Colouring outside the lines

Character, in the long run, is the decisive factor in the life of an individual and of nations alike. — Theodore Roosevelt

The most terrible poverty is loneliness and the feeling of being unloved. — Mother Teresa

Recently, I was privileged to fly into Cape Town on a pristinely beautiful summer’s day. As we were descending I had a very interesting view of the vastly different and varied neighbourhoods below. The lush green gardens of Plattekloof hill frequently populated by pools and happy children gave way to the stark barren grayness that characterised the concrete playgrounds of less fortunate areas.

The communist-like grey blocks of flats were a particularly depressing site. They were colourless and empty … like an industrial wasteland where no life flourished. In some cases I could see abandoned cars falling apart on the streets, left to decay like the rest of the neighbourhood. I could visibly see the heavy and burdensome load that weighed down on these communities and the people that had to live in them … like a psychological and mental net capturing and locking them down into a cycle of poverty and desperation.

Then a playground in the midst of all the others stood out brilliantly in contrast. There in the middle of all these lifeless wastelands was a set of playground equipment painted in bright and uplifting colours. A bright red slide and a warm, yellow spinning wheel radiated life and vibrancy into the surrounding space; and life, it seemed, radiated back. At this playground the children were running around excitedly, chasing one another and enjoying themselves. There was a family having a picnic on the side … people being together, being a community. The whole scene seemed to be characterised by energy and movement and life.

I felt as though those children who played and ran around below could grow up to be anything just from the lightness and buoyancy in their spirits. It made me think about what difference we could make to a community by focusing on the softer things that uplift the human spirit: things such as bright colours, playgrounds and jungle gyms on which children can play.

Obviously all these things are not as essential as food, water, sanitation or a host of other basic needs, and I wouldn’t, for a moment, want to discourage all of the tremendous work that does take place in our country to uplift people in poorer communities by providing these services. But I just wonder if we forget how powerful the human spirit can be in the whole equation.

With a quick search on Greater Good SA I was very pleased to find many initiatives active in South Africa that do, in fact, target something more than just communities’ basic needs. One in particular that struck me was the “International Association for Human Values” initiative. Briefly browsing through its website it became very clear how powerful and important human values are to the success of any community-development project.

Values such as an “innate dignity for human life” or the “importance of integrity and service” are really the foundations of all progress and development. If we can empower the less fortunate among us with these types of life-changing principles, I think the results could be astounding. How much more so if they could be engendered by a whole community?

A lesson in how to respect your fellow human being might not be a running tap or a meal at the end of the day, but if taken to heart by a community it could translate into so much more. If people are essentially happy and motivated to uplift themselves, then they will. But if they don’t understand how to live together and work together, all the running taps in the world will eventually amount to nothing.

So, the question becomes: How can we engender the types of values in a community that will enable them to lift themselves up and out of poverty? Well, I think there are a million different answers to that question, but one it seems to me would be to splash a little colour into their neighbourhoods and give their eyes something more than a depressing monotonous grey to feast on.

Whoever installed that brightly coloured children’s playground just north of Cape Town International Airport … I salute you!