By M Margaret Burke
VICTORIA, the mother of all villages celebrated ‘National Day of Villages’ with much pomp and ceremony on November 7, culminating their annual First Village Indaba.

The theme of the Indaba or conference was simply one word: ‘Reconstruction’ and according to one of the chief organisers of the occasion, Media Training and International Relations Specialist, Abraham Poole the conference was a success, though not with as large a turn out as was expected.

Mr Poole looked at reconstruction as it relates to infrastructure…the present design of the village, which was from its origination. He pointed out that there were essentially three roads, each adjacent to a canal, which were not relevant at this time. He stated that the canals were designed for the use of boats, but that at this time very few boats can be found in the village.

He went on to state that the canals must now serve a purpose of drainage, primarily for irrigation of water. “Now, we can’t expand; we can’t make the road wider because of the canals; if we are able to have modern drainage and one idea is to fill parts of the canal and cover them so that we have more road space and more parking spaces.”

Mr Poole continued, “The only way we can literally expand the village is to look at creative engineering and so when we talk of infrastructure that is an issue. There is no way we can add more space; we can’t make Plantation Northbrook (Victoria) any larger than it is, but we can utilise space out of our waterways,” as he explained that the use of waterways are not now needed in the same manner since the village has become modernised, with the use of potable water, access to a variety of transportation and other facilities.

He indicated that there is nowhere the village can have more space, except by redesigning the infrastructure, thus making more space where possible, even as it is necessary to do so, while at the same time creating and maintaining proper drainage and irrigation.

The trenches/canals were designed for transportation by boats, especially for use by farmers who needed to go distances into the backlands; the trenches were also designed for easy access of water for washing and other chores, bathing and so on; “But we don’t need the water for the purpose of washing and other purposes anymore, we need that water for irrigation purposes and bringing in consultants to look at that can be a good thing.” Mr Poole pointed out that even the smaller drains separating the coconut beds can be covered and tubes can be installed to make drainage in the village more efficient.

The Human Factor
“Primarily in our minds on reconstruction is the human factor…the human factor is so important, the distinctiveness of growing up in a village; your understanding of your history; how to absorb what’s happening in the society – in the modern Victoria society without loosing the values which are consistent and they persist all the time – they are still good values; the value of honesty, hard work, not giving up at the slight of the first difficulty.”

Mr Poole emphasised the need for villagers to be resilient just as their forefathers were, finding creative ways to go around their difficulties. “Our young people, to our mind, they are sinking too quickly under the burdens of the times; the resilience of personality, the confidence in their ability, the idea of throwing up the hand is happening too early and that has to do with the way we train our children.”

He stated that the young people need to be trained to be much more resilient in the world because difficulties will come. “If our fore-parents were not resilient the village movement would not have succeed …Victoria’s success was encouragement to others to try – this very model that worked and so to talk of reconstruction we have to deal with that.”

Therefore in the process of planning the Indaba and National Day of Villages, with the theme as ‘reconstruction’, there was much focus on two very important areas: family-life, as well as the matter of education, Mr Poole stated.

“In our comprehensive statement we bemoaned the fact that we are producing more teachers and lawyers and doctors, but every time we get a few we are leaving the bulk of the village population behind. So we are getting more in terms of numbers but we are not getting better in terms of the overall.” He noted that while as leaders of the village, they are interested in having the lawyers and doctors and others, “We also want the rest of the population to be on board with what’s happening in education. The value of education in life is a matter we need to rediscover – it is lost in the scene where they are looking for quick money…by the attraction of the goldfield; quick money; the danger of dealing with illicit substance.”

Mr Poole said that he understand that money is a necessity, but the drive to quick the money should never take the place of a good education, “But we need to still get our children involved in education, a skill; so that we talk of the matter of reconstruction we have to make the case back again as to the value of education in the changing economy.”

He noted that those were some of the prevailing concepts that really helped in the framing of the theme of the conference and also to organize the conference around what they diagnosed of the village needs.

“A good conference must not just take up hifalutin subjects, it must be organized to be what we have diagnosed as the problems, the difficulties, the trends that are dangerous, which we are seeing in the village, so here we come with the theme of reconstruction – family life, the matter of education, the matter of community.”

Community
He thus emphasized the need for community, noting that because technology helps us to be independent of other people, many times people go away with the view that they do not need their neighbours, only to discover that we do. Mr Poole stated that the idea of community: one of the pillars of the philosophy of Victoria, which we named as spirituality, a church, a school and the matter of cooperativism…because of the matter working together to expand the wealth of the village are all very essential for reconstruction.

“Therefore, we must make a diagnosis of what’s going on in the village; we must see the trends, we must understand the difficulties; we must see where we are able to make changes within our country – national change, as well as global change.” Poole declared that coming out of the Indaba conference, “It is important that they come up with a theme that answers, that pushes back, that says that there is need for education – learning to read and write is important; you still have to remember that you are part of a whole.”

“The pressures of life, the pace of change, the fluidity of residence, so the connection to the past, the fragrance that has come out of our fore-parents that is lost, the oral tradition of passing on those things is now despised for a cell phone.” I am saying this because I am not making ridicule, I understand the social forces at work but what it says is we all have to find the way to connect with each other, he implored. “We must understand the change; we can’t prevent the change and we can’t bemoan the change; change is a fact, but be must find an effective way.”

The Village Economy
The topic of the village economy took center stage. “I believe that we need are micro-enterprises big enough – a collective effort; we need to be able to form businesses; to be able to operate in a different way now – on sound business principles.” Poole said that there must be the sharing of responsibilities, “With a number of persons in a chain of events, leading to the end product.”

There is need for business models – micro-business models; models that can work – the sharing of products and services, at the same time ensuring quality assurance; being educated on the use of advance technology and knowledge of the global market. “We have to show a clear pathway to our activity to the market and also to our profit – there must be an economy-of-scale.”

“You still need a business plan; you need to understand scales because once you are a farmer agriculture has to satisfy your needs so that you really have to see it as a job; you have to see it in terms of investing and also securing your income.” Mr Poole stressed on the need for farmers in the village to see the need to contribute towards the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) by continually making payments towards the scheme. He noted that there has to be that new approach to doing business, even farming. He cautioned that villagers should not see themselves being robbed when they pay NIS contributions or income tax. Mr Poole stressed that the NIS is a ‘social net’ in rough times.

He also urged the villagers to consider better business principles by paying their income tax. “If you are earning $50,000 or less per month then you would be exempted from payment.” He again highlighted the need for urgent education so that farmers could better understand their needs in this changing time.

“Therefore the idea of this reconstruction is understanding the life-changes that are happening in the economy; social change, and how you adjust to that without loosing a sense of who you are and your villageness, you don’t loose that,” he stressed.