Knowledge v Understanding

Thanks to some of my Facebook friends, I've recently been reading some items in the National Graphic News website..really fascinating articles and videos ..one about recent sun spot activity, another about predictions of sun spot 'hibernation' post 2013,
and another describing a young 'sun like star' in the constellation of Perseus, 750 light years from Earth "with jets that blast epic quantities of water into inter-stellar space"

In fact, I almost blogged about each of them separately and highly recommend a look at the site!

However, what I want to explore today is the fact of the amazing amount of knowledge we have about everything and everything...from the minutiae of atomic particles to the goings on in space.

So much fresh information flooding our brain cells....and yet the question comes up in me as to the value of more and more knowledge, whilst our understanding of some of the core issues of living still seems to be so minimal.

There seems to be such a brain hunger for more, more, more ...not only for facts, but also in so many avenues of living such as for money, possessions, entertainment, advertising, relationships, titillation .....that it seems that the 'more, more, more' syndrome can keep our lives shallow, rather than the deeper probe for the value and significance of who we are and what we have.

Six months on, in Kenya

I did a blog back in March about a friend of mine who was working with a network called Feminenza in the area of Forgiveness in Kenya.

I spoke to her again this week about the results so far ...and delighted to hear about some very inspiring events. Some of the ladies who had been on the course had been meeting with some of the local tribal dignitaries and leaders and getting a very positive response from them.

One very practical example was of two tribes who at one time used to share a local market. For some time, after the recent outbreaks of violence between them, they have had to have two separate markets to prevent fighting. As a result of the ladies meeting with the local leaders, all have decided it's time to bring the market together again. Perhaps a small decision, but an important one.....because it is a practical attempt to leave the troubles of the past behind and focus on the future they want to build together.

Yet again, one can appreciate that it is often a few individuals' decisions and actions which can be the catalyst for others to come together to help build a better future. Real change begins in how we think and what we value.

All strength to them.

Idealism and Business

Just reading this morning's post at work and delighted to read a letter to my good friend, Richard, whom I work with, thanking him for not only doing a great job producing a CD for someone, but for his inspiration in combining business and idealism....something the customer now wants to try to emulate in his own business.

I love it when one man inspires another ( or woman!) by not compromising his principles in whatever field of his life he is dealing in.

Isn't it amazing how any one individual can add to or subtract from the well-being of society...and often in an exponential way.

My next blog is going to be on a young Brahmin in India doing just that!

More on the Land of Pearls

Sometimes India is called the Land of Pearls ...a rather romantic evocation....yet this last week, I keep coming across programs and articles about modern day India which are absolutely heart wrenching and haunt the mind, brutally realistic and far from romanticism.

This one was about the mentally ill in India, where it is still seen as a giant social stigma. Because of this many families simply abandon anyone with a mental problem where they wander the streets untended and uncared for, with no medical treatment. The program estimated there could be as many as 60 million Indians with mental problems.

It showed many people in very disturbed states ....sometimes with their children watching on helplessly.

As often happens, in the midst of an account of such suffering, there was one bright light in the programme. This was about a young Brahmin called Naryanan Krishnan, who has taken a position about this. From a wealthy Brahmin background, and facing a very lucrative career as a successful chef, Naryanan had a life changing experience in 2002 when he saw an old starving man in the streets of Madurai trying to eat his own excrement.

It caused him to take a position that he would help feed the mentally ill in Madurai, where he now takes care of about 400 people on a regular and daily basis. He has founded the Akshaya Trust which is publicly funded and has now managed to erect a building to provide shelter too.

He has been severely criticised by traditional Brahmins who highly disapprove of his physical contact with the Untouchables. In response, Naryanan said...

" they are human, I am human,, they are flesh and blood, I am flesh and blood"

What moves me about this is manyfold ...one is for his sentiments and his work, and another because it just demonstrates so clearly how one individual can influence so many others around them...can really make a difference....and how one strong minded person can be catalytic in inspiring other to rally too.

Forward the Future!

I have many friends in the UK of different social, political and educational backgrounds.

One thing they all seem to have in common is a dissatisfaction with their own brand of politicians which only takes second place to their objections to the politician's opponents !Those of a right persuasion, are seeing all the blind spots in the Conservative approach now the Tories are actually in government whilst still railing at the problems left behind by the last year of labor administration. Likewise with those of a left inclination.

It's fascinating to me listening to the arguments and counter arguments. One can't help wondering if there is not a completely new political template to be found which leaves behind the worst aspects of both left and right, whilst looking to the inherent values and principles of each which can add to the quality and well being of humanity.

Is there a third way to be found ? A new approach, not based in power and politics as we know it , but a fresh approach which comes from a fundamental value for life on earth and the future of humanity? Wouldn't it be a great area to bring together some of the brightest minds of our times in an international summit which is looking towards the FUTURE, rather than simply addressing whatever current PROBLEM AREA is drawing them together?

Changing Times in India

I watched an interview with the author Arundhati Roy on Newsnight last week about aspects of life in India in these times of change .. it has haunted me all week.

One aspect was about the growing gap between the rich and the poor. With India producing more and more millionaires, Mumbai has more per capita than Manhattan. Yet at the same time , there are millions and millions of people in dire poverty. The growth of the Indian economy is set to overtake that of China by 2013 at current growth rates.

Just one of the features Arundhati was highlighting was the plight of thousands of Indigenous Indians whose lands are being despoiled by the mining of bauxite. The bauxite, being porous, is also the key to the land holding water...and without it the land can't grow the food that's needed....a really vicious circle where the extraction of the mineral is going to make aluminium, bumping up the Indian economy, making a few people rich and leaving many of the poor in an even more desperate state.

As she said in the interview , Arudhati asks the question ...FOR WHAT? India hurtling towards a so called prosperous 'western style' economy at the expense of millions of its own people, so many of whom don't have even the basics to live?

She also talked about pockets of people who have quite a different vision of modernity ..those who appreciate the urgency and emergency situation of the planet.

Surely true progress can never be at the expense of humanity ....can never be just for the benefit of the few at the expense of the many?