Literacy: A Major Global Challenge
Literacy is, according to the United Nations, a "major global challenge." The decade 2003-2012 was summarily declared the United Nations Literacy Decade. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) defines literacy as a "right" that is "denied" to people throughout the world. Presented alongside poverty as one of the world's greatest ills, illiteracy is treated like a disease. Yet literacy is not a basic human right, nor is illiteracy a scourge as severe as poverty or malnutrition. Moreover, the UNESCO assertion and corresponding aggressive campaigning for literacy is yet another example of paternalism, a nanny policy crafted by a select few who think they know what is best for the rest of the world. The fact that literacy is correlated with poverty throughout the developing world suggests that poverty, not illiteracy, is the root cause of social ills. Teaching children and adults how to read and write is not going to put food on their table or cure them of AIDS. Therefore, the United Nations should stop phrasing literacy as a human right as important as nutrition, stop dedicating an entire decade to literacy, and instead channel those resources into curing life-threatening disease and poverty.
The Incas, one of the richest and most complex societies in the Americas before European conquest, were largely preliterate. Lehrer notes, "The Incas built impressive roads, made developments in astronomy, and were at least the equals of 16th-century Europeans in many of the sciences." Most historians, anthropologists, and archaeologists believe that the Incas never developed a system of writing or an alphabet in spite of their immense cultural and scientific achievements, proving that literacy is not itself a significant factor in a society's or an individual's development. Literacy is certainly not an evolutionary step. Yet Lehrer states that many researchers are struggling to prove that the Incas did have a writing system-as if to prove so would elevate their status in the history books. Scholars simply "wonder at how a great empire existed without a writing system," as if they cannot accept that literacy is not essential to social success. Lehrer admits that if an Incan writing system were discovered it would "change the entire way in which they look at the empire." Finally, literacy is a problematic concept especially when the terms of literacy are dictated by the United Nations. When the United Nations or any politically-charged institution interferes in a culture, they can create more problems than they set out to solve. In the case with literacy, the United Nations must decide what language to teach. The choice of language would likely be based on political motives and could affect the future of that culture in terms of its abil
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Approximate Word count = 1043
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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