The cost of ignorance
Thomas Jefferson, one of the most influential founding fathers of a great nation was a firm believer of critical thought and power of the people. The author of the Declaration of Independence, he believed that skepticism is an essential prerequisite for responsible citizenship – the defining quality of a nation that will rule over the government and not fall for its lies and tyranny. Above all, he argued, that the cost of education is trivial compared to the cost of ignorance.
There exist no truer words.
As a country, as a nation, we’ve come a long way in the past 4 years thanks to revolutionaries in the making. Thanks to them we are now living the vestigial days of true political liberty. We are hopefully marching forward. And still we have yet to come out of the darkness that has engulfed our minds – we need enlightenment, education and we need to come out of our ignorant mentality. We need to start thinking in a different light. It needs to happen and it must happen because without it we will soon be in the proverbial “square one” of political tyranny and oppression. Our leaders, as human as they are, will exploit our ignorance – it is only natural – unless we erase the ignorance and gullibility from our country. How hard can it be to do that for a mere 300,000 people?
The swindlers
It is unimaginable what a community can endure as a result of their ignorance and credulity at the hand of a devious few who are able to exploit them easily. Faith healers, conmen pretending to be doctors, “fanditha” and “sihuru” or black and white magicians, conjurors, channellers, shamen – the list goes on – they have over the centuries exploited such communities. We may have never heard of the crimes committed against such communities because those stories are better left untold out of shame.
Few would have heard of the woman from the south that arrived in an innocent little island in Lhaviyani atoll. She claimed to be a miracle doctor who can cure gastrointestinal problems with a surgical operation that in my book is reserved for qualified doctors: Haemorrhoidectomy! According to medical sources this procedure is performed only if several other procedures have failed. But the woman carried out the procedure (or something terribly similar in the absence of actual haemorrhoids or piles) for anything ranging from simple stomach cramps to actual haemorrhoids. And she charged the islanders Rf. 3,500 to have it done – in her toilet!
In the absence of proper medical care and given the ignorance of the people she was able to squeeze them to the last drop out of their hard earned money and for what? Almost every one of her “patients” suffered terribly until proper medical care was administered much later. Ignorance and credulity can be a terrible disease.
Here’s another story that will make you cringe. Some years ago a thief was sentenced for banishment to an island in Laamu Atoll. Once there he convinced the local people that he was in fact, of all things, a qualified gynaecologist. So he setup a rudimentary clinic at the house he was boarded and started "seeing" patients - in this case, quite obviously, women. He was able to prescribe simple medications that alleviated many of the women's complaints which, as small-village ignorance always does, amplified the man's reputation as an able gynaecologist several fold. The word soon spread and women, married and single, flocked to see the good "doctor"
Word also reached neighbouring islands from where women traveled to consult him. Soon enough, he had seen (and abused) most of the women from the island and many neighbouring islands for a fee. He exploited a people whose ignorance, credulity and non-existent skepticism was their most terrible failure until eventually the truth was revealed and the whole island hid its collective head. Indeed, the cost of ignorance is devastating.
These are not old wives tales from a time long forgotten. No, this happened just few years ago.
The mystics
All our lives we’ve heard of stories involving black magic or fanditha and we have never asked one simple skeptical question that would raise doubt and possibly dismantle the story to reveal what really happened. We never wanted to say “So that’s what really happened!” Instead we join in and later build on the story and tell it to someone else and the process continues. We have believed them at face value regardless of how fantastically impossible the story may be. We are instructed in the Holy Quran to believe in the existence of supernatural beings as jinnis but does that give us the license to automatically suspend clear thought and believe any nonsense?
When I question believers of black magic why verses of the Holy book are used to influence jinnis and cause harm they say that it demonstrates the power of the book. That it can be used for good as well as evil. This, to me, is a terrible thing to say about the Holy Quran because other cultures – many from remote tribes from far away lands – practice black magic in the same manner as we do and they've never heard of Holy Quran - ever! Are we to believe that the tribal incantations are as powerful as the Holy book or vice versa? Think about it!
The enlightened
Male’ is considered the center of education and therefore of enlightenment. It is here that we Male’ans believe we have a smarter and skeptical people when, in fact, we’re just awakening from a long slumber of ignorance. So imagine the lot in those islands. We look down on them calling them “islanders” (when in fact we also live on an island) pointing at what we perceive as ignorance and backwardness. True, ignorance and backwardness is rampant, but ask yourself who is to blame for that?
