Tackling issues and concerns of Emotional Intelligence – from insight into action

What is Emotional Intelligence?
In the Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle raises a challenge;
Anyone can become angry – that is easy. But to be angry with the right person, to the right degree, at the right time, for the right purpose and in the right way – this is not easy.
This challenge is relevant not only to anger alone but to all the basic emotions that govern us. There was a time – quite recently – that people tend to subscribe to a narrow view of intelligence arguing that IQ is a function of genetic inheritance that cannot be changed by life experience, and that our destiny in life is largely fixed by these aptitudes. This argument ignores the more challenging question; what can we change that will help our children fare better in life? What factors are at play, for example when people of high IQ flounder and those of modest IQ do surprisingly well?
The difference quite often lies in the abilities called emotional intelligence which include self – control, zeal, persistence and above all the ability to motivate oneself to constructive action.
Emotional intelligence, abbreviated as EI, is thus the ability to identify, assess, and control the emotions of oneself, of others, and of groups. The model introduced by Daniel Goleman outlines five main EI constructs. They are;

Self-awareness – the ability to know one’s emotions, strengths, weaknesses, drives, values and goals and recognizes their impact on others while using gut feelings to guide decisions.

Self-regulation – involves controlling or redirecting one’s disruptive emotions and impulses and adapting to changing circumstances.

Social skill – managing relationships to move people in the desired direction

Empathy – considering other people’s feelings especially when making decisions and

Motivation – being driven to achieve for the sake of achievement.
Emotional intelligence is the “something” in each of us that is a bit intangible. It affects how we manage behavior, navigate social complexities, and make personal decisions that achieve positive results. Emotional intelligence is made up of four core skills that pair up under two primary competencies: personal competence and social competence.
Personal competence is made up of your self-awareness and self-management skills, which focus more on you individually than on your interactions with other people. Personal competence is your ability to stay aware of your emotions and manage your behavior and tendencies.
Self-Awareness is your ability to accurately perceive your emotions and stay aware of them as they happen.
Self-Management is your ability to use awareness of your emotions to stay flexible and positively direct your behavior.
Social competence is made up of your social awareness and relationship management skills; social competence is your ability to understand other people’s moods, behavior, and motives in order to improve the quality of your relationships.
Social Awareness is your ability to accurately pick up on emotions in other people and understand what is really going on.
Relationship Management is your ability to use awareness of your emotions and the others’ emotions to manage interactions successfully.
Emotional Intelligence and risk factors
Do persons with Emotional Intelligence disorders are vulnerable to risk factors that affect their personality development? Of course yes!
However, those with lower emotional intelligence don’t outwardly look any different from the next person. But, because their emotional intelligence isn’t top-notch, they may be more likely to seek out risk factors in their lives that they cannot control, possibly resulting in demonstrable illnesses. Those risk factors could serve as potential outward symptoms, and studies have borne out that people with high emotional intelligence tend to make better choices when it comes to their health. For example, smoking is a risk factor for many brain disorders, but a university study in Barcelona found that students with high emotional intelligence were less likely to take up the habit, while their fellow students with lower levels of emotional intelligence were more likely to smoke tobacco or marijuana. The takeaway was that the students with high emotional intelligence were able to regulate their emotions in a better way than their counterparts and so were able to resist the temptation to smoke.
High or low emotional intelligence may even help a person eat well or poorly. A study from the University of Chicago showed that people with high levels of emotional intelligence made smarter product choices in the grocery store and thus consumed a healthier diet. It’s not that the people with lower emotional intelligence did not understand nutrition, but that they had a harder time choosing the healthier options. An example of this phenomenon would be a compulsive eater who can’t summon the wherewithal to stop consuming food when he or she is angry or sad. This inability to make wiser food decisions could, in some people, create a collision course with obesity.
High levels of emotional intelligence have also been linked to better stress management and lower rates of depression.

