(In)sanity

... is learned.

Boko Haram's kidnappers weren't born thinking it's acceptable to take little girls captive. They learned that.

The strangely wrong thinking we see evidenced here is developed over time, and it is many steps removed from basic thought about right and wrong.

Where does someone get the idea that kidnapping and forced marriage are acceptable?  Or murder?  Boko Haram has killed about 3,900 since 2009.

Deborah Peter was 12 years old when gunmen from Boko 

Haram shot and killed her father, a Christian pastor, and 

her 14-year- old brother Caleb, and then forced her to lie 

with their bodies.

The attack was in 2011, well before Boko Haram's

 abduction of more than 250 schoolgirls in April that finally 

drew international attention and condemnation.

Boko Haram survivor Deborah Peter has testified before the US Congress telling legislators how the terrorist group murdered her father and brother in a gruesome attack in 2011. Ms Peter, told US congressmen and women how on the evening of December 22, 2011, she saw her father, a Christian pastor, shot three times in the chest by three members of Boko Haram. She added that while her father lay on the floor, the men debated whether or not they should kill her brother Caleb and as her father breathed his last, they killed Caleb too.

Deborah tells how the Boko Haram men then made her lie between the corpses where she stayed until the next morning. She was just 12 years old.

The next day, a local pastor paid for her to get out of the region and that same pastor was killed in 2013 by Boko Haram. Ms Peter added: “I decided to tell the world my story when the Chibok girls were taken because everyone needs to know how horrible Boko Haram is. They kill innocent people who never hurt them so I want the world to understand what happened to me.

For a momentary contrast, all the good people you'll meet probably have a lot in common. They're gracious, encouraging, and willing to share their lives and time, and they're probably tolerant enough to make a place for you.  They learned that from mom and dad and perhaps from the community and the church.  It sounds nice and easy, but it's a battle for sanity.

Adults understand.  We see the moral and ethical battles in government and community.  We see lives misshapen by wealth/ religion/ celebrity/ fake-reality/ injustice.  And we fight to retain our own sanity with varying degrees of success.

How we think and act is learned, shaped over time; some good, some spectacular, some deadly stuff. Some we choose, some is imposed on us.  We could almost agree with the evangelicals who insist that everyone's first need is to get right with God and shake off the wrong-thinking of the world.

Which brings us back to radical violence.  You can't help but wonder if Boko Haram's members couldn't have been kept from such insanity if their family and community beginnings had been different .... what would it take?

Update:  5 JUN from CNN,

Boko Haram translates as "Western education is a sin" in the Hausa language. The group says its aim is to impose Sharia law in Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation, which is split between a majority Muslim north and a mostly Christian south.

NOTE:  The Muslim fundamentalists who so fervently criticize western culture are wrong on every point, of course. True?  No.  Their criticisms are warranted and acknowledged; that's actually part of the problem, and that's another story entirely.

Government Corruption

And interesting article published in April '14 looks at the prevalence and cost of corruption in U.S. state governments.

Popular thought suggests such things are uncommon in a first world democracy.  It's perhaps more common than is generally known.  

Capital, construction, and highways:

Click here to read the entire article 

with additional tables and references.

The construction industry is consistently ranked as one of the most corrupt industries. ... First, construction involves large, complex, nonstandard activities, so the quality of construction can be very hard to assess. Second, domestic and international construction industries are dominated by a few monopolistic firms. Third, the industry is closely linked to the government. Governments have major roles as “clients, regulators, and owners” of construction companies. It is common to bribe government officials to gain or alter contracts and to circumvent regulations related to construction.

The results show that real per capita state construction expenditures tend to be larger in states with higher levels of corruption, and the impact is statistically significant. This finding is consistent with the view that corrupt public officials increase expenditures on construction, expecting bribes from construction companies.

Total wages and salaries and borrowing:

Total salaries and wages of public employees are likely to be higher in states with higher levels of corruption.

States with higher degrees of corruption tend to borrow larger amounts annually. 