So what is wrong here then? Is it lack of education? Yes and no. I think a person can go on to do a doctorate and still be narrow-minded. Many of us are trained to devour huge amounts of text books from a young age without giving it a thought. This enables us to venture into high studies, follow course-work degrees and achieve academic merits without actually ever being open-minded. I think at some point in the future schools should have a subject specifically for logic analysis and critical thought. And I think the future government should provide facility to empower its citizens with critical thinking. Again, how hard can it really be? And how long will it take? A generation or two?
No amount of freedom – from a tyrannical ruler or government – will ever free a nation unless its people are properly educated and enlightened. Unless it’s people are able to think clearly.
“Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day.” – Thomas Jefferson
Update: The second paragraph from bottom has been removed because it was out of context and topic.
N | March 20, 2007 12:59 PM | Reply
That's what we are, Simon. "Tuna eating, tuna blooded and killi munching" Maldivians. That's our identity.
Indians are not "Tuna eating, tuna blooded and killi munching", because unlike us they are not surrounded completely by ocean n fish is not a part of their daily diet. Instead they are "cow worshipping vegetarians who worship this, that and everything". But no matter how ridiculous that may sound, whatever weird cultures they may have, the whole world knows Indians are smart people.
India may not yet be the world's "super power", but they aren't far behind. Their economy is good. They are a "nuclear power". Their IT industry is booming.... yes. The very same "cow worshipping vegetarians who worship this, that and everything"... they are smart.
Just having ridiculous cultures and beliefs don't mean the people are stupid.
bakhabaru | March 20, 2007 2:19 PM | Reply
You know it's not just the Maldivians who believe in the power of black magic... and neither is the belief limited to the uneducated among us. In all cultures there are people who believe in it and those more cunning and of questionable morality will take advantage of that fact. Probably doesn't mean only the stupid will fall prey to it. Still, I have to agree with you on some of it...
hamza | March 20, 2007 3:40 PM | Reply
Yes skepticism and irony. Such useful things. I think the same disbelief in the incorruptibility of human beings is what reduced Thomas Jefferson to a slave-owning hypocrite. Still I guess a few political statements he made here and there are still useful to add that dramatic touch.
Nothing against you personally Simon my man but whenever you talk about this subject there seems to be more than a hint of the typical condescending concern that we educated and, mas o menos , skeptical Maldivians have for the rest. Yes credulity is harmful, yes our population is laughably small but plans to educate and raise awareness are easier formulated than implemented. All this righteous rage we have for our 27 year old governing administration and stubbornly uneducatable public is often times well-intentioned but misdirected.
There exists a dynamic between faith healers and the healed which can't always be explained by the exploiter-exploited paradigm. The workings of Pavlovian conditioning would suggest that even the most basic of brains work on a trial-and-error method. Faith healing wouldn't be accepted by a thinking (and yes that can also be referred to as a level of critical thought) public unless some event has proven its utility. Materialism (which I think is a deceptively simplistic term) also proves itself in today's capitalist societies. Even if a study was done on whether three doctorates and a fellowship would get you laid faster than owning a Lamborghini Gallardo, then the variation in defining characteristics of individual human beings would throw such a study out of the window. Ranting against materialism fails for a simple reason, that material things DO bring happiness for a lot of people no matter how much we'd like to believe otherwise.
However I do agree that for immediate political reasons it would be just lovely if the entire population consisted of Stephen Hawkings or at least Stephen Colberts but even for 300,000 people, its just a tad too utopian. All us dreamers tend to forget economic realities when we speak of such things. Only the middle class would value education over money and that is one big reason why even 300,000 people can't be educated to the same level in two generations or more.
ali as in light | March 20, 2007 5:17 PM | Reply
People getting educated does not necessarily bring about enlightenment. And anyway, having faith in supernatural powers does not necessarily mean they are ignorant. Most people, educated or otherwise, wish to believe in something higher than themselves, want to have faith and hope, which is why they get duped by these swindlers and mystics and whatnots. This exists in all cultures, and that is the reason why terminally ill patients go to shamans and 'healers'.. because they dont want to lose hope. (and totally agree with hamza abt the economic realities)
on a more personal note, i am trying to achieve inner peace and not feel the desire for an ipod... but then they've gone and released 'em new 2nd Gen ones...
wrill-vern | March 20, 2007 5:27 PM | Reply
May be somebody translated the black magic books to different languages including the boo haa haa language of the african tribes and distributed it long time ago! but i still don't understand why these fanditha people don't use it to become a hero and do whatever they want, if that fanditha can do so powerful great things! If there is anybody who knows a fanditha-man who could at least take a picture of a jinni please do contact me! I need to post it in my blog.
hassan | March 20, 2007 5:32 PM | Reply
I think they are just innocent humans who just dont know the darker side of life. Most of them, they arent ignorant, how can they be if they dont know what ignorance is all about.
