Can we reverse prospective cultural extinction?

I encourage you to watch this video from TED. It features photographer Phil Borges shares his stunning portraits, documenting the world's disappearing cultures, from persecuted monks in Tibet to embattled tribes in the Ecuadorian Amazon. Note in the lifetime of an elder, the languages spoken in the world will half. (already reduced from 6000 down to 3000 over last 100yrs).

During his speel, Borges notes that a recent $2 million National Geographic survey reveals Americans aged 18-26 rated second last out of nine developed countries in terms of knowledge of what's going on in the rest of the world. 70% of Americans questioned didn't know the wherabouts of Iraq or Afghanistan on a map, let-a-lone India or the position of the Pacific Ocean?

How does this cause you to see yourself and how you think about the future? Can we reverse prospective cultural extinction? Are the on-line connections around the world in the program described a wave of the future? Or, do you foresee another international fate?

Howstuffworks "Phil Borges Talks at TED About His Photography"

Destination for the sake of it

Why is it that we dream of certain destinations? Is it mainly instinctual or, is there much more to it?  If you live a distance away from your family or long-time friends, then travel destination priorities may well involve bringing you closer to these people.  If you sense some connection to a place you've never been, you may feel driven to get yourself to these places.  The following were eleven reasons people gave me as motivations for choosing a specific travel destination:

1) Leisure/ vacation: lured by the exotic

2) Family live in the area

3) Wedding/ Reunion/ Funeral location

4) Work conference/ meeting setting

5) "Always wanted to go there"

6) Spiritual reasons (i.e., desire to witness miracles or to make a pilgrimage)

7) Random choice

8) "Someone recommended it"

9) "Why not?"

10) Seat sale

11) Heritage (i.e., gathering material for a family tree; visiting relatives' graves, retracing immigration path or finding/ reuniting with blood relatives)

Post highschool wanderer

I met a guy who was finishing highschool and opting not to attend university, at least not right away.  Instead, much to his parents' surprise, he signed up and paid for short-term language courses in Beijing, China and Paris, France. He bought a ticket to realize an overseas dream. He had learned basic Chinese and French during highschool, but he was impatient to apply himself and survive in the 'real world'.

In the back of his mind, he dreamed of adventure and nurturing transferable skills. They would surely assist whatever experiences would unfold in his future. He reminisced about his boyscout days and having been taught varied ways to "be prepared." He figured he still had much to learn and decided to move ahead.

As it happened, the evolution of a relationship with his girlfriend nearly caused him to change his travel plans. She didn't plan to accompany him. He was unsure if he should just up and go. Yet, after reflection, he decided the best thing for him at that point in his life was to test the relationship with distance and the passage of time. He was focused on his personal quest. His instincts re-oriented his life compass.

When friends heard about his plans, many tried to talk him out of it. Questions were thrown at him from many directions; How will you survive? Where will you get a job? Who will help you if you get into trouble? What will you do when your money runs out? Skeptics and pessimists nearly caused him to back out. Yet, somewhere, deep inside himiself, he felt the pull of his will to step outside of what he thought he knew in order to figure out who he really was. He felt he had to do that outside a classroom.

Although some people described him as a wanderer, he felt he was on a focused quest of increased self-understanding. He packed his copy of The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho and readied himself for the next chapter of his life journey.

To divert or not to divert

In Australia, access to adequate fresh water has been a dream.  Individual state governments don't all agree with the current federal government's proposed plan to take control of the major Murray-Darling River system.  The federal government's intention is supposedly to better control and distribute the water.  Citizens get views through media about how politicans from each side view water plans.

Historically, when governments took steps to control this water system, again during periods of severe drought, the consequences nearly led to the city of Adelaide losing its water supply.  Underground waterways reacted to the surface manipulation of water by human beings.  The result was anything but desirable.  Luckily, that catastrophe didn't evolve to the worst case scenario.

Questions have been raised as to whether or not the government should intervene at all.  Nature has a way of finding its own balance. As it stands,a large percentage of the Murray Darling River is used by industry in part because of government contracts which offered free use of natural resources. Agriculture is another big user of this fresh water resource. People use it for drinking water and for leisure activities.

The big question is, would it be wise to interfere with Nature and how it supposedly re-establishes its own balance? Would it make more sense to focus not on struggling to control what little fresh water still exists, but rather, to continue to shift attention ot desalination technology which is already a priority for Western Australia? NSW and Victoria are thinking seriously but have yet to confirm plans for and commit to build desalination plants.

If you think about it, the money which could be spent to fight a legal battle to control the Murray-Darling River could be better spent on other prospective solutions to the underlying problem.  Desalination plants have benefitted other parts of the world greatly already. As we evolve away from a confrontational mentality, we may be better off.  To divert mindsets from conflict-oriented to solutions-oriented is key.

Ask and answers will come

Have you ever prepared for sleep with a situation on your mind and you desire a resolution? How often have you lay down for bed with unanswered questions spinning out of control? You may not have realized that sleep offers a way for you to get in touch with deeper parts of yourself and also your guardian angel.   You may be amazed how your angels respond as you invite them in.  You have the freedom of choice to listen or not.  Open-minded people will listen to varied possibilities.

You may have heard the idea that all the answers you seek actually lie within yourself.  People have the tendency to talk with other people when awake, to reach out for assistance.  This may  be useful if it enables you to listen closer to yourself and not simply do what someone else would for the sake of it.  Whether or not you realize it now, connecting with angels is a way to connect with your innermost self.  You may not realize you have answers already or where within you can find them.

Some people train themselves to ask a question before they go to sleep so that it percolates in their mind and the answer comes to them during the night.  How does this happen? You can condition yourself to self-reflect yet, another force may be leading you to where you store answers.  Your angels know exactly where you are in your personal development and they can guide you to greater clarity in any area of your life.  When and how you choose to connect will be completely up to you.