A child was born today to a family that had its best interests at heart and the family loved that child wholeheartedly. The father is proud and can’t wait to impart his understanding of the world onto his child. The mother is so happy and is determined to bring that child up right. They want to do their best to see that the child becomes a good member of society and keeps the family name in good standing in the community. That child grows up, makes their family and society proud and repeats the process again.

That sounds like a good wholesome story, doesn’t it? I’m sure everybody at some level can relate to that understanding of life and society as a whole. The only thing though is where in the world am I talking about? Am I talking about Sweden, USA, Saudi Arabia, Gambia or China? Well I believe my opening paragraph relates to every society all around the world. Who doesn’t want the best for their children, generally speaking? But this is on a localised level.

What happens when all these positive things meet each other on a global level? Well that is where I believe the problems start. Let me elaborate. When in a local society, e.g. a village or a small town, the values or culture of that community are more aligned between that group of people and their value system whatever they may be, is the right value system as far as that society is concerned. You then have visionaries or brutal conquerors depending on your viewpoint, who bring many of these small communities together in the form of a country and instil one overriding culture among those people in the form of a flag, an anthem and a coat of arms among other things. There are some frictions that take place from time to time between those small societies, but generally all the people in that country move in the same direction.

I suppose it’s easier to pull people in a country with similar customs and values in one direction than it is to do with a wider group of people with varying value systems. Some people are taught from a young age that other people are inferior to them, others are taught that their religion is superior and everyone else is going to Hell and everyone feels sorry for everyone else because there is a chip on everyone else’s shoulders as they feel they know something everyone else doesn’t know. It’s all quite comical when you think about it.

So, there are different value systems all over the world and everyone genuinely believes in their heart of hearts that theirs is the right one. Some places are more open minded than others and are open to evidence based information which triggers a shift in the understanding of that group of people. Others that are let’s say, “less flexible” I would suggest are usually more keen on embracing the technologies that the other less inhibited minded people have created, particularly in the areas of weaponry, mobile phone technology and social media platforms.

However, when it comes to intellectual and cultural progression they stick rigidly to the script and sometimes even mete out violence when there is a dissenter. This happens all over the world in varying degrees so every culture is guilty of it in one form or the other. But this mumpsimus is the real challenge when it comes to global cooperation and general human advancement. How do you convince people their way of thinking could be a bit more, shall we say “up to date”?

Travelling is a good start but even that doesn’t work for everyone. With technological advancements in travel, cultures are meeting each other more frequently now than ever before and that can only be a good thing ultimately, but this technological advancement in travel can be a bit too much for some people to get used to so quickly. People in different regions would have interacted with each other over many years and been comfortable with each other over a long period of time, but these days that gentle easing into comfort zones is rather more rapid. It’s for such reasons that when new tribes are discovered like small communities of the Yanomami tribe in Brazil’s Amazon, the perceived wisdom is to let them be and not interact with them as it could be a serious shock to the system as far as their culture and traditions are concerned.

Every culture believes that they have the right template for a good society, so how can the human race ever be as one with so many clashes due to these differences, some of which are complete anathemas between cultures? After all they all mean well, no matter how ill-informed some of it may seem between cultures. I’d say the best thing is to see each other as humans first before any other differences. This is far more difficult than it sounds because it involves treating people with respect, which is something that is easy to say but not so easy to action. In fact, hats off to those that can action this and not just talk about it.

Yes, we have differences in our understanding of what society should be like throughout the world, but I think we can begin to find similarities by first asking each other, “what’s your blood colour?”. That’s a good start for people who are so entrenched in their ways but genuinely want to have an open mind when it comes to learning about others and interacting with them. Interaction will lead to cooperation and the greater advancement of the human race and everything else benefiting thereafter. So, what’s your blood colour? Red? That’s just like me! My name is Ese, what’s yours?