The rain came again today, monsoon on full flow. For every extra day of rain the hope increases that this year will be a Good Year. So far the rain has been well below par and there are deep concerns for food security and prices later in the year. When wars are fought over water we won’t be so quick to grumble about a drizzly day in the UK. (Or maybe not?!) The problem isn’t about there not being enough food, there will certainly be that, but it will be exported to those willing to pay more for it. The poor will, one again, be the ones to suffer from this mal-distribution. Many farmers and their families have a good chance of starving to death, or will they commit suicide in one final desperate act of trying to determine some element of control over their lives.

This will happen because of the worship of a system that is entirely oblivious to any kind of value or worth or entitlement except that of the dollar. It is a system we are all active contributors to, it is hard not to be, but the degree to which we contribute and try and reassess and re-judge is determined by ourselves.

It is incredulous that we – the self-crowned developed, liberal, democratic, educated – cannot more clearly see, are not more devastatingly outraged at such an incredulously narrow-minded and unbalanced value system which has as its sole currency of exchange the very token that those who possess more gained through processes of exploitation, direct or indirect, of those with less. There is deep concern about the increasing divide between the rich and the poor and there are scores of people working to address it. But the fact of the matter remains that unless and until our value scheme is developed beyond convolutions of an 18th century science, to be more than just a sophisticated, socially acceptable and governmentally ratified feudal system, this polarisation cannot fail to occur.

It is with such ideas in mind that Educate for Life was formed. Our raison d’etre goes far beyond just providing a good learning environment. We understand education to be pivotal in contributing to the dogmatisation or evolution of concepts and as having a far greater scope than the acquistion of knowledge or skill gains in carpentry or literature. As major influencers on children’s lives, and hence the systems and values of the future community (which you may consider on any scale, from home to Bakhel to global), we have a deep responsiblity to understand What Is and work appropriately to replace entrenched assumptions and contribute to the genration of positive, rational systems and values.