II
Emotional Intelligence; a historical perspective
In the 18th century, the then Prussian Military Government launched a series of military campaigns across Europe. Though a military heavy weight, it was not able to register convincing victories against smaller nations. Hence, the Military Government instituted an Inquiry Commission to study the causes for the military setbacks. After a thorough investigation, the Commission submitted its findings to the government. One of the key findings of the Inquiry Commission was that majority of the conscripts of the Army had been once child laborers who hailed from the family of alcoholic parents. As a result, the emotional intelligence level of the children got distorted at an early stage. Hence they were not able to manage their emotions during the critical periods of the battle and behaved in an unruly manner during the battle.
In the 18th century, artillery pieces were introduced in the army extensively and persons having basic skills in mathematics and science (to understand and calculate the trajectory of the heavy guns) and self-control alone could manage the weapons. Their suggestion to remedy the situation was compulsory education. The Military Government accepted the recommendation immediately and made amendments in the Constitution to ensure compulsory school education for all the children – the first recorded evidence in the history of school education for the children. Since then, Prussia and the succeeding German Government was able to create a world class army – the exploits of which had been recorded in the modern history. Historians attribute the collapse of the colonialism to the destruction of the European Colonial powers by the all-powerful German army during the Second World War.
In Japan, the restoration of the Meiji Dynasty focused on the education of the children which had transformed Japan into a world class economic and military power. Soon after overthrowing the Tokugawa government in 1868, the new Meiji leaders set out ambitiously to build a modern nation-state. Among the earliest and most radical of the Meiji reforms was a plan for a centralized, compulsory educational system, modelled after those in Europe and America. Envisioning a future in which “there shall be no community with an unschooled family, and no family with an unschooled person,” Meiji leaders hoped that schools would curb mounting social disorder and mobilize the Japanese people against the threat of encroaching Western imperialism.
The key lesson to be learnt from the Meiji restoration of education is that it focused on shaping the behaviour of the children and moulding their character to be responsible and accountable to the nation. A harmonious blend of emotional intelligence and academic intellectual skills among the children at early stage of their development eventually transformed the social, economic and political face of Japan in the 19th century itself.
Thus the rationale of the nation-state required that governments assume an educative role, instructing people—particularly children—in values and habits conducive to building the strength of the newly-conceived national community. Childhood therefore became a window of opportunity during which the state could shape its citizenry and thereby strengthen the nation in an era of international competition.
In Russia, the Communist Government had assigned a task to the Great Russian educationalist, Mr. Chernanko to provide education to 5,000 child laborers. After a decade of intensive education, Chernanko submitted his findings to the Communist government. He was proud to transform their lives. They had been engineers, doctors, teachers, successful bureaucrats and technicians. The government posed an important question to Chernanko as to why he was not able to transform a child into an artist, say a painter, musician or singer. To which Chernanko replied that being child laborers, their emotional intelligence had been distorted beyond repair at an early stage. In spite of his sincere efforts, he failed miserably to make an artist .He also informed the government that these children belonged to the families of alcoholic parents and they had a very bitter child hood experience. Hence, he suggested compulsory education to all the children.
The Communist Government immediately accepted his suggestions and made appropriate provisions in the Constitution to ensure compulsory free education to all the children. The Russian Government went one step further to ensure that the fathers of the newly born children should go on for one year compulsory leave with full pay to look after the children and the mothers should take leave for two years with full pay to ensure harmonious development of the child. The 20th century witnessed the enormous stride of Russia in the sectors of industry, research, economy and rocket technology. It is appropriate to note here that the Russian Red Army prevented the emergence of German Colonialism after the collapse of European colonial powers. Two countries that changed the face of the 20th century colonial world are Germany and Russia. The remarkable similarity between these countries is that both focused on the harmonious development of the Emotional Intelligence of the children through State intervention.
The Italian educationalist, Montessori established through her innovative education experiments that the integrated development of a child is ensured through a well-structured child friendly learning environment. It is now replicated throughout the world .Any educational system that eliminates fear and instills a sense of joy and happiness among the children is a pre requisite for the EI development of children. This is the key message we get from Montessori experiment.
In United States of America, a group of educationalist and social scientists undertook an innovative experiment. They monitored 100 pregnant mothers whose husbands were alcoholics and another 100 pregnant mothers whose husbands were teetotalers. They continued the monitoring of the children and subjected them to various psycho social development tests to assess the development of their emotional intelligence. To their dismay, they found out that almost all the children of the alcoholic parents exhibited various behavioral disorders associated with imbalance in emotional intelligence development. They concluded that the children absorbed the emotional disturbances or shocks of the mothers even in the wombs of the mothers. The alcoholic husbands became unruly or resort to wife beating, the pregnant mothers undergo mental shock or emotional disturbance. This is absorbed by the child even during the fetes stage.

