2020: The ESSENCE of CHARACTER- CORONAVIRUS- PEACE OF MIND or MIND at PEACE-Part 6
Your true character is revealed by the clarity of your convictions, the choices you make, and the promises you keep. Hold strongly to your principles and refuse to follow the currents of convenience. What you say and do defines who you are, and who you are…you are forever[1]
“All over the world, people are being quarantined and are being compelled to practice social distancing. We are trying desperately to remain sane in a world that seems bordering on the insane. So, the time is just right for us to ponder, reflect, meditate, and discover the world within our own minds.”
― Avijeet Das
Fear of the unknown
While the many events of the past century including the host of inventions and discoveries liberated society from captivity and slavery, a new climate of fear – a fear of the unknown came into being by the middle of the last century. There came about the “Cold War” era – a euphemism to describe the post-World War II geo- political tensions that built up between the Soviet Nation and its satellites on the one hand and three other powerful nations of the world in those days-the U.S.A., Britain and France on the other. The latter were allies with the former during the World War II but fought over the spoils of the war. It was clear that the world had learned “nothing” from the past and instead of oneness, nations’ practiced “brinkmanship”. During this period (the Cold War epoch), the world again stood witness to periods of terrifying and heightened tension.[2] International crises arose one after the other:[3]
Berlin Blockade (1948–1949);
Korean War (1950–1953);
Berlin Crisis of 1961;
Vietnam War (1959–1975);
Soviet war in Afghanistan (1979–1989);
1962 Cuban Missile Crisis (1962);
NATO exercises in November 1983.
The world breathed a sigh of relief with two major events that took place in the last two decades of the century. Firstly, the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 11 1989 largely liberated people from types of confinement and suppression unknown to the world before. This one event in itself brought about a physical change in the constitution of world governance and economies of a kind not experienced prior to that time. The world became more democratic and consensual in outlook. Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen observed thus:
The Berlin Wall was not only a symbol of keeping people inside East Germany- it was a way of preventing a kind of global view of our future. We could not think globally about the world when the Berlin Wall was there. We could not think about the world as a whole…
If I celebrate the fall of the wall, it is because I am convinced of how much we can learn from each other. Most knowledge is learning from the other across the border. [4]
The second occasion was the ending in 1990 of the Cold War. The increased diplomatic, military, and economic pressure by the United States on the Soviet Union, which was already suffering from severe economic stagnation and the co-operation on the part of the new dispensation in the Soviet Union, which saw the introduction of such drastic reforms as the “perestroika” and “glasnost”, led to such a result.
Just about the time when the global society began comprehending the simple logic underlying the proverb “united we stand and divided we fall” coinciding with the dawn of the New Millennium, the world got shattered by cataclysmal events which could neither be condemned as war or regarded as some sporadic reckless acts by misguided people. These were simply frightening-even to describe. It is impossible to know if anyone could have dreamed that the world would be witness to the kind of gruesomeness of 9/11, 13/12 or 26/11 to name a few of the disasters. All that remained after the happenings were the debris- of men, women, children and materials and DUST.
Although globalization and 21st Century technology for communication have made countries realize the futileness of war in the traditional sense, yet, there is an eerie silence regarding the potential use of the same technology for destruction purposes-for obtaining Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD). The nomenclature adopted now to describe such acts is “terrorism.” These are acts on the part of a few malevolent people diabolically intent on destabilizing any attempt at unification of peoples around the globe. If left unchecked it will start consuming one by one the four pillars upon which the security of people and nations rests- food, energy, water and climate.[5]
Professor Yehuda Bauer (born 1926) is a historian and scholar of the Holocaust. He says:
“Never be a perpetrator. Never allow there to be victims. And never, never allow yourself to be a bystander—to be indifferent.”
Never before have had so many people so much in common, but never before have the things that divide them also been so obvious. The world is full of opposites. Those who live in the rich industrialized countries of the north have labeled the twentieth century as an era of economic miracles. However, the average value of goods and services has risen by leaps and bound, as is the case with the growth of the rich. It is said that if in 1989 there were 157 billionaires and 2 million millionaires there are now more than 300 billionaires. The poor see it in a different way. There are 100million homeless, 400 million people undernourished, and two billion people drink and bathe in contaminated water. 40 million more people around the world have been pushed into hunger in 2008.[6]
With less than 400 billionaires holding assets equaling the total worth of 45 percent of the world’s population, the developing countries want to see a change in the flow of resources for reduction of the divide between the rich and the poor. The world has realized that no nation can live in isolation to enjoy the luxuries of their prosperity. They have come to believe that redistribution of their national wealth among other nations for rebuilding or development has become necessary albeit for mutual benefit.[7]
Culture shock
An article on Culture Change and East West Cultural Differences attempts to trace the origin of the term “migrant” or an ‘expatriate’ (abbreviated to “ex-pat or expat”). While the term is commonly used to refer to a Westerner who resides in a ‘foreign’ country, it comes from the Latin ‘ex patria’. Translated, it means ‘outside the native land’. Its origin is said to have appeared in Latin texts for more than 2000 years and refers to “Roman soldiers who left their homeland to fight battles for the expansion of the Roman Empire”. Anyone who lives away from their home country can be described as a foreign resident, expatriate, ex-pat or expat. People of Thailand call them “farang” or aliens and Indonesians call them “bule”. In fact, “firangi” is a term used in Hindi or Urdu language. The term “Videshi” (the opposite of “deshi”) in Hindi speaking regions signifies a foreigner.
