Strategic Knowledge Building With Technological Literacy In Suriname Tribal Communities

This research embarks on the socio-political investigation of ethnicity in the multi-cultural society of Suriname to approach the compound problem of alleviating of poverty in an attempt to contribute to the development in the tribal communities.Analysis on measuring the level of development by the standards of technology provides substantiation for the assumption that the tribal people are not the consumers of these technologies. In this study their inability to share in the national development is associated with the socio-cultural distance between them and these technologies to demonstrate that their ignorance caused them to be marginalized and at times not even considered part of the society.The position of leadership in tribal communities is also examined, and like in many other social groups and institutions, it is found to be crucial to the cultural experience of the tribal people. These leaders not only voice the attitude and determination of the tribal communities towards changes in their living environment but are also the embodiment of the tribal culture. After an investigation into the factors affecting the ability of tribal communities to transform institutions to improve livelihood, this study sought to create socio-cultural and political awareness through the engineering of the worldview of the tribal leadership.A thorough examination in the cognitive domain of the four entities: development, technology, leadership, and worldview have endowed this study with the revelation to originate a strategy to resolve the development dilemma in the tribal communities. The fact that most technologies in Suriname are traditionally transplanted transatlantic already makes formulating a national development policy in the present multi-cultural setting a complicated enterprise. Therefore tackling the plight of the tribal people becomes a much more complicated matter hence a well balanced strategy is required to successfully include the culturally different tribal groups into the mainstream. Consequently, this study demonstrates that the qualitative transformation of stagnant societies calls for the leadership technological literacy approach, in order to break loose from the grip of the culture of poverty.This thesis also provides the strategy for implementing a development approach that also tries to prevent ethnic tensions and conflicts from escalating and simultaneously serves a therapeutic purpose for the cultural shock. Improvement in the level of technological awareness of the underprivileged can also help these stagnant communities to secure adequate nutrition, health care, water, sanitary facilities, through access to information.This study substantiates the proposed development model of technological literacy with an in-depth interview on the leadership of a Miao ethnic Village along with an analysis of the socio-political elements to establish a national culture in China. This investigation identifies the lack of technological literacy to revitalize the cultural awareness as the single most important element paralyzing progress and development in tribal communities in Suriname.