by Adewale Atewogbade

Created on: June 13, 2009   Last Updated: June 21, 2009

Illiteracy is a state of mind whereby the afflicted cannot interface with their immediate and extended environment in a meaningful way. It is definitely not just lacking in the ability to read, write and comprehend. It also means not being able to interpret ideas, thus hindering the ability to act on them.

Our society is not perfect, so it is not possible for everyone to be one hundred percent literate. There are therefore levels of literacy ranging from the unintelligent to the erudite.

Our planet is home to hundreds of languages and thousands of variations of dialects of the main languages. No one single person can claim to be able to read, write and comprehend all these languages. Because most of the people who speak the more exotic and obscure languages cannot read or write them does not necessarily mean that those people are not literate either.

To be illiterate means not being able to:

Follow developments in a variety of activities as they occur.

Participate actively in events both local, national or international.

Behave appropriately in a group according to their norms.

Read and understand all kinds of publications.

Communicate effectively with others.

Recognize and apply native intelligence when occasion demands.

In order to be able to follow developments in a variety of activities, one needs to be able to understand the language of such an activity. Baseball, for example, is a variation of cricket. Yet baseball has its own rules and regulations that makes it distinct from cricket. In order to play or watch and enjoy either game, both active and passive participants need to be well versed in the rules of the game. As closely knit as these two games are however, an American baseball addict may for all intents and purposes be a functional illiterate when it comes to cricket.

To participate actively in any kind of event at local, national or international levels, one should be constantly able to interact with the medium of exchange to get updates on a regular basis. To properly interact requires a certain level of literacy in the usage of a variety of media. The inability to interact with media such as radio, television, computers and newspapers can have very deleterious effects especially when important news like the spread of the swine flu virus was recently upgraded to a world pandemic level by the WHO. There are millions out there who are unaware of this tidbit of information and are therefore not prepared for any eventuality

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>