Village Government

Motivation is a different breed in the Village of Micoud. In the United States we offer a set wage for a set amount of work hours. If work ethic is low, the company suffers and we go through a process to discipline the employee.

I attended a meeting of the Village Council this week. It was a dispute between the Micoud Village Clerk and an employee who was accused of not taking pride in his work as well as not reporting for work for three days. They, too have a process which is similar, but different from ours: similarities include verbal and written warnings, meetings and documentation.

The outcome of the meeting doesn’t matter, nor do the details of this individual situation. What does matter is the interrelatedness of the village. It’s this interrelatedness that determines the difference of our disciplinary action committees and theirs. Everyone knows everyone here – so many people are related it’s hard to keep track of cousins and aunts and uncles vs. friends and acquaintances. So what does this have to do with the meeting at the Village Council? Everything. There were four people in attendance besides me: The Saint Lucia Ministry Representative, one Council Member, the supervisor, and the accused. This was the third time this man was brought to the council which took an hour of everyone’s time and resulted in the same conclusion as the two previous meeting – “Do it again and that will be the end”.

I have to tell you, this was confusing to me. Why would they take so much time when clearly this approach is not fixing the problem? Actually, they were probably losing ground as other workers may begin to immolate this same behavior. But, as I talked to the village representatives I began to realize that if he lost his job, his children and family would suffer. The council members had ties to this family and did not want to be the reason this family would fall further into financial disarray. There is no welfare system here so if a family loses it’s only source of support it is devastating. And, so it goes. Life in the village in an integrated web of relationships which tolerates more than we would in the United States, but those relationships are tolerated because one action can effect so many people. Maybe we could learn something from Saint Lucia compassion.