It is a shame that some one has mentioned about some other cultures as being "ridiculous". They are all fascinating stuff for me and no way near ridiculous as i have utmost respect to all those cultures this world has to offer to us. Isnt that great?
And the people who spend mostly for their education in terms of their economic viability are the poorest of the poor. Wont you agree with me?
"think at some point in the future schools should have a subject specifically for logic analysis and critical thought. And I think the future government should provide facility to empower its citizens with critical thinking. Again, how hard can it really be? And how long will it take? A generation or two?"
I cant agree more to this Simon. That is what we exactly need and it will take time no matter how quick we might want to achieve that and "rescue" this beautiful paradise called the Maldives.
Simon | March 20, 2007 5:44 PM | Reply
Hamza,
There is no infallible human being that I know of. Jefferson or not.
You might have missed this completely but we cannot really relate to the events (about the good doctors) that transpired on those islands - in fact, curiously no one has even mentioned it in a comment so far. I blame it on my longwinded post at the end of which the stories were all but forgotten. My mistake.
The reason I brought them to light is because neither you nor I can even begin to comprehend how our very own people in those islands think. At the risk of sounding condescending I have to say they are ignorant and backward. How else should I put it? And as I said who is to blame for that? Them?
Yes, whenever I talk about this it does sound condescending. If I wanted to write nice flowery prose and still be critical I wouldn't be writing. At all!
Hamza, I tried to visualize 300,000 Stephen Hawkings and man, I have to say it wasn't funny at all. The synthesized voices would kill us in an instant. Hehe.
Anyway, how much brain power would a person require to know a crook from a doctor? I think very little. A demand to see qualification would suffice. But how do you tell people to do that? Do you specifically teach them to do that? I think it just requires the mentality to ask questions. Hamza, we don't have even that.
300,000 Hawkings. Hahaa!
alora | March 20, 2007 6:37 PM | Reply
Yes. we need to tell people to do that. We need to tell people to ask for a proof of registration from the good doctor if the regulating bodies dont intervene.
Yes , we, may be machines but what differs us,what is special about us from those machines that we use to relay this message to a mass is that we have feelings. Infact we are humans.And humans do have the mentality, we are born with it but we may not know how to use it in the most effective of the ways. It is a known fact that we humans in general use only 10% of our brain power. Some ,due to "unfortunate circumstances" are conditioned not to use their mentality. There is a favourite saying, "use it or lose it".We have been asked constantly and repeatedly not to use it and some are conditioned not to use it.
We can see examples of this in front of our very own eyes. Four years ago before this what ever revolutionary movement began we didnt hear of the common men who are raising their voices today. The voices they are raising is due to a stimuli. That stimuli being the MDP is giving partial messages and confusing the masses. If the right messages has been given , i do not doubt that these common people, these individuals, these common people, these humans have the capacity to ask the right questions.
If you are saying that each of us SHOULD have the capacity to ask the right questions from birth no matter what CIRCUMSTANCES they are subjected to, i feel obliged to question your judgement. From birth we as humans ask questions, but not the right ones. It is along this long journey of growth that we LEARN to ask the right questions.
Yes. The brain is still there. The capacity is still there. It is just not mature enough.
hamza | March 20, 2007 6:56 PM | Reply
Simon,
No doubt I was ignoring the heart-string-tugging on purpose :P. Can't blame me. I've got an agenda as well. You want to stress education, I want to stress socio-economic crap. Still, I gotta say that I do understand certain aspects of those stories about "those islanders" too well. I come from a working-class background and I've seen enough "credulity" to last me a lifetime. Ah you should've seen my face when my grandma told me with great pride that she had hired a fandithaman to cleanse our house of evil spriits for 12,000 bucks (a man she had to sneak out of house arrest after being brought back from exile). This was a woman who was born and brought up in Male' and who also usually held her own against anyone who even tried to swindle her out of even 50 laari. It is regrettable that such things happen to people who ARE (and I'm stressing this because contrary to what you've assumed Simon I DID grow up in a strongly superstitious environment) otherwise able to think critically in their work and lives.
