“When all the trees will be cut down, all the fish will be fished and all the water polluted, only then we will find that we can’t eat money.” (seen it written on a wall somewhere in the world)
"When all the trees will be cut down, all the fish will be fished and all the water polluted, only then we will find that we can't eat money." (seen it written on a wall somewhere in the world)
Traveling does not make you smarter but makes your angle of view wider. A person who grows and lives only in one place is like a horse with an eye cover. Sees only straight. That's natural and normal. The moment you step outside you are exposed to new ways of living, thinking, conventions and different behaviors. Every new country, every new culture and your angle of view widens.
It also a good way to get to know your own culture. As someone already said, and may he forgive me for not remembering his name, that in order to know your culture you have to look at it from the outside. Only this way you will be able to judge it, for the good or for the worse.
The most important thing I've learned through my travels is that everything is a matter of Geography. A taboo in one place is sacred in another. A rare done juicy stake in Argentina is a basic need and a good enough reason for living while in India it's God ( when it's still alive and in 1 piece). No normal mother in the western world will allow her 4 years child to go alone to the beach while in the Philippines 4 year old girls sail boats alone. In our world, time = money. In Africa time isn't worth anything (maybe we can import a little from them). An African who need to work 1 hour and 42 minutes for the food of the day will work exactly that and then will go sit under the tree happier than life. With us, no way. We will work as much as possible, do extra hours, will buy a newer computer so we can save time so we can work more........Who lives better? I don't know (I know but I can't admit because than I'll have to go sit under the tree with the African).
Since everything is a matter of geography, we cannot judge others saying we are better/they are better, they don't have logic/have logic. That's the reason that using terms like " 3rd world country", "primitive", etc. resents me. Who decided who is 1st world and who is 3rd? According to what criteria? Who gave us, white Europeans (and I'm from the middle east at all), the right to judge everything when the basis is our culture?
You know what, I'll take it even a step further. Take a look at the world map. It's quite obvious why Australia is a continent, why Africa is a continent and why America is one too. Looking at Europe, I can't figure out why it is called a continent. It's an inseparable part of Asia. Someone took the Ural mountains is Russia and decided that from there left it is Europe and to the right it's Asia, a division which in my eyes is not only arbitrary but patronizing also. Europe is the only continent whos borders were decided based on Cultural and ethnical reasons and not Geographical. Hmmm, I guess I got swept away, as usual, from the original topic.
Traveling is great fun and freedom but we, the travelers, have the duty to try and leave a place as close as possible to the way it was when we arrived. It is very nice to give candies to local kids but you are actually telling them that tourists = gifts. It's only candies, you say? Candies are the beginning. From the next tourist they will already be expecting to get something. When they grow up candies will not be enough. They will want money and that's how you build a generation of beggars. Worst than that, this is how ways of living change, old customs die etc. Their grandparents and fathers managed without the candies and so will they. Only by being there we cause change. Our way of dressing, talking, behavior, the cameras we flash in front of their faces, are all subjects to be copied but I guess that's the list we can do.
And why did I bother to state that opening saying? The more I travel the less I feel belonging to any specific place. I become less and less Israeli and more and more................I don't really know how to define it. Lets say, just for the definition, more and more a citizen of the world. This world that we live in is my, your, our home. Water, sun, trees etc. are the source for our living. I believe that somewhere along our evolution process we, the western world, lost contact with this world we live in and all we care about is us. We take for granted, for example, the fact that water comes out of the tap and waste it like it is worth nothing while half of the people on this planet spend a great part of their day just in search for it. We "hunt" much more than we can eat, we want to control other people/nations etc. ( I do recommend to see a movie called " Instinct" starting Anthony Hopkins).
Each one of us, in his own little world, can make a small difference. Mainly all we need is awareness. Instead of using double plastic bags, like they do in many supermarkets, use only one, or even better - none, because it takes plastic more than 500 years to break down again. Not to buy product from companies who experiment on animals, not to visit zoo's because to put 30 monkey in a small metal cage just so we can throw peanuts at them is cruel (imagine if it was the opposite, 30 humans in a cage and monkeys bringing their kids to throw peanut at us?). Animals place is in the nature! Recycle paper because they are made out of trees (by the way, all wood used in the construction of the Nega was bought either used or from forests planted especially for that purpose). There are thousands of little things we can help during our day to day routine and this is not written to educate anyone. This is what we here at the Nega believe in and we hope that by you being part of our family we can make another small change in this world.
Happy travels
Inbal
