I have a local analogy at hand. One of my sons severely criticizes his parents (ME!) for being so blasted Minnesota Nice, for burying or ignoring serious problems that he thinks we should confront head on. And every time he brings it up, I wonder what went wrong with his upbringing! How could he actually act the way he says he wants us to? Clearly a difference of perspective.
As for the Nicaraguan explanation, you may consider what follows a simplistic bit of sophistry, but it makes me feel better about it! After seven trips there, I have a glimmer of an idea. I think it has been said, in indirect ways, by many of the professionals that I have heard during my visits over the years. For more in depth on Güegüense, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/El Gueguense.
In my trips, various speakers, including Maria Lopez and Aynn Setright, have referred to it. Simply put, Nicaraguans have a long history of indirectly attacking and undercutting authorities. They have a bit of self loathing about it, because the authorities are, in fact, themselves. Their history is one of domination. There were no settlers from Spain that arrived in Nicaragua. The people that came were adventurers, conquerors. They did not bring families; they came to find gold and easy money. They enslaved the people, had children by them, and took what they wanted. This form of dramatic play, the Güegüense, was created during colonial times. It is the jester, a man in a mask, and the play is put on before the Spanish lords, in front of the Old Man, or the Large Spanish Woman, and it mocks them to their face. It is the way the world works. Someone else is in charge here, and my best approach to survive, to find a way to have some power, is to mock them, to make fun of them, to disrupt what they are doing. Just as U.S. residents tend to see the world as a problem to be solved, as our problem to be solved, the Nicas tend to see all of life as a kind of human comedy, or drama, where the best tools are indirect accusations, and behind the scenes power plays, and under the cover murmurings. It’s the guy behind the mask that is the key. That is normal – that is how things are done. They also see most problems as being caused from above, and requiring intervention from above in order to fix them. They do not see themselves as capable of fixing them from below.
And it is not like this is a conscious thing on their part, any more than it is my conscious effort to bury problems instead of addressing them. It’s how I work – it’s how I think people should work.
OK, I realize that this is me playing amateur historian and sociologist, but it works for me. If you have a better idea, I’m open to it. Here’s a relevant quote from Wikipedia:
I think the solid lesson here is that relationship issues are their problem, and they need to deal with them in their own way. It is not my place to criticize that, or to try to meddle. If they bring things to me that appear to be dissension and discussion, they are simply using their standard techniques to try to gain advantage over each other. I are not part of that game, and I should not play it. It would be like them advising me on how to change our foreign policy of intervention. It’s a difficult problem, outside of my area of expertise and theirs. I need to leave it to them. In this one Community, they have been working it out for 15 years, with the help of the training and advice of AKF on leadership and personality conflicts. They will figure it out, or NOT. We don’t all need to operate the same way to achieve good results.
We had a retreat with the Community, and the reading chosen by the leader was from Paul about the Body of Christ. See 1st Corinthians 12: 12-26. Paul had similar problems in his audience 2,000 years ago. This is normal, this is life, and we will all grow through it. Hang in there - we are all in this together.
Created on ... March 3, 2010
Last updated on ... March 3, 2010