Ubuntu: a definition of human intelligence
Ubuntu is an ancient African word that means “humanity to others”. That’s why this word is the name of computer software freely available to all people: the Linux distribution that brings the spirit of Ubuntu to the software world. Ubuntu is also a large international digital community (or network) comprising hundreds of people who are computer programmers, artists, photographers, poets and academics all working towards the creation of this complex software that includes a sophisticated computer operating system, word processor, spreadsheets, database, presentations and all that is necessary to go online. It gives the third world the possibility to gain access to the Internet, therefore providing education to some of the most needy people in the world.
I find this Ubuntu digital community inspiring and I argue that the whole of society needs a similar voluntary effort to bring a better life to disadvantaged people and to preserve the human environment. This book is aimed at improving the welfare of our children and the idea that our world belongs to our future generations. I have appropriated the word Ubuntu here to name this ideological framework that could facilitate a better world. Much of the effort of this book is to talk about this ideological and complex framework. I attempt to apply the theoretical ideas of two academics: Geoffrey Samuel and Pierre Bourdieu which I believe are conducive to an ideological environment that can facilitate the inclusion of disadvantaged members of society into mainstream discourse.
Does society have a place for the disadvantaged? Certainly, in gaols, homeless, or exploited in dead-end jobs. For those holding power it is very useful to have an underclass who are desperate to improve their lot and whose circumstances are such that exploited workers are afraid to join their ranks. This book proposes a framework based on anthropology that examines how to include such people into a mainstream discourse for the creation of social policies. We need policies that will be accepted by disadvantaged groups who want to gain the benefits of joining the wider society, bringing about adequate social justice.
I will gradually add important parts of this book on this page soon….
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