Life is difficult and not a bed of roses. A realization of this fact helps us concentrate on finding solutions to problems rather than mulling over difficulties. An expatriate must accept the fact that there are bound to be differences in the way of life at ‘home’ and in a ‘foreign’ country just as a bride realizes that she has to accept the new environs of her life in her new found home. Some might encourage a student (as is happening in Australia) to get back home but the same thing could apply to a newly wed bride too. In both cases, life might not turn out to be as well as planned and might end up in grief. There is wide divergence in the way people handle life’s challenges and its realities. This depends on the type of education, tradition, one’s religion, faith and their philosophies. In general, effective communication is the most important tool one can have to get along with people. Usually, a common language gives helps greater ability to communicate effectively with the people around us – our family, friends, work colleagues and even with strangers in public. Besides, what we have learned of our country’s history, our people’s habits, likes and dislikes, politics, religion, traditions; legal and judicial systems including our rights as a citizen and our own social norms influence our relationships and associations with foreigners’ in their countries. What happens to us applies equally well to foreigners’ who come to our country. This phenomenon is described as “cultural shock”.
Kalervo Oberg a world-renowned anthropologist is said to have travelled the world and written about his experiences so that others could enjoy them as well .
His cross-cultural comparisons led to him to understand the “shock” or anxiety felt by migrants while experiencing an unknown or new culture which he termed as a “culture shock”. This term expresses the lack of direction, a feeling of not knowing what to do or how to do things in a new environment, and not knowing what is appropriate or inappropriate.
Oberg discovered that the feeling of culture shock generally sets in after the first few weeks of coming to a new place and manifests itself in several ways:
“when to shake hands and what to say when we meet people, when and how to give tips, how to give orders to servants, how to make purchases, when to accept and when to refuse invitations, when to take statements seriously and when not. Now these cues which may be words, gestures, facial expressions, customs, or norms are acquired by all of us in the course of growing up and are as much a part of our culture as the language we speak or the beliefs we accept. All of us depend for our peace of mind and our efficiency on hundreds of these cues, most of which we do not carry on the level of conscious awareness”.
Now when an individual enters a strange culture, all or most of these familiar cues are removed. He or she is like a fish out of water. No matter how broad-minded or full of good will you may be, a series of props have been knocked from under you, followed by a feeling of frustration and anxiety.[8]
I have felt this syndrome very often on my trips abroad including the U.S. where I spend a longer time with my children who live there. A favourite preoccupation when on my daily constitutionals would be planning an early “return” notwithstanding the fact that I am with my kin there. This ought to be happening to many others too excepting for those compelled by circumstances to remain there due to professional commitments or otherwise. This phenomenon is inexplicable and it is so universal. This cultural shock is nothing but “home sicknesses”. P.G. Wodehouse, in one of his books describes the ‘misery” of an American’s enforced sojourn in France dreams all the time of “baseball” and a “ham burger” and of his glee upon finding a fellow American albeit a fraudster. The home environment suddenly assumes a tremendous importance. Everything of “home” becomes irrationally glorified. To a south Indian, the aroma of “home” food including its “filter coffee” becomes compelling
Culture shock takes many forms. Its major symptoms are loneliness, inattention, irritation and of unknown fears including hypochondria and in the main, a loss of identity of one’s self.
Kelervo Oberg describes some of the symptoms thus:
Excessive washing of the hands; excessive concern over drinking water, food, dishes, and bedding; fear of physical contact with attendants or servants; the absent minded, far-away stare (sometimes called the tropical stare); a feeling of helplessness and a desire for dependence on long-term residents of one’s own nationality; fits of anger over delays and other minor frustrations; delay and outright refusal to learn the language of the host country ; excessive fear of being cheated, robbed, or injured; great concern over minor pains and eruptions of the skin; and finally, that terrible longing to be back home, to be able to have a good cup of coffee and a piece of apple pie, to walk into that corner drugstore, to visit one’s relatives, and, in general, to talk to people who really make sense”. [9]
We can therefore describe culture shock as the physical and emotional discomfort one suffers when coming to live in another country or a place different from the place of origin. Often, the way that we lived before is not accepted or considered as normal in the new place. Everything is or looks different – language, accent, semantics, transport and communication. Utilities like their public telephone booth, their banking machines or a “flush” in the bathroom (or for that matter, not being aware of bathroom protocol or etiquette itself) baffle us.
