Caravan of the Books

Photo by Alexandre Boue
licensed under the Attribution-Share Alike 4.0

I was watching a program the other night "Caravan of the Books: Kenya's Mobile Camel Library" (click the updated link for one minute preview) and was struck by the fact that this is happening in the 21st century. It is a marvellous and hopeful program, but North America and the developed world are planets apart. I felt guilty when I thought about demanding rights for this item or that item in the modern world. My electric wheelchair is not only computer-controlled but reports back to the company twice a day with complete diagnostics and has a huge range of features, all aimed at one thing-making me feel comfortable.

In our modern world of multitasking and distracting ourselves the message in this show was clear-at least to me-"How about we raise up the rest of the world allowing them to have opportunities and access." That leads into the question of what sort of things make societies separate. Is it just human nature to be tribal and unique at any cost? And when we arrive at an answer is the purpose of the "answer" just to make the affluent feel better?

I will expand on this in the coming weeks as more thoughts occur to me. My first is yet another question, "now that we know the past is not as simple or romantic as we'd hoped how do I do we change our present behaviours so that cultures can benefit from advancements while keeping their identity and uniqueness in any way they wish?

Patrick