Wednesday, January 4, 2012

A New Year in the Old World

If you have been following my blog you may know what intrigues me… its always people and places. What they eat, what they speak, what they think and why.. yes it is the People’s story that is truly fascinating. If you carefully look at the world as a globe you see layers of consciousness represented through different cultures, each serving as a part to the whole.

Behind the scenes of economic capitalism, militarism, terrorism, globalisation there still remains a world cast away, waiting to tell their story or may be not.. they perhaps choose to remain aloof.

In my recent conversations, with friends and colleagues I have learnt about cultures that are still primitive yet very connected in essence to the workings of human consciousness. A thought that comes to me, is not just political or economic globalisation but spiritual as well.

A geologist friend working with an oil exploration company recently spent a few months living in Papua New guinea where he learnt about the country’s 200 odd tribes still living in so –called ‘oblivion’. Only 2 of these are marginally civilised. However they are in absolute unity and harmony with their surroundings and habitat. He also shared with me that when he travelled to Australia he learnt that the Australian Aborigines were considered ‘flora and fauna’ of the country in as late as 1920. Ironically, these humble people still don’t take offence and still choose to live their lives in their natural habitat and staying connected to the source.

Another story that unravels the mysteries of our planet, revealing its many untold stories and faces.. is the story of an island country in French Polynesia called New Caledonia. I had never heard about this place until my French colleague shared with me his experiences living there as his mother was a French government official posted there. The people of New Caledonia were unmasked before the world, yes, there were people from New Caledonia caged and displayed at museums in Paris in the 1900s as samplings of this strange, distant island! The people of New Caledonia represent and celebrate the human spirit as much as their French counterparts in Paris. Their music is very groovy and they have a thrilling game to mark the beginning of youth and read this carefully it is nothing but- bungee jumping!

As a history student I have read and learnt about many civilisations but rarely do we hear about the remote worlds of New Caledonia, Papua New guinea or even Samoa (another country I learnt about from a half Samoan). There are more places than you know, or you read about in your newspapers. Even if we choose to ignore what happened to all the Native Red Indians of America or whether the Mayans were so evolved that they merged with divine consciousness or did they just get dismissed by Spanish gunpowder. It will remain a mystery.

Personally, I consider people all over the world as a part of a larger jigsaw puzzle.. some are more obscure and choosing a path of resilience to maintain the spiritual balance of humanity while the others are still killing each other and stealing each other’s resources.

No comments:

Post a Comment