The Drug Problem and Education

Mr TP Saran rightly states in last week’s edition of Mauritius Times: “Drug control should be based on an understanding of human nature.

Specifically, that the human being will go to any length to seek pleasure,” or as it is often stated to seek “paradis artificiel sur terre à n’importe quel prix”.

The psychology of the “forbidden fruit” which ought to be well known explains a lot about human behaviour: some even regard getting that fruit as a challenge when their target should be different and legitimate for the good of society.

We should educate especially the children on how to obtain legitimate pleasure, for example they should be congratulated when they have solved a mathematical problem, or written a good essay or learned a poem, or achieved a good piece of handicraft, or participated fully in a project entrusted to a group, or given his or her best as part of a team in sports, etc; in short to obtain pleasure from work well done. When he grows up, this pleasure in and from work well done will carry him forward throughout adult life.

Instead the quest for quick money leads to slap-dash, even dangerous, work, for example the electrician employed during the building of my house, although told to and was paid for earthing the system, was not to be found after I got an electric shock, fortunately mild, and another one had to be engaged.

Instead, in our present society, what do we find? Failure of Education, for example, abuse of “leçons particulières” which often are not “particulières”, unless they turn out to be “attouchements particuliers”.

It may not be the fault of the teacher — faced with an overcrowded classroom, however conscientious she or he may be. The great majority, it must be said, are doing their best in difficult circumstances. The fault lies elsewhere.

Are our youth being educated regarding covetousness, envy, jealousy?

Outside the classrooms what do we get?

The advertising industry keeps telling us to get pleasure from consuming this and that; it keeps creating “des besoins artificiels” instead of giving factual information about their wares.

Fortunately, after protests against exploitation of women’s bodies for advertising purposes, the practice has stopped.

On political “soap-boxes” what do we get? Who is or was the French politician who said “une promesse n’engage que celui qui y croit?”

Children and adults alike are rarely made aware that if early humans, weak as they were compared with many wild animals, managed to survive the dangers and threats from those animals or even to domesticate some, it was through collaboration, cooperation, sharing and not through competition, grabbing mentality and self-service.

 

Dr François Saw Lan IP

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