The results correspond with the fiscal illusion theory of government expansion. Corrupt public officials may have stronger incentives to create fiscal illusions to make citizens estimate their fiscal burdens less than the actual by debt financing. An alternative explanation of this finding is related to the regression results of models II–IV in table 7. To undertake projects related to capital, construction, and highways, most states tend to rely on debt financing. Another interpretation of the significance of expenditures on these items is that corrupt officials are willing to increase expenditures on capital, construction, and highways because these projects offer better opportunities for them to receive rents. To finance these projects, states borrow more.

Correction and police protection:

States with a higher extent of corruption tend to spend more on correction and police protection. 

The overall extent of corruption will be higher in states with higher numbers of convictions of public officials. In a corrupt state, not just public officials but also citizens are likely to be exposed to corruption. Thus, in states with higher levels of corruption, the demand for correctional services such as prisons and police services will be greater. In addition, government officials have substantial discretionary power and economic rents related to government expenditures on correctional services. It is possible for corrupt officials to take advantage of these opportunities for their personal interests by maximizing state budgets for correctional facilities and services.

Education; elementary, secondary, higher:

Total expenditures on education are likely to decrease in states with higher levels of public officials’ corruption. 

The harmful impact of corruption on education persists even after expenditures on education is divided into subcategories: elementary and secondary education and higher education.16   These results imply that public officials’ corruption reduces states’ investment in education overall. These cross-state results are consistent with the findings from cross-national studies on education by Mauro (1997) and Delavallade (2006). Government spending on education is negatively and significantly associated with higher levels of corruption. Expenditures on education do not provide as many “lucrative” opportunities for corrupt officials as other components of spending such as construction.

Public welfare, health, and hospitals:  

State government expenditures on public welfare, health, and hospitals tend to be lower in states with higher degrees of corruption. 

As can be seen in models I, II, and III, public officials’ corruption is negatively and significantly associated with per capita state expenditures on public welfare, health, and hospitals. The results correspond with cross-national study results from Mauro (1997) and Delavallade (2006). Corruption may tempt public officials to choose public expenditures less on the basis of public welfare than on the opportunity they offer for extorting bribes.

The Race

Ok, guys; is there discrimination based on appearance?  Sure.  Tall men vs. short, blonde girls vs. brunettes, muscular teens vs. skinny, stylish  vs. not, and the list goes on.

The underlying issue is the question of personal worth.  Are some 'better' than others?

In the 17th century, we began to talk about 'race' in terms of people being part of this or that distinct lineage.  The early concept offered five racial types; Caucasian, Malay, Indian, Mongol, and Negroid.  Soon, discussions of race began to include the concept of races being distinct and unrelated species with suggestion of natural superiority and inferiority.  E.g., Caucasians are a species that is unrelated to the Negroid species.

From early on, though, science understood that the differences were more cultural and geographic than anything else.  In 1775, "... Blumenbach also noted the graded transition in appearances from one group to adjacent groups," and suggested that "one variety of mankind does so sensibly pass into the other, that you cannot mark out the limits between them".^[1]

Disappointingly, science and folklore merged in the following decades to accommodate our prejudices.  Perhaps some folks needed to see themselves as inherently superior, intellectually and morally.

The resulting ideology (prevailing thought) was that 'race' was tied to a point of origin from the past, retaining its distinct behavioral and intellectual characteristics, and that 'race' determined innate worth.  That's nonsense, anthropologically speaking.  Don't say that in public; it's often still the prevailing thought whether conscious or subconscious.

"As an American of Northern European 
(Nordish) ancestry who loves my race 
and wants it to be preserved...."
The scholarly article cites arguments and
references supporting the 'my race'
compared to 'your race' perspective.
Each argument has been previously
resolved to the satisfaction of the
science communities, but the article's
author attributes each to liberal 
'political correctness' rather than 
objective science.  The author
defends racial separation as an ethical
concern suggesting that multi-racial
societies are diluting the white race.