If we are to assess the monetary and the life-and-limbey sorta loss against belief well then where do we stop? What about that thing called Hajj? It's completely impractical for aging Maldivians who are often on the brink of death due to poor health care facilities to make such a hazardous trip. Me being an atheist, I think the whole thing is preposterous (and don't even get me started on Zam-Zam water). But the question is where do we draw the line between ridiculous superstition and institutionalized belief. If we were to be logical, such a line does not exist. I'm not saying, hey let's just let swindlers and conmen/women butcher people just 'cause they wanna play doctor. I'm saying that given the particular environment and the rampant poverty it seems a bit cavalier to say we could wave it all away by bringing John Locke and Friedrich Nietzsche to the islands (I think the writers of the TV show Lost are already on the job). By the way I was expecting the very opposite of flowery prose. Take the witch-persecutions in Early-Modern Europe for example (god and I thought my education would never come in handy :P). It's easy to go on about the cruel burnings and the thousands of victims who were unjustly incendiarized to their deaths but witch laws and witchcraft beliefs were very real to those people. If we are to truly understand these things we have to immerse ourselves in them and understand the logic behind them. If our ultimate goal is the immediate overturn of superstitions then we risk meeting the backlash of thousands of people who fear the loss of their whole belief system. Regardless of whether Islam in the Middle-East incorporates black magic via the Quran, it's a part of our particular form of Islam and that's what is real to us. Unless atheism becomes the norm then we'd have to modify superstitions and not chase them away completely.
LOLZ. I never got that visual image of Hawkingworld. You made me laugh (a very difficult thing to do :P). Kudos for that.
hamza | March 20, 2007 7:08 PM | Reply
And yes alora is right. None of us are born with an innate ability to distinguish between real or fake doctors (didn't catch that part in your post). Most of us don't even have the luxury of asking too many questions in serious healthcare situations. Entrusting our lives to diagnostic medicine is a leap of faith in itself and therefore inherently fraught with the possibility of making mistakes.
Nasheed | March 20, 2007 11:21 PM | Reply
Hello Simon,
You cited two incidents from Maldives and from a few years back. I am giving you 3 incidents from the first world, and from this year.
On 21 February 2007, and in the UK, Gene Morrison was found guilty of 22 counts of deception. The 48-year-old Jamaican-born Morrison left school with no grades but bluffed his way through hundreds of criminal cases. For nearly 30 years, he conned judges, barristers, solicitors and police into believing he was qualified. The fraudster gave evidence from the witness box and wrote reports, many of which he had simply cut and pasted from the internet. UK police are now to reassess over 700 cases, looking for possible miscarriages of justice and opening the floodgates for appeals against convictions. He was paid at least £250,000 in taxpayers' cash for his services.
On 16 March 2007, and in the US, two elderly women Helen Golay and Olga Rutterschmidt were charged with drugging homeless men and running them over with a car and killing them to collect £1.5m to claim life insurance. The women befriended, housed and fed the men as well as paid their monthly insurance premiums. Authorities say the women claimed in insurance policies that the deceased were their relatives, or fiances.
On 24 January 2007, and in the US, Neil Haven Roderick, a 29-year-old sex offender who earlier pretended to be just 12 years of age tried to enroll at a school to get access to classrooms in order to snare children for sex. Earlier he had conned two men he was living with - and having sex with - into believing he was a young boy. He apparently shaved his body hair and used make-up to keep up the pretence.
My point: The context of your examples and tone of the article brings Maldives as a nation into close association with ignorance and credulity. Incidents like those don't qualify a whole country or an entire people to be identified wholesale with ignorance and credulity. Living in Male' or on any other island of the country.
maldiveshealth | March 21, 2007 12:36 PM | Reply
In the past,people believed that doctors are the mini gods who can cure you from illnesses.
Times have changed. People are more educated, at least in the so called developed world. In order to fully understand how the changes are going to affect how we recieve medicare in the future,anyone interested can read this e book.This is how the future of mecicare is moulding in to. Like i have mentioned before in my blog it is a must read for all.
http://www.resourcefulpatient.org/text/sec1.htm
Suhail | March 21, 2007 7:06 PM | Reply
Nasheed,
Do not defend the conmen of Maldives for whatever reason. I hope you are not the Information Minister Nasheed. If you are the Minister, himself, I can understand.
