Article - 107 Week 33 | Between Men & Officers

Article - 107 Week 33 |  

Between Men & Officers

It is unsettling to watch Army Officers resist the notion of an army man being promoted to the ranks of an Officer, despite winning a medal in the Olympics. I do not contend that a sports medal is indicative of all the qualifying attributes of an Officer. However, perseverance, belief, extremely high dedication, discipline, high fitness levels, and above all a dogged determination are the basic qualities to achieve such excellence in sports. Are these qualities not the fundamentals of an Officer in the Army? If so, then why not give him a fair chance with an open mind? 

Is this resistance due to the facts that this soldier is not educated in the English speaking schools? Is this because of his rustic upbringing? The answer is yes. We kill merit so that we stay privileged. Education does not mean speaking Queen's English or displaying perfectly European etiquettes and mannerisms. Education means the ability to practice the higher values of human life. Culture, society, and schools are meant to do that. We know that the schools do a bad job of it. They teach us literacy, an analytic mind, specific skills and a whole load of never-to-be-used information to be packed into most of the useful working area of our frontal lobes. In the case of this man, he is surely loaded with all the qualities of pure education and may be deficient in English School education. Therefore, he is pushed back from joining the ranks of the privileged elites. 

This menace is every where -  in our government offices, in out Ports, in our Terminals, in our Offices, and in our factories. A clark in a government office could be smarter and much more conscientious than a mediocre IAS officer. But this smart clerk would in 98% of the cases retire as a section officer at best. And this mediocre officer would in 98% of the cases be elevated to a significant position, to impact the destiny of the nation in a significant way. A smart worker in the our Terminal would retire as a belligerent Unionist at his best - never having a chance in his life time to become an Operation Manager. A mediocre Operation Manager  will be getting many chances to manage or mismanage important processes in Organizations. Such repression of true talents and such discriminations based on School education and English speaking or writing abilities gives rise to social angst and inefficient organizations. 

All organizations, need to seek true education in place of pseudo-education in making their promotion decisions. English language can be very easily taught later. Even a smart person can easily  teach himself, if he knows that he would need this to carry on his work in future. Just to see this in real life, you can watch the way the vendors in Colaba road-sides have learnt to speak many foreign languages! Or observe the arithmetical excellence of the illiterate fisher women who can do multiplications and divisions in a flash. Time has come for all of us to break these walls of discriminations and respect merit & true education.

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Brgds

Capt Rath (Skype Gtalk MSN :  psrath)

Econship

Quicker Simpler Better

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