Cultural world

When I was a kid, Walt Disney had developed a sanitize theme for the world with a little song which became sort of the theme song of his amusement park. It's a small world after all, was the song that was supposed to make everyone feel warm and fuzzy and happy and bring world peace and understanding to all. I disliked the idea and its presentation and the sugar sweet way in which it was presented, somewhat like those nauseating Christmas TV specials when it was proclaimed that it was Xmas all over the world and everyone wished for roasting chestnut, roasted turkey and snow.

Even though I was just a kid, I knew this could not be and it made no sense to me in the same way the song by Disney was plain dumb. Sure it made some people see the world as less of a threat if everyone is the same and wear funny costume like at a masked ball. I was lucky enough to start traveling at the age of 12 and soon realized that the Irish in Ireland had nothing to do with the North American stereotype or the French or the British for that matter.

When I joined the work force, I was and have been fortunate to travel the world and see that people are not all the same and do not wear colorful costumes unless it's a show for silly tourists longing for something safe. This is what makes the world interesting; we are all different and not necessarily dangerous, just different.

Different languages, different eating habits, different philosophy of life, different beliefs, different colour, just different. On the whole humans are not violent, everyone just wants to get along and be respected.

This is why most conflicts today come down to a fundamental lack of respect for the other party and wanting to reform them, to bring things to them, be it democracy, fundamentalist Christian values, globalization aka North American values, standardized norms and practices or our understanding of what is important. But I also noticed that in Asia, China loves to push its neighbors around under the idea that they represent all of Asia, being so big. Same in Africa or in Latin America, in Europe, France and Germany dominate the EU. So it is a fairly common trait amongst humans, always trying to tell the other guy what to do.

A few years ago, a colleague from that great Republic asked me why Canada did not ditch the Monarchy and have a Republican system instead. Canada being a Constitutional Monarchy, the great Dominion. My colleague obviously did not know his own history and how the history of our two countries was so vastly different. To this day we maintain very different attitudes on many topics, like gun control, same-sex marriage, gays in the military and strong banking control, to name a few topics his country is still struggling with.

But he was all ready to tell me the errors of our ways and how we could just be like his country. I pointed out to him that me and my fellow countrymen had no wish to be like him and his countrymen.

Then today I got a phone call out of the blue, from someone I met in Egypt 21 years ago. I had lost track of him and his family in the last 7 years and it was quite a surprise to hear him on the phone from Abu Dhabi. It reminded me how his family and he had been so very kind to me while I lived in Egypt. His parents were teachers, very decent and kind people. His mother was a great cook and she always prepared meals to feed an army whenever I visited them in the Fayoum south of Cairo. He and his brother were just nice and fun to be with, through them I learned a lot about Egypt and its people and my view of the country was shaped in many ways by what I learned talking with them. In the same way, when I lived in Jordan I met many Palestinians and Bedouins and was amazed how different they were as two people despite the fact that they lived in the same small kingdom in a mix of Christians and Muslims.

My time in Asia and Africa also taught me the same thing, people are different and they may even think very differently than I do as a Westerner but in the end their ideas are just as important and valuable as any western idea or value.

This is why I am often distressed when I hear politicians saying things along the lines of; we are bringing them democracy and rule of law, as if other people in other countries had lived until now in a state of lawlessness.

By reading about other civilization, one can see the wealth of human experience. But I wonder why we prefer to see only our point and not the other fellow's. Maybe if we reflect on it quietly we can come to a better understanding.