Mohamed Nasheed | March 21, 2007 7:34 PM | Reply
I am not defending any conmen anywhere. Maldives or elsewhere. I never would. As Minister or Solicitor.
All I have tried to say is that just because such things happen in the Maldives, it does not mean that we all should, in general terms, be associated with ignorance and credulity. It hurts our fabric.
My post is also there to suggest that people can con not only some people in an island of the Maldives, but highly trained and well experienced judges, lawyers and police officers in the UK criminal justice system too. This day and age, and not for one day, but for thirty or so years in over 700 or so cases.
That does not associate British as a people with ignorance and credulity. Why should Maldivians be then???
Suhail | March 21, 2007 11:46 PM | Reply
Mr Minister,
I would not allow myself to be conned by anyone, for that matter especially by a minister of a brutal regime. The stories told by Simon can never be proved as true, and anything that cannot be proved are nothing but old wives tales. Sorry Simon.
And Mr Minister, I want you to prove your stories because I am sure you have not heard these incidents from some of the tourists that visited Maldives. And surely that has to be from some newspaper or another news medium. I want you to point out what medium it is, so that I can read it myself and believe. Otherwise I will consider it just another of your fabrications, just like in the past.
Simon | March 22, 2007 9:18 AM | Reply
Hamza,
Your comments never fail to bring about a smirk.
Anyway, I think what I really wanted to say - and this could have been said so simply - is that education does not have to be so ritualised as it is now. At school students think of education as another obstacle - get A in physics, chem and bio and throw in a good mark for math. I agree it was like that even before but at least then the school eviron was very different and the student number fewer. Too bad back then it wasn't equally the same in the islands. We should teach people (and not just tell them) the importance of education as a tool for enlightenment. I agree we cannot just bring in John Locke to fix everything in a day.
As it is I think the ignorance of people is very well used by the current regime. You might have heard of the "bodu kaafu" and "kuda kaafu" stories during election time. For all I know those stories are definitely true.
We need not create John Lockes, Tom Paines or even Lenins (for that matter). We just need to give people the tools to empower their critical faculties - ever so slightly - and everything will follow. On the positive side this new found revolutionary in all of us is also helping. A visit to most hotas will reveal all kinds of critical talk. It's the best forums.
Alora,
I don't think I ever said that people SHOULD have the capacity to question from birth at all. I think "mentalities" are created by educational and societal influences. I thought that was understood.
Nasheed,
Thanks for the cases. I understand your point of view. One question: Bodu Kaafu, kuda kaafu. Was it really true?
Maldiveshealth,
This is not in the distant past. This was very recently. Suffice to say, mobile phones and internet were all there.
Suhail,
Actually I've got first hand witness and victims who can talk in one case. I can understand your skepticism.
Suhail | March 22, 2007 12:04 PM | Reply
Simon, one witness will not suffice to prove anything, as you can see that with thousands of witnesses for most of these jinni stories and UFO incidents still they are not generally regarded as facts.
One witness in a such case is almost no witness. Skeptism is the only weapon that we in Maldives have to defend ourselves against con artists.
To tell you the truth, I do not believe that the KUDA KAAFU WA BODU KAAFU story is more than a sinister joke. And onething: How will Nasheed know if the story was true or not?
Simon | March 22, 2007 12:32 PM | Reply
Suhail,
You are right. I agree with you on those points.
As for the kaafu joke. I too it is simply that. I joke designed to show how gullible people can be. Although it might not have been such in reality the truth is that people didn't need a whole lot of convincing to get them to vote. Many people see the current administration as demi gods anyway.
I think we are trying to understand the concept of skepticism and it's a good thing.
athena | March 23, 2007 6:03 AM | Reply
Intelligence doesn't necessariily come with education. And we tend to make westerners more intelligent that we are, especially if they were white British or Americans. When are we going to learn that, intelligence is not related to the colour of the skin or your location in the world? Or even how much education you have!
I am not totally ruling out education, sure you can talk fancy like Hamza, but the inert ideas, I should say has alwasy been there. Perhaps a re-visit to Socrates would cure you guys of that!
Hmm I'll say bye now, I am just rambling.
Suhail | March 23, 2007 3:03 PM | Reply
Education and exposure are important tools to imlpement your fascinating and intelligent ideas that come along with intelligence.
