Living in harmony sounds like a wonderful concept, don’t you think? Some would say: ‘too good to be true’ while others, more optimistic, believe that ‘anything is possible’. Glendinning notes that:
If we cannot envision the world we would like to live in, we cannot work towards its creation. If we cannot place ourselves in it in our imagination, we will not believe it is possible.
Living in harmony is not a dream; rather, it is something that we can all strive to achieve. We can achieve this, not only in our own home, but at school and in the wider community too. Acting on our beliefs, in effect, becomes a self fulfilling prophecy, because deep in our subconscious we either believe that something is possible or we don’t. Every word, every action is influenced by our thinking. If we believe harmony is possible then all our communication and actions will reinforce this, and if we don’t, then it is highly unlikely that we will live harmoniously.
Breaking down prejudices, developing greater global understanding, bringing people together from different faiths, or different cultures can be a powerful way to unite people of the world but of course it doesn’t guarantee harmony. Starting in our ‘own backyard’ is perhaps the surest way to start this process of mutual understanding and empathy. What is harmony anyway, if we don’t learn to accept and value differences between people?
I once believed that I really did understand what it was like for immigrants arriving in a new country and to a new school but I was wrong. Yes, very wrong. The full appreciation of what it felt like to look and sound different hit me when I made my very first trip to China. Not only did I have people pointing at me (a combination of fair colouring and being tall), I was also at a complete loss to understand what was being said to me and couldn’t speak the language. I felt different and I was different and this was very confronting at the time and reinforced the fact that being a ‘worldly’ person and travelling the world did not mean that I felt comfortable in a different country – I felt very alien. I certainly did not feel like I was part of a global village.
The idea of a ‘global village’ is an oxymoron. An oxymoron pulls together two conflicting concepts that are at odds with one another or at the simplest level – opposites, like ‘bitter sweet’. On one hand we acknowledge that the world is shrinking. Consider the time it takes to travel from one country to another, or the nanosecond it takes for communication and images to be transmitted from one side of the globe to the other. Yet, on the other hand, there still exists an incredible diversity in culture, language and beliefs, which runs counter to the village concept which embodies like culture, like beliefs and common language. Lakhdar Brahimi makes the point:
In the globalized world that is ours, maybe we are moving towards a global village, but that global village brings in a lot of different people, a lot of different ideas, lots of different backgrounds, lots of different aspirations.
We are very fortunate to have a School which values cultural diversity and embrace the different perspectives that a multicultural community brings. Tolerance, empathy and shared understanding are the key qualities that transcend all cultural differences and leads to greater harmony amongst our students, our parents and our nation. As Robert Alan says:
Cultural differences should not separate us from each other, but rather cultural diversity brings a collective strength that can benefit all of humanity.
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