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Dear PF folks,
I suppose one of my themes, in the more than a year since I joined
Positive Futures, has been that the world is rather different from what
people in small-town Nth. America think. Given the ghetto-izing
influence of US TV, that's not surprising.
I believe that the world of the future will be much closer to the
average of the world today, than to middle-class Nth. American
experience.
In my opinion, the "average of the world today" isn't too bad.
(It is certainly "Positive" compared to the lives of the half below the
average!)
And if one takes the whole of life's experiences, over the three or
more generations that people my age know
(instead of the totally artificial "work! work!, buy! buy!" idea of what
life is about, that is pushed by the current economic idea/ethos),
_I_ am encouraged to look forward to a positive future not a lot
different from that experienced by a middle-class Indian or city
Thailander, and if things go better than I expect, similar to the life
of a middle-class European today. Emphasis on community, less on money.
I write as one who grew up in Eastern Canada during and just after
WW2, and who began his working life (in Hamilton Ontario) as a college
graduate electronic engineer on the radar in the Starfighter, came back
after some years as a Physics teacher in W. Africa to teach Physics in
Ontario, got married and had 2 kids in London Ont., the third (Ruth) in
Ottawa (while my wife did biophysics research in Canada's
National Research Council), etc., etc. I know whereof I speak.
A bit more on how some of the rest of the world actually is:
>At 04:13 21/11/98 PST, Ruth (now age 21) wrote from Beijing:
>>Up until now ..that familiar smell I learnt in India. ..This morning,
>>after a Saturday morning sleep in 'til 8am, I peered out the window
>>to find the yard rapidly disappearing under snow!
>[David:]
>** Hey, that's great! I had thought you'd be seeing a combination of
>lowering clouds, sleet and slush first, with snow a week or more later.
On Sat, 28 Nov 1998 23:33 PST Ruth wrote:
No, it was 90days of drought in which the weather got colder and colder
and the roads so covered in dust you had to dig to see road surface - in
the places where a surface has been laid that is. Then that one big dump
of snow broke the drought. ... It's been melting
over the past few days with grizzly weather and a few fine days. I'll be
out taking pictures today if I have time; it's almost like it was when I
first got here minus most of the dust.
[David:]
> How are your boots, in this weather? Do you have enough socks?
My boots seem ok, I'm glad I dubbined them before I left.
[Ruth Elling MacClement:]
>> ... did I mention my new
>>name?: Ailing (I ling), after the famous poet from ancient times. It's
>>from my middle name: Elling. ...
>[David:]
> . . . . . . I am _so_ glad you have been to India first; the various
>sights, sounds and smells in China aren't all that foreign, now. Your
>culture-shock should be much less, and you'll be that much
>(i) more effective in your job, and
>(ii)more able to get out-and-about, actually enjoying your surroundings
>and creating memories for yourself.
Well, so far, I haven't got out much.
[David:]
>** My repeated statement: "I've _had_ a good life" relies on the twin
>pillars:
>*A* I've put a lot of effort into doing something I felt was valuable,
and:
>*B* I have a _lot_ of memories of events I wouldn't want to forget.
Heh:) Well, that could be quite easily slotted into the one experience
here in China neh?:)
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
David. (not very humble)
** http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/6783/index.html#top
David MacClement <davd@geocities.com>
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Delphi/3142/index.html#top