From Pyin Oo Lwin with love,

SayaNyein,Thursday, July 24, 2008

(Solution to clash of values)

“And either I’m nobody or I’m a one-man nation “.

He’s right. The true poet is a one-man nation.

culture is social glue which binds communities to live in peace

and harmony.

Iraq is very much in turmoil after the occupation of western

forces.
The world has become a better and safer place?
It’s a very big question mark "?".
Mixed sensation of cold and warmth is felt in this place called Pyin
Oo Lwin alias May Myo.
The weather is rather cold this September, but reports of forest
fires in Borneo and Sumatra make me sweating. All over the world
people are worrying about “global warming”. A group of researchers
recently warned that merely planting trees is not enough to prevent
global warming.’ Developing nations’ want economic progress at any
cost to the environment.
Rich western nations prefer ‘sustainable economic growth’. ‘Idealists
and Environmental Fanatics’ want what we call ‘Zero Environmental
Impact(ZEI). This is an example of ‘clash of values’.
In this article I’ll propose a solution to the problem of ‘clash of
values’.
We are now (nine years) in the 21st, century. Berlin wall had been
broken down. Soviet empire or so-called evil empire had collapsed.
Cold war had ended. The bipolar world has turned into multi-polar
world. Iraq is very much in turmoil after the occupation of western
forces. The world has become a better and safer place? It’s a very big
question mark"?" .
New problems arise. You may agree or disagree;
there is one good point of communist system.It suppresses ‘religious
fanaticism and ultra nationalism’. Ultra nationalism tends to break up
communities which formerly live in harmony.
One of the causes of social fragmentation is "clash of cultures and value
systems". In Bosnia, it is clash of Christian and Islamic cultures.
In middle-east, the clash is between Jewish and Islamic cultures. In
Kashmir, the conflict is between Hindu and Islamic.
 Because of jet-travels and instant communication via many global
networks such as CNN and Internet, the world seems to become
relatively “smaller”, and looks like a “big village”
where every event (big or small) is seen and heard by everybody.
The word “global village” is coined to describe this
phenomenon.Suitable culture for global village should be all-embracing
‘multiculturalism’. Definition of “culture” according to a dictionary is
“all the arts, beliefs, and social institutions etc., characteristics of a
community”. In fact culture is social glue which binds communities
to live in peace and harmony. The concept of ‘multiculturalism’ is
invented for new world order. I would like the reader to get a glimpse
of the idea “multiculturalism” from a poem composed by a renown poet,
Derek Walcott. Walcott is a west-Indian-born poet.
He represented his “identity-card” in the following poem:
“I’m just a red nigger who loves the sea,
I had a sound colonial education,
I have Dutch, nigger and English in me,
And either I’m nobody or I’m a one-man nation “.
He’s right. The true poet is a one-man nation.
He was born and brought up in multicultural environment. That
environment made him into what he called “an elated, exuberant poet
madly in love with English”. Walcott believes that blacks must
“Take in the fact of slavery without bitterness, because bitterness is
going to lead to the fatality of thinking in terms of revenge”.
If we continue to sulk and say “Look ! what the slave owners
(British Colonialist) did”, we will never mature. Throughout history
nations conquered other nations in building empires. Empires prospered,
declined and collapsed. The conquerors imposed their cultures on the
defeated people. In the beginning the clashes of cultures were inevitable.
Gradually cultures of the conquerors took root in the new environment,
which might be either slightly or very different from the original ones.
For example, the British colonialized India and imposed English
language on the Indians. (Imposition of language is some sort of cultural
domination). But the English spoken in India is very much different from
that spoken by the British.
Old languages mix up and new forms of languages appear. Old
languages, institutions, cultures die. New cultures and new values are
born. High-tech culture, western culture, Islamic culture are a few
examples. Intermarriages of people of different races and
cultures are very common all over the world. The world becomes a
“melting pot of races and cultures”.
If we want to survive as individuals or as a nation, we must change
our outlooks and lifestyles, and adopt multiculturalism.
Of course I love Burma alias Myanmar . Also it is a fact that I’m a
 global-villager.
I see myself as a “global citizen”. That’s the future of the world.
I’m a villager in “global village”.
I praise and practice multiculturalism.

SayaNyein

U HLA MYINT
(AE-119686)
Department of Electronic Engineering,
DSTA,
Pyin Oo Lwin.
23 Sep. 04
Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Exuberant(adj)enthusiastic,excited,lively,energetic,highspirited,cheer
ful.

Adopt(v) accept, agree to,embrace.

Elated(adj)ecstatic,overjoyed,thrilled,delighted,euphoric,jubilant,
Excited,in seventh heaven,on coud nine,in a
state of high .