Our differences are real; they are -
  cultural/
   experiential/
    geographical/
     ideological/
      kindergarten-leftovers/
        and grandma's-cooking-habits.
And we look different too, but that part has nothing to do with intellectual capacity, ethical clarity, or intrinsic value within a community or society.

What are the chances that you and I hold unconscious attitudes and stereotypes? Of course we do.

Scientists agree there's little doubt that hate-filled racism is real, but a growing body of social science research[ref][ref] suggests that racial disparities and other biased outcomes in the criminal justice system, in medicine, and in professional settings can be explained by unconscious attitudes and stereotypes.  E.g., police cadets are more likely to shoot unarmed black men than they are unarmed white men.

And interracial marriage was illegal in the U.S. until just fifty years ago. 

Anti-Irish racism in Britain and the United States included the stereotyping of the Irish as alcoholics, and implications that they monopolised certain (usually low-paying) job markets. They were often called "white Negroes." Throughout Britain and the US, newspaper illustrations and hand drawings depicted a prehistoric "ape-like image" of Irish faces to bolster evolutionary racist claims that the Irish people were an "inferior race" as compared to Anglo-Saxons.^[ref] 

There is emerging clarity in the discussion these days, but there's much yet to be done if we're to be an educated citizenry.  We should challenge our own thinking.  If you want a straight answer on the subject of race, objectivity is the most important and perhaps most difficult component.  Ask a real scientist and labor through the analysis yourself.  Race is only an issue to the inadequately informed.

With that being said, what are the real issues as we learn to share the world we live in?

The earliest forms of prejudicial discrimination (proto-racism) weren't based on color or appearance but were generally tribal or lineage distinctions.

Such discrimination persists today in cultures that retain strong tribal identities.  In Kenya, for example, the Kikuyu are the ruling class;  the Mijikenda and many more are ineligible for most opportunities for education, employment, and political office solely on the basis of lineage.  The distinctions and conflicts are expressed in business and politics, and not uncommonly, in violent upheavals.

Adding to the difficulties, tribes existed long before the national boundaries which now attempt to contain and govern them without their consent.

Seen from a distance, it's not unlike the rich vs. poor in the western world.  Or pretty vs. plain, or this side vs. that side of the railroad tracks.   

As has often been said, it is all just wrong in so many ways.

COM vs GOV vs ORG

Great kid's movie; anything important in there
about life? ...

... a good path, a good end, and a good conscience?  

Perhaps the best revelation of modern game theory and organizational economics is that productive labor relationships only work well over a long-term, good-faith pathway.  The participants must get to know and trust each other. As in a marriage, the employer and employee are motivated to do the right thing not because of an immediate reward or simple self-interest but because their values and goals are aligned, they anticipate remaining together for the long haul and achieving good outcomes.  There's an issue of mutual conscience that is satisfied in such a relationship.

From the children's story, an
extraordinarily important issue,
and even more so in today's
business environment ...

Simply said, "Can two walk together except they be agreed?"  "Do two people walk hand in hand if they aren't going to the same place?"

Those of us blessed with the opportunity to work are aware of the choices.  We hope to serve with a good heart to a good end, and with people of like mind.  

How is it going with your employer?  Is it taking you where you, in good conscience, want to go?  In it, can you serve well and to good purpose? 

Perspective

If you had to make it on $25k/yr, where would that put you on a world scale? (Top 2%)

At twice that amount, the median U.S. household income is stunning at around $50,000, with one or perhaps two wage earners.

Friends in Kenya; it's grasshopper season, so the
kids are out with sticks to catch a few.
If their families take in $800/yr,
they're above the median
in the community.
They're normal
in this world.

And what about the rest of the world?

Is there insight here that might help us shape our own lives and priorities?
  
What do we teach our children about such things as wealth and privilege?

Just how big an issue is this anyway?  Should I be be concerned?

Words

A few days down the road, or a decade, little that was said is remembered.

At work, at home, at school, on the road, we have opportunity every day.

That includes today, as my wise wife reminds me.  Got a goal for today?

OK so making the graphic was entertaining. 
It's my father's legacy, "Talk less, do more."