likely to implement ambitious ideas that could yield fruitful outcomes. But the weak retreats in the face of slight or moderate danger and can only lead a dull, simplistic life lacking in challenges. This argument need not be true for all cases, but it will surely be advanced by whoever prefers a strong willpower to a weak one, a strong sense of determination and optimism to needless procrastination. For it can be claimed that our actions, strong or weak, emanate, in a corresponding fashion, from strong or weak willpower.

Perhaps, due to this kind of argument, convincing in many ways, we go on to fit the concept of war into it, which, of course, is wrong. Heroism in the face of adversity is still a mark of civility unless it is intended to destroy people or cause unprovoked harm. That is why many a people prefer, as we have seen, the brave to the weak. However, war, in the face of adversity, is not a mark of civility but of brutality because the initiator of war intends to kill and does kill people. Now, a qualified explanation has to be made.
The initiator of war who abolishes the principles of reasoning and sensible passion has decided to be an aggressor of a dangerous kind. Suppose a pacifist strives to talk him/her out of war and exhausted every possibility but failed, then the pacifist is warranted to also impose war on the aggressor. The pacifist has thereafter become an aggressor but a legitimate one, a rational aggressor; for he/she has initiated war to stop a war that was initiated by the first aggressor. Yet the first aggressor is not a legitimate aggressor since his/her intentions are not to stop war – as the second aggressor aims at doing – but to promote war and terrorize the opponent's people; and he/she gathers all the necessary war machine with the hope of winning the war and salve a brutish passion.

Throughout the history of the world, disagreeable parties have settled their differences in different ways. Sometimes, settling differences is by means of war; sometimes, heated arguments begin and one of the parties gives up. Sometimes, too, the argument may not be that heated, and this grants the parties the chance to argue constructively until one party’s arguments become so convincing that the other decides, for the sake of civility, to surrender in peace.

It is clear that contemporary humans, given the chance to reason without being awfully nationalistic, will choose the last option as the most pleasing, both for peace and human decorum, while the first will be dismissed outright as saddled with barbarity.
It is well known that the antiquarian past was full of human uncertainties; for humans were incapable of leading a settled, safe, and comfortable life. Life was primeval; and in order to strive for comfort, one had to use might. Dominant societies happened to be such, often forcing war upon weak societies in order to confiscate the available booty. This was the period when everybody’s conscience was destabilized by the insecurities of life; and how strong the brutish instinct in humans was – or, at best, how unrefined passion showed itself in action – ultimately decided the dominance, and, hence, the warped prosperity of a society, small or big. Might was the key to success, prosperity. Humans, then, were dangerously aggressive, ruthless, and full of the appetite to kill.

One will likely say, on account of this point, that war, in whichever society one views it, archaic, medieval, modern, is an uncivilized human activity even though its consequence can bring satisfaction and pleasure to the victor, the inhabitants of the victor's society, as well as a kind of materialistic development that may be unsurpassed by other societies that chose a different route, a peaceful route, so to speak. But even so, materialistic development does not alone determine the scope of development. Moral, social, spiritual and political developments are all significant branches of development.

The victor in a war in contemporary societies does not have to physically, directly, grab the available spoils, else anxious observers or reporters will consider such an action as equally barbaric and a reminder of the brutish life of the antiquarian past. Booty may be grabbed alright, but it may take a sophisticated form that ties the reconstruction of the war-ravaged society into the hands of the victor. There could occur massive pay-offs to the victor in all sorts of ways. The vanquished – shall we say - is trapped in a vicious circle of dependency. The victor's society basks in prosperity as a result of this, and people who did not care to assess the implications of war go on to glorify the greatness that is claimed of the victor's society.

Whether in the antiquarian past or at present, the victor in a war holds a dominant position on the world stage. Therefore, conquerors, prominent generals, war heroes, tend to earn much more fame by way of memorials, sculptures, other crafts and arts, continual glorification, than other greats. For if a society's greatness and chief forms of development sprang, by and large, from conquests, then it follows that the heroes have to be duly honoured. Yet, the greatness of a society through the instrument of war calls to question the issue of civility. And one is bound to ask: is a great society propped by war necessarily civilized?

War serves as a dangerous precedent and may encourage reckless leaders to start a war any time disagreements with another party or some parties persist. The leaders may lose their restraint, and insist that might is right, that might is preferable to reasoning. Should this happen, the old fallacy of “appeal to force” will grip the leaders' conscience. It is as though there is no point in establishing the factual and logical basis of war; that all that is required is to impose war in order to get what one wants. War is expected to settle disagreements swiftly and easily in spite of the countless human lives that may be lost as well as the flying arrogance that it may breed in the victor. This is a big human frailty.

And to the question whether a great society is necessarily civilized, one must ask again: What means did such a society use to be great? If peace is preferable to war - which it is - then the moral justification of war should occupy our minds far more than the consequences of war. A modern country that chooses the route of war as the means to develop revives the sentiments of killing and the savagery of the antiquarian past. Accordingly, the consequences of war cannot justify the means.

Healing Techniques in Community Development Work

By: Stephen Ainsah-Mensah

Imagine two people, one a male and the other a female. The male’s name is Ross and the female’s name is Lucy. Both of them have given up on life. They lack basic economic support to enable them have a normal lifestyle. On top of this, both have two kids and are unable to support them in the barest fashion. But the persistence of these difficulties has broken down the emotional and mental temperament of both persons; so apart from their financial problems of having to take care of their kids, they also have to deal, on a daily basis, with chronic headaches that arose from their emotional and mental anxieties. In short, a problem that was originally financial has mutated into a chronically emotional and a chronically headache-based problem. But chronic headaches, which are commonly called migraines, while situated in the body, specifically in the head region, do not have to be merely construed as body problems and treated as such with prescribed medications from an accredited doctor. A healing technique without the use of medication and set within an unsophisticated office environment could, in some cases, work better.