III
Indian Context of Emotional Intelligence
In India, the Hindu law giver, Manu emphasizes that a child should be looked after like a prince during the first five years, subjected to severe discipline during the teen age and be treated like a friend after wards. Child educationalists interpret this statement’ like a prince’ as an important insight on the psycho social development of a child. The Northern European countries and Finland have developed an educational system that fits exactly with the insights of Manu. (Let us forgive Manu for his infamous Varnashram in this context). An elaborate and exhaustive research is required as to why Indian children, except the Brahmin and other very high caste children, are still lagging behind the Europeans, Americans and Japanese children in terms of integrated development which includes EI development also. One important factor is the unhuman caste system that not only prevented the lower caste community access to education but the importance of EI development at the early stage. This shall explain the total dominance of performing arts, visual arts and music by Brahmin community.
In Mahabharata, one of the epics popular in India, there is an important anecdote. When Subathra, the wife of Arjuna was pregnant, Krishna was instructing Arjuna on how to break the Chakra army defense formation of Dhuriyodana. Subathra was hearing the interesting narration. Then he stopped the narration and asked Arjuna to come outside f the palace and instructed him how to break the formation from inside and escape. In the actual Kurushetra war, Abimanyu, the son of Arjuna, against the command given to him, broke open the formidable Chakra formation of Dhuriyodana and fought a futile fight against him. When he realized that he could not succeed, he tried to escape but in vain. Eventually he was killed by Dhuriyodana. When Arjuna lamented the death of his son, Krishna explained him the reason for his death. He told him that Abimanyu overheard the breaking of the chakra formation from the womb of Subathra. But he could not hear the breaking of the formation from inside. Hence he was trapped.
This incident underlines that the learning process starts even at the time of conception .Moreover, this narration was proved to be right through scientific experiment in United States mentioned above. India is the only country which still has a unique child centric social custom which protects the child right from its fetes stage. When a woman is conceived she is sent to the home of her mother till child birth. The key objective of this social custom or tradition is to protect the fetes from any external negative social or cultural shocks that will eventually impair the emotional intelligence and the personality development of the child in future. The mother, not only looks after her daughter with love but this unconditional love of the mother reaches the womb of her daughter and envelops the heart of the infant. The child comes out of the womb into the earth with its EI level in harmony with its nature.
It is unfortunate that the alcoholic parent distorts the harmonious development of the Emotional Intelligence of his child. Majority of child laborers hail from families having an alcoholic parent. Child labor is not the voluntary option of the child but it is a bitter option forced on them.
The child laborers, street children and primary school children share certain issues and problems caused by alcoholism, particularly EI related, in the poor households, workplaces or in the community. If we take a look at the continual increase in the consumption of alcohol in Tamilnadu, a person with a social commitment will be alarmed at the prospect of the magnitude of EI problems haunting the children.

IV
Alcohol and management of alcoholism
Before delving deep into the EI problems of the children caused by alcoholism, it is appropriate to critically analyze three important questions related to alcohol. They are;
Is alcohol a sin or part of the food system sanctioned by religion and ethics?
What is management of alcoholism?
What is the politics of alcoholism?
The genesis of alcohol or wine is as old as the history of human civilization. Each civilization has its own mythologies as to who invented alcohol. Scientifically speaking,
wine is fermented alcohol made from specific varietals of grapes. Beer is a fermented alcohol made from grain, malt, and hops. Vodka is a distilled alcohol, made from grain or potatoes. Rum is a distilled alcohol, made from sugar.
Wine (from Latin vinum) is an alcoholic beverage made from grapes, generally Vitis vinifera, fermented without the addition of sugars, acids, enzymes, water, or other nutrients. Yeast consumes the sugar in the grapes and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide.
All over the world, alcohol consumption has been incorporated into the local food system and closely associated with social functions and health related problems. We shall take three references from the Bible to substantiate this view.
In 1Timothy, 5:23 St. Paul justifies taking wine – alcohol beverage – through the following verse “Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach’s sake and thine often infirmities”. Once again he makes another observation that “wine taken in due measure gives health and mirth”. Why mirth? Because it is alcoholic beverage.
Jesus also justified drinking alcohol through the following verses; “For John came neither eating nor drinking (alcohol), and they say, ‘He has a demon.’ The Son of Man came . . . and they say, ‘Look, a glutton and a winebibber, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ ” (Matthew 11:16 – 19)
Even today, the Jewish marriage is solemnized after the bridegroom drinks the wine and crushes the wine glass under his bare foot until blood oozes out from the foot. Many theologians, particularly liberation theologians, interpret the first miracle of Jesus, say converting water into wine, as a social protest.
The Palestinian wine was and is very costly. It had been and it still is the exclusive privilege of the elite rich to be treated with wine. In Canaan marriage feast, wine was served liberally to the rich and the privileged, say Pharisees, Sadducees and the rich elite class. Finally not a drop was available for the marginalized poor of whom Jesus represented. He was infuriated over the class based discrimination and instructed his disciples to fill the wine jars with water which, when mixed with the residues of wine, got light yellow color and he once again asked his disciples to shout aloud and serve the “wine”. It was a social protest against discrimination and social insult to the rich person who meted out the injustice.
If we travel through the pages of history backwards, we come across two important observations on alcohol consumption by Isaias, the Prophet of the Prophets. He prescribes “strong drink to those who are depressed in spirit so that they sleep peacefully and not disturb themselves and others”
In the meantime, he cursed the addicts. “Woe unto thee who drinks wine from morning to night”
What is the insight one gets through the references about alcohol in Bible? It is nothing but the management of alcoholism. The magnitude of alcoholism as a social disease in Western countries is much less than in India in view of the management of alcoholism.
Alcohol consumption – be it one ounce or one bottle – is attached with a social stigma and sin in the Indian socio cultural context. In other words, alcohol is a social sin which eventually breeds a guilty conscience on him who consumes alcohol in due measure or over measure.
Alcohol or poison in TASMAC shops?
Do the TASMAC retail shops sell alcohol or poison to the people of Tamilnadu?. If we give a honest answer, it is poison. Tamilnadu State Marketing Corporation Limited, abbreviated as TASMAC, was started by late Chief Minister, M. G. Ramachandran to market alcohol to retail shops all over Tamilnadu.
TASMAC procures rectified