Chapter 9: What are the differing views of the culture of individualism versus communalism?
The case study on Chapter 9 pitches the concept of economic development model of the western world as implemented in Southwestern Nigeria. The economic planning model being espoused hinges on greater productivity and decreased pollution. While this is an ideal development path in the western world, it contradicts the local people’s beliefs, specifically of the Yoruba villages. While they agree on increased production, it hinges on the role of their women. If they will have less children and just two wives, their economic and social roles will be affected. In the first place, polygamy is practiced by the Yoruban communities. If they follow the western economic model, this will have a negative implication in their traditions and their religion. For instance, the promotion of population control through contraceptives and other health practices contradicts their Yoruban culture (Wolfe & Gudorf 202).
In the Yoruban response, the voices of Christine Ciroma, a health worker with western views and Keke Omuji, a local leader with a more traditional view of the communalism. The irony of their differing views is that the African or Yoruban community is distinct in the way they view communal interests based on a web of complex societal inter-relationships (p. 205). In the case of the western concept, it is always the individual versus the society or a God. However, in the local Yoruban culture, it is not just himself against is community. There are always councils or advisor groups which have very historic or past orientations about how things must be. In the way they are traditionalist, they always contextualize every decision in terms of how they were colonized before (205).
In the Christian perspective, the economic plan or model tends to contradict the individual rights in terms of population control (or the use of contraceptives) and the justice in terms of economic distribution (209). In these two most important Christian concepts, the issue of race, ethnicity, sex and discrimination are juxtaposed. Procreation is also a very sensitive topic when it comes to the proposed population control in southwestern Nigeria. The view is that God wants His people to multiply. This contradicts the intended reproductive programs of the new Nigerian state. While this is helpful to control the population, it is also helpful in containing the massive spread of AIDs and other sexual diseases in the country (212).
There are three main actors which are juxtaposed to one another in this case. This is the state and its goals, the Christians and the African Muslims. There are several issues as well where they meet and contradict. These include the issues of economic progress and the participation of women in this endeavor, contraception and birth control, and other racial and gender issues revolving between individual, communal and state’s rights. While the issue of economic development is one of the basic goals of the state, it is also a very complicated problem when it comes to ecological, health and sanitation, and other related concerns (p. 211-214). I believe that the state cannot control all aspects of an individual’s life in a given society even when the outcomes are for his benefit. In the end, an individual is still the main decision maker in all aspects of his life.
Chapter 18: Who has the best interest of orphaned children whose parents died of serious and confidential illnesses?
The case study in Chapter 18 shows a very disturbing condition of children who are under the foster care program, specifically the Florida’s Department of Children and Family (DCF). The main panel member involved in the case is Paula. She is quite disturbed by the serious cases they were handling in the said department and she has contemplated on the role of the state in these very grave issues. To illustrate, there were four children whose parents died of AIDS and they have been taken care of debilitated parents who also have another adopted child aside from them. Another case has one child who has been sexually abused by various foster parents until she became mentally untreatable. One case also involved sexual abuse and early pregnancy. The main contention in this case is the sensitivity of the history of the parents’ death. In the case of the Haitian parents who died of AIDS, the question on the present health conditions of the children is problematic. The problem now is whether or not the death of the parents must be revealed on continued to be hidden. In case of its being hidden, how can the state promote the best interest, especially the health of these children?
In the Vodou’s response to the AIDS issue, an AIDS scholar, Kowalewski, discusses three basic religious responses to AIDs in the U.S. The first response is that of “blaming the victim” (Wolfe & Gudorf 382). They view the patients as the rightful sufferer in this disease. The second response is that of “embracing the exile” which separates the patients from the morality of the disease (382). The last category is that of the Catholic Church’s “compassion for the patients while condemning the disease” (382). The vodou religion typifies the first AIDS response category.
The Christian view focuses on the sufferings of the orphaned children. It hinges on the issue of the confidentiality of the death of the parents, the long term treatment for those parents with HIV who want to be reunited with their children, who takes parental custody in this case, among others (p. 391). Another major issue brought upon by Christian values and ethics and the surrounding Christian cultural and social structures is the question of representation – who takes care of the children with AID inflicted (or deceased) parents? Aside from the rights and the authority of the state, surrounding influences on this special matter include race, religion, economic resources (of the state), among others. Basically, this case supports that the problem is a matter of economics and one on one relationship.
For both cases, religion has played a traditional function which is to be a guiding light for the dying AIDS parents (in case of the vodou beliefs) and the orphaned children (in case of the Christian faith). The more important thing to consider in both cases is the pressing serious problems of the children under the foster parents. I have a strong opposition to the confidentiality clause of the children of AIDS inflicted parents. While the general assumption is that the state holds the best interest of these left behind children, their health conditions must be primarily supervised. The government must see to it that they are properly being taken care of because their health conditions are critical.
Work Cited:
Wolfe, Regina Wentzel & Gudorf, Christine E. Ethics & World Religions: Cross-cultural Case Studies. New York: Orbis Book, 1999. Print.
