Insights Into Cultural Understanding

1. We seem not be ready.
2. Where is the Leadership.
3. The worlds’ problems are complex

I am talking about Globalization and how it is forcing an understanding of how connected we all are. There was a time not long ago when the only thing that concerned us all, was the cost of a barrel of oil. No longer, everything matters now, from toys to water, from soy beans to health insurance and world population and automobile production.

Our standard way of addressing problems (need a forest, buy a lot of trees and stick them in the ground) is not likely to work and may have been the unintentional cause of the problem.

One hundred years ago there was approximately 1.5 billion people moving into the 20th Century, today we are approaching 7 billion people and the size of the path (from century to century) has not gotten any bigger. There is congestion at the gate for “Western Standards”.

Jeffrey Sachs article in “The Daily Star” Applaud economic growth, but recognize its downsides, highlights complexities.

Each market impacts the others. With wheat markets tightening, more land is used for wheat planting, reducing maize or soybean production. And, with more maize and soybeans being used for fuels rather than food, the food supply tightens even more. The triple threat of rising world demand, conversion of food into fuel, and climate shocks has conspired to push world food prices much higher than anticipated even a couple of years ago.

Sachs is an Economist and participates in the debates on global warming, poverty and hunger. I am unfortunately like most of us alarmed when the question is asked “paper or plastic”. No one is vetting our choices anymore. We are walking on egg shells and need to be more then concerned about the mess we are making.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin, declared a holiday this past week (Sept 12, 2007) so that Russians could stay at home and create babies. That date was picked so that if the holiday was successful there would be scores of babies born on “Russia Day”, which is June 12, 2008. The Russian population has been on the decline and this seemed to me an amusing way to turn the tide. As I mused about this I remembered an article “It’s the Demography, Stupid” written by Mark Steyn, a writer with a great sense of humor and an unreal fear of the unknown. What struck my mind was the suggestion that Christians and especially, western (in style) European Nations, needed to start to produce more Christians, because, Muslim people were out producing “us” and “they” will eventually win the war due to “our” attrition.

As I played back all of the rhetoric I’ve heard over the last six years about why there is a war in Iraq, an actual country, and a war on terror, in countries to be determined, it all started to make sense or non-sense, either term with it’s own consequences. To me, terms like “They hate us and want to destroy our way of life” can be translated to mean that their babies are going to beat our babies because there are more of them. Or, that “history will prove that we were right”, means we will have more babies then them and that these babies will agree with us.

Imagine if they were all our babies

What I find both comical and sad in this line of thinking is that someone really believes that they know what lies ahead. If anything, this line of thinking insures that these future babies, ours and theirs, have no future of their own and like our generation will be consumed with revenging the sins of the past and overlooking the sins of the present. Maybe we can add another line to John Lennon’s lyrics, “Imagine they were all our babies.” I know it’s been said before, but just imagine.

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Dr. Joel Martin recently participated in the filming of the exciting “next step” in transformation through film. It is called The Answer and it has been produced by Ed Madison and Dr. Ray Blanchard. There is a trailer that you can view on YouTube. You will likely want to learn more, know more, and see more as a result of this short intro. There will be screenings during October so stay tuned.

In terms of the subject of this blog, I am be interested in your response. I suggest that the answers lie within, the internal, then go to the external. Is this perspective culturally driven? Likely.

Here’s a quote from Ed.

Can we really live a life without limits? Some critics of metaphysics say we sell people the false hope of “having it all.” What do you say? Does life, by its very nature have limits? Or can anyone REALLY have it ALL? Ed Madison

But…in terms of having it all struggle is a fact of life and not necessarily a “bad” thing. Pastor Benjamin Thomas, Tanner Chapel in Phoenix, says, “Until you’ve been through something, you can’t be a witness” and that there are two sides of a crisis, “danger and opportunity.”

In the midst of our challenges, I believe that it’s up to us to frame events in a way that serves us no matter how difficult this may be. Given the choices available, choosing to feel that a crisis is an opportunity can lead one to a more abundant, happy, and healthy life experience.

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