It is said that a visitor to a foreign country has either of two problems in terms of communication: An unfamiliar language or a language spoken unfamiliarly. In the latter scenario, words of the same language are used in different ways or other words in the language not often used by the visitor are used more often. It has nothing to do with education.

But such incidents also happen within a country. And I am not referring to the difference between dialect and Standard English, but between individuals who all or both speak Standard English or between two people who speak the dialect for that matter. In fact, it happens all the time.

In my column last week, entitled ‘Rodney, Belafonte and credit unions’, I wrote about Jamaica Welfare that was founded by Norman Manley in 1937 because that entity hired Harry Belafonte to sing at least two Jamaican folk songs. Incidentally, another responder pointed out an omission, which I regret, in not clarifying that it was more than 10 years later that Belafonte recorded those folk songs for Jamaica Welfare, as he would only have been 10 years old in 1937 when Jamaica Welfare was established.

In my article last week, I also mentioned Jamaica Welfare and its role in the development of cooperatives, as last Thursday was also celebrated as International Credit Union Day. A responder in Jamaica Observer online proceeded to write his opinions, which are in absolute opposition to ‘welfare’ as a political ideology.

But welfare in the context of ideology is totally different from Jamaica Welfare, which in no way encouraged laziness.

Here is a perfect example of the way that word meanings evolve to have a different connotation, because in 1937 the term ‘welfare’ did not mean unemployment benefits or handouts to lazy people who refuse to work. I have been told that the changed definition of “welfare” is what motivated Edward Seaga, as minister of development and welfare in the 1960s, to change the name of the Jamaica Social Welfare Commission to Social Development Commission in 1965.

But Jamaica Welfare was such a strong and disciplined voluntary organisation that by 1943 it became a statutory body of the colonial government to gather ground provisions for soldiers fighting in Europe during World War II. This was when the name was changed to Jamaica Social Welfare Commission. Which entity knew how to prepare agricultural produce for export better than Jamaica Welfare?

The banana industry became the economic mainstay of Jamaica after the decline of sugar production when the ex-slaves walked off the estates. By the 1920s there was a Banana Producers Cooperative and Norman Manley was its lawyer.

In the 1930s a banana disease wiped out the industry and the peasant cultivators flocked the towns of Jamaica for jobs. This was when Norman Manley had the idea to ask the United Fruit Company of America to sponsor a project to develop rural areas that would attract workers back to those areas to plant bananas.

Housing, cooperative businesses, each-one-teach-one adult literacy, health care, the making of clothes, trade training for youth, local entertainment, among other things, were achieved by Jamaica Welfare, and mostly from volunteers. So words evolve and in this instance Jamaica Welfare did not mean ‘welfare state’.

Then there is socialism and communism, two words that still cause confusion among many to this day. More than 100 years ago the two words were used interchangeably and this created the constant confusion. The Roman Catholic Church certainly spoke of socialism and communism as one and the same in the beginning but, as different types of socialism came into being, that was adjusted.

Pope Leo XIII’s dictum that one cannot be a good (Roman) Catholic and a good socialist at the same time no longer applies. He was referring to atheistic communism. There are still three aspects of scientific socialism (communism) that the Roman Catholic Church rejects. These are the denial of the existence of God, the insistence of class warfare, and the suppression of all types of private property.

At the same time Pope Leo’ XIII’s 1891 encyclical ‘Rerum Novarum (New Ways)’ contained what many might call socialism today. He stated that all workers should have a living wage and should be treated humanely. Indeed, many socialist nations simply follow the social encyclicals of the Roman Catholic Church.

As we approach the 501st anniversary of the Protestant Reformation on (October 31), where the German Monk Martin Luther believed that anyone can interpret Scriptures and solo Scriptura became part of the rules of the Lutheran Church — this theological position was followed initially by all mainline Protestant churches — many Protestants have recanted on that because they know that word meanings change. They acknowledge what certain words might have meant in biblical times have entirely different meanings now.

That is why in theology one learns form criticism, also known as textual criticism, which was applied only by Roman Catholics until the Protestants caught up. The fundamentalist churches, for the most part, do not use textual criticism but interpret the Bible literally.

But the changing definition of human rights concerns me most because it detracts many from the International Human Rights Charter. Human rights groups in Jamaica concern themselves mainly with opposing the death penalty, opposing inhumane prison conditions, and defending the rights of accused persons to fair trials. As a result, many think that the definition of human rights is to ‘take up’ for criminals. Human rights groups would do well to correct this perception in the media.

Michael Burke is a research consultant, historian and current affairs analyst. Send comments to the Observer or ekrubm765@yahoo.com.