What one can comprehend from the dismal experiences of Ross and Lucy is that repeated intakes of medication to soothe the pain from their respective migraines are only temporary measures. In fact, the pain killers could even, in the course of time, disturb their body mechanisms insofar as head organs that generate migraines are inseparably linked to other organs of the body. Both people are not able to cope with their unbearable stresses and see medical doctors in separate clinics, more often than not. But the doctors, as usual, prescribe migraine-related medications for them.

But why cannot the doctors grasp the social-historical genesis of these two patients’ migraines? Are the doctors merely trained to correlate a disease-phenomenon with the problem of an organ? Does it not strike them that an entirely new approach to dealing with the patients would require applying an antidote that is different from the traditional method of prescribing medications? Let us, at this time, think about community health centres.

Among the notable functions of a community health centre may be the rather non-conventional but pragmatic activities of community development workers. The daily duties of these workers are not structured to follow the game of rigorous science. They do not even work like structured social workers but have developed a gift of practicality according to a chain of experiences that connect either directly or in some way with the problems of the clients (or patients) they serve. The community development worker uses passionate interactive communication, unusual tolerance, and, in many cases, the compatible personal experiences of the client and his/hers to reach the goal of curing the client’s problems. And if the said worker does not do such things, then outcomes may be more flawed than successful.

Now, Lucy finally ends up at a community health centre and sees a community development worker, called Rita, for help in addressing her migraine. The interesting thing, coincidental in many respects, is that Rita’s personal background has some striking similarities to Lucy’s. Rita is a single mother and has two kids. She used to work as a part-time cashier in a grocery store. Her meager salary could not support her two kids well, and her constant battle with life together with her kids produced, as in the case of Lucy, an incurable migraine despite her repeated visitations to medical doctors and the subsequent intake of migraine-related medications. Eventually, she joined a woman’s social club that provides emotional, social, and, sometimes, financial support to women of her kind. Her continuous communication, engagement and participation in the activities of the club gave her the redemption, the experience, the exposure and the confidence to apply for a community-development-worker job in a prominent non-profit community agency. She got the job - with a very good salary! Rita, then, could fully support her kids and apply on them the emotional and social support skills that she had acquired from her membership of a woman’s social club. So, here is Rita, working assiduously to save women who may fall astray because life has beating them into a dangerous retreat, a retreat that discourages even minimal interaction with people who may care to listen and help.

The beginning of the healing process, transferred from Rita to Lucy, does not incorporate the standard method of medical doctors that involves prescribing medications for Lucy - at all cost! Rita initiates a passionate dialogue with Lucy by letting Lucy to know that she was once like her but managed to overcome her difficulties, thanks to a woman’s social club she happened to join. The conversational style is informal and reciprocal in scope. The entire process is set in an office environment that is very simple, comparable in many ways to Lucy’s own home except for some desks, chairs, basic office equipment and supplies. Hence, the office environment is not ordered like a doctor’s office where the presence of sophisticated medical instruments and the professional dress code of the doctor and nurse(s) separate the patient from the doctor in terms of who counts as a professional and who constitutes the other compared to the doctor or nurses. Intimidation is ruled out; a sense of self-esteem, of being part of the office is raised in the consciousness of Lucy, and she feels, without being told, that she belongs or is part of the office from which she’s seeking help. Lucy’s ego is uplifted; her cramped psyche attains an instantaneous discharge. When Lucy looks at Rita, Rita appears like a symbol of equality compared to her. Rita’s dress is not like that of a doctor or a nurse. It is very simple, analogous in many respects to that of Lucy’s, so a sense of professional intimidation is simply non-existent.

And this idea of demonstrating empathy and showing some kind of sameness with a client and citing instances of one’s own past experiences that match those of a client creates the kind of equitable relationship that encourages the client to believe that there is someone whose ability to grasp a client’s difficulties is not merely a matter of understanding the difficulties but of feeling them, living them, and absorbing them in order to address them. This is what precisely Rita does for Lucy.

The conclusion that can be drawn here is that the solver of a human problem, of the sort that afflicts Lucy, is best positioned to solve the problem if he/she has felt, lived and absorbed the problems before - in whichever form. Suppose such experiences have not been lived through by the solver, it may be necessary to invent them as a crucial step in the healing course of action. The secret of the palliative for Lucy’s migraine is, at this point, threefold: Rita’s past experiences that appear similar to Lucy’s help in the healing process, the rather “friendly” office environment of Rita encourages Lucy to be forthcoming in stating the details of her problems as the basis for Rita to recommend the desired solutions, and, above all, Rita’s dressing style appeals to the conscience and dispositions of Lucy.

But let it be noted that even before Lucy’s problems had been addressed, explosive forms of tension seated in her head region had dispelled and given room for the soothing effect of relaxed nerves, organs; and this clearly shows that Lucy has acquired a new personality that is gracious for moving her into a new mode of life destined to relieve her of her financial, emotional and social anxieties. There is to be expected the natural subsequent step of Rita, which is an advice that Lucy ought to join a social or a community-based club or organization. Since the healing process has been conversational in manner, very friendly, very shared, and freed from the idea that Rita was the professional to be listened to at all cost, Lucy will likely do as she is told.