Hamza can talk fancy because he has exposure and education. Education is what that will lead us to Socrates. Ask 100 Maldivians from different walks of life who Socrates is- I can assure you that fewer than 3 will know.
Inert ideas exist, but they need some stimulant to activate, that is why they are inert.
flame | March 24, 2007 5:15 AM | Reply
There seems to be leftover rajjetherey meehunge kulhandhu madhu mentality is this article/reflection... its a pity. The enlightened can point the finger at the 'ignorant' but its better to understand where they come from, their limited opportunities, and why they hold on to these beliefs. A fisherman may not know abt Locke and Socrates but he or she wud know abt things that are meaningful for him/her, like where to find bait and how the tide works. Ignorance is subjective.
Simon | March 24, 2007 7:25 AM | Reply
Flame,
Perhaps you didn't get the essential bits. I felt that it is very important that people become less ignorant in order to get them out of this state of mind so that the government (and others as highlighted by the post) cannot swindle them for votes and things. So that they understand issues, think about them critically and make beneficial decisions and not succumb to exploitation. Obviously (and I've said this) we cannot blame anyone except those in power for this. During the last 28 years they've manage to keep much of the "rajjethere" still in a state of mental limbo.
Flame | March 24, 2007 5:55 PM | Reply
I agree with most of what you say.. its your using and generalising the term 'ignorant' that i have a problem with.
This situation of govt swindling ppl to get votes have nothing to do with ignorance, mostly its to do with their socio-economic situation. (as you and most are aware) they basically have nothing in their islands, for instance health centres have 4 walls and expired prescription medicines. when those people from the elite club comes and promises them a doctor for the health centre they really have no choice but to give votes. they can either be empowered and say $#%$ you i know what you're up to, or they can just give a vote and get a doctor so that they dont have to hire a dhoni to go to the closest hospital everytime their child gets a fever. so, i just didnt like it when their situation was equated with ignorance.
as for these mystics and fanditha ppl, thats a totally differnt issue altogether. people from all walks of life have such beliefs in the power of the supernatural and it has nothing to do with living in some isolated island. even in the developed nations they have those psychics and people with crystal balls, telling you you'll meet a handsome dark stranger on a cruise.
i think i shud stop now.. sorry abt how long this post is..
flame | March 25, 2007 5:42 AM | Reply
you know what, now that i've thought abt it, maybe i am talking in a different context than you. i'll tell u where i am coming from. i work with island communities on a regular basis, and they are filled to the brim with their resourcefulness and innovative ideas thats based on their particular situations. I believe that people who are living in a reality are more suited to talk abt it and decide on what needs to be done than outside 'experts'. But what i learn from them its so hard to get it accepted at central level because i have to deal with people at policy level who have this superiority complex and have no idea what its like to live in the shoes (or lack of) of an islander. So it gets me mighty frustrated when the victim is blamed and accused of being ignorant.
so please just disregard what i said. it was just venting on my part... didnt mean anything personally
Simon | March 25, 2007 8:35 AM | Reply
flame,
I did talk about what you said in an earlier post. The Two-bit nut factory
hamza | March 25, 2007 5:22 PM | Reply
I talk fancy? Is that an accusation that I prefer style over content? Ah regardless, I'll take it as a compliment. There's a bottom-line to this education vs. socio-economic conditions (chicken or the egg) argument and it rests in the class consciousness of individuals. Civil liberties and political rights are the goal of those who stress education (this is tried and true) while those who actually suffer from extreme poverty are more likely to display apathy towards due process (in the nature of things) and turn towards criminals and corrupt politicians (hint hint) as a means of getting theirs. It's my personal opinion that there's nothing sincere about stressing education alone and giving it the status of a complete panacea for all social problems. There's a reason why people in the outer islands (as opposed to the Male', the center of the world) are less educated and that's BECAUSE the government cannot spend on their education (for whatever reason) and they cannot afford to either agitate in order to get better schools or send their children off to where they are. Even if they do their socio-economic status leaves them with a host of problems. Political correctness might force us all to silence whenever we have improper thoughts about the touchy subject of the inferiority of islanders like blushing 12 year olds but none of us try to understand why people look down on them. Why, we in Male' feel that we're better than those hopeless retards. My friends (blare trumpets and roll drums) it's because of money, or rather the lack thereof (disappointingly anticlimactic wasn't that?)