I'm off to Bangladesh in about 30 days... and at this stage, even with the political situation like it is, we're still going. So its busy times at the moment, trying to get a concert on the 11th of November at church done. It's going to be a cafe style night.. come along! 485 Richardson Road... from 7pm.
Anyway, that plug signals the end of that and what I really want to say...
In my discussions on talking to people about going to Bangladesh, people think they know everything that I dont already know... but what I notice from most people is that the last thing they say is that "but, it's such a different world" in how Bangladesh is.
Hang on a sec. Is it? I thought we all lived in one world?
Why do we always regard something that isn't the same as our cosy little country a different world? Why do we always think that if something is radically different from what we're used to, its a 'different world'?
I know its just a saying, but its said so often!
I think it just shows the widening gaps in our world - the 'sucessful' west distancing itself further and further from the apparent misconceptions that the 'problem' of poverty and non-western culture is 'over there' and is not this world.
Anyway, that plug signals the end of that and what I really want to say...
In my discussions on talking to people about going to Bangladesh, people think they know everything that I dont already know... but what I notice from most people is that the last thing they say is that "but, it's such a different world" in how Bangladesh is.
Hang on a sec. Is it? I thought we all lived in one world?
Why do we always regard something that isn't the same as our cosy little country a different world? Why do we always think that if something is radically different from what we're used to, its a 'different world'?
I know its just a saying, but its said so often!
I think it just shows the widening gaps in our world - the 'sucessful' west distancing itself further and further from the apparent misconceptions that the 'problem' of poverty and non-western culture is 'over there' and is not this world.
4 Comments:
At 12:18 pm,
tim said…
Kind of like at the end of the Invisible Children doco where they say 'people say "but thats just Africa, you can't compare it to over here". Our question is why not?'
Thats so true man. The same flesh and blood. The same feelings, complexities, personalities and value of life. It's like the shots of the screaming women that we get on our news almost daily from Iraq (or another 'non-western' war zone)when another bomb goes off and kills one of their family. Tidied into a 30 second report where the unrestrained raw emotion of loss is denigrated to such a massive extent that it looses its ability to shock us as it should.
Contrast this with the death of Steve Irwin and the way that was handled by the media.
rant rant rant
At 10:20 pm,
Anonymous said…
I read this today. It's not quite what you're on about ...
"Terms like ‘primitive' and ‘stone age' have been used to describe tribal people since the colonial era. They reinforce the idea that these peoples have not changed for generations. But this is not true. All societies adapt and change - not just ours. Tribal people are no more ‘savage' than the rest of us. The idea that tribes are backward leads directly to their persecution. For example, it is claimed that forcibly developing tribes is ‘for their own good', and helps them ‘catch up' with the ‘civilised' world. The results are almost always catastrophic: poverty, alcoholism, prostitution, disease and death.
I hope you will refrain from using such terms in the future."
Why can't we see a different way of life as being just as valid as our own? And why do we think that changing other cultures to be 'like us' will solve the world's problems?
Check this out: http://www.survival-international.org/stampitout.php
At 4:53 pm,
Cam D said…
i agree with you tim, and tim its a part of the on going spin of information that distorts how the world "actually" is. Some times its hard to tell which spin to believe
Anna I agree with you in princepla but just make sure you walk a middle path that arguement or its reaally easy ot go all "noble savage" without realising. I found myself having to revise some of the ways I thought about the Treaty and NZ's culture clash issues after some reading i did the other day. Its was one of thsose situations when you realise that there is multiple differnt ways to see any one event and everyone wants you to buy into there one.
any way this was a random rant :)
later
At 1:07 am,
Anonymous said…
interesting.. I got 2 points
1. If you live in a multicultural society like Auckland, i don't see how you can think that the people in the other world aren't people, cos you are probably mates with people of the same ethnicity, so you know they have feelings, complexities... This point is so obvious that it is offensive to point it out.
2. I looked "world" up in the dictionary cos Im a geek. Two definitions seemed particularly relevant. First, world can be defined as "the human race". On that definition clearly Bangladesh cannot be a different world because we are all part of the same human race (see point 1 above). Secondly, world can be defined as "a complete environment". I think that implies separation between societies. But i dont think there is separation, because there is so much overlap between the society there and the rest of the world, like cos of globalisation and stuff like how you can travel easily to other countries.
Anyway.. so we all live in the same world like tim said. The reason why i bothered to point this out, is partly because i think that the people who say that it is a different world subconsciously think that either the people over there are a different human race or that that is a separate environement. The thing is, once you think it through that is clearly ridiculous.
I was going to say more about how I get particularly annoyed when Christians say stuff like that, but then this comment would be way too long
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