Dr. Carmen Guanipa in an article on cultural shock while admonishing people over this syndrome as lack of understanding prefers that we take hold of ourselves and take the opportunity for leaning and acquiring new perspectives. In his view, “culture shock can make one develop a better understanding of oneself and stimulate personal creativity”
Gaining understanding of the new culture replaces our anxieties, distress and confusion by a new feeling of pleasure. A total metamorphosis takes place we begin to accept the customs of the country as just another way of living. The new milieu does not deter us anymore. We develop greater enthusiasm and self-confidence. Indeed, we have now begun to like the new environs and the earlier wish to ‘go back” recedes. Pre-occupied with things at hand to the exclusion of all other diversionary thoughts migrants begin to like the malls; the banks; the orderly “line’ or queue; the “way things work”; the cars; the traffic signals, the policemen and wardens and the communication system to name a few. It all boils down to our attitudes.
Charles Swindoll, acclaimed contemporary author and philosopher of our times says how attitude influences life:
“Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think, say, or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company… a church… a home.
The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past… we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string, we have, and that is our attitude… I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it”.
And so it is with you… we are in charge of our attitudes.
Winston Churchill emphasized on attitude as the most important attribute in one’s life and “that makes a big difference” just as happiness itself is an attitude:
We either make ourselves miserable, or happy and strong. The amount of work is the same. [10]
In the “State of Happiness-simply a matter of choice”[11] the first in the series of books, Dr. Jois talks of life that is riddled with complexities and complains of the dilemmas really on the part of people on how to react to them. Unfortunately, the trend is to give it up as a hopeless task.
Happiness comes through making the right effort and not just by luck. Dr.Jois tells us how a human derelict, Maxim Gorky(1868-1936) in the course of an aimless life discovered how to read and write at the hands of a friendly cook while working as a dishwasher on a Volga steamer and literature soon became his passion. Aleksey Maksimovich Peshkov adopted the pseudonym Maxim Gorky, meaning “the bitter one” to convey the bitterness of his life’s early experiences. He described the lives of people in the lowest strata and on the margins of society, revealing their hardships, humiliations, and brutalization, but also their inward spark of humanity. Gorky continually struggled to resolve contradictory feelings of faith and skepticism, love of life and disgust at the vulgarity and pettiness of the human world”. He left the following message to humankind:
“Happiness always looks small while you hold it in your hands,
but let it go, and you learn at once how big and precious it is.”
I think we have left out for the last but not the least, a very imperative aspect of our discussion. That is about our great front runners whose individual and collective efforts are what are keeping the unknown Dracula in check. We did not mention about our doctors’, nurses, paramedics, drug manufacturers and suppliers, grocers and others.
Armed forces during World War I depended on a range of methods to relay messages between units in an era when wireless communication was still primitive. Options ranged from the telegraph to telephones to colored flares, mirrors that reflected flashes of sunlight, bugles and trained dogs and pigeons. But the most reliable means of communicating along the front was in the form of one of the war’s most dangerous roles: the runner.
Human runners were more dependable than staticky connections on phone lines. They could memorize complicated messages in case papers they were carrying were destroyed or became illegible. And they could locate hard-to-find places.[12]
Now, we have virtually everything needed to communicate with each other, but that in itself has brought in several disadvantages needing governments of the day trying to prevent if unable to stop gossiping and fake news reporting to our own detriment.
The 2016 US election was marked by malicious uses of technology, including new forms of “fake news” on social media platforms designed to sway voters. Since then, there has been a striking number of cases of commercially and politically driven disinformation, foreign interference in elections, data breaches, cyber-attacks, the proliferation of harmful speech, data exploitation and surveillance abuses.
At this inflection point — in which democracies are strained by technologies — there is a pressing need for policy makers, civil society and the private sector alike to put forth a coordinated effort to govern the digital public sphere…[13]
LET US ALL RESOLVE ONCE AGAIN TO COMPLY WITH ALL DIRECTIVES ISSUED BY OUR GOVERNMENTS AT THIS WORLD DEVASTATING CRISIS.
With regards and wishing you all good health and cheer,
PVJois
[1] https://www.successories.com/products/Posters-Art/Motivational-Posters/Essence-of/18/3703/The-Essence-of-Character-Motivational-Poster-251217@11116am
[2] Dr.PV.Jois – Global Oneness-a matter of understanding” by Dr.PV.Jois,1st Ed; October,2009; ISBN 978-81-907906-1-1; Vijaya Publication, Jwalamukhi Mudranalaya, Bangalore-
When this book was published the following calamities were still unknown:
[3] 1. The Iraq War was a protracted armed conflict that began in 2003 with the invasion of Iraq by a United States-led coalition that overthrew the government of Saddam Hussein. The conflict continued for much of the next decade as an insurgency emerged to oppose the occupying forces and the post-invasion Iraqi government. An estimated 151,000 to 600,000 Iraqis were killed in the first three to four years of conflict. US troops were officially withdrawn in 2011. However, following the spread of the Syrian Civil War and the territorial gains of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, the Obama administration decided to redeploy US forces to Iraq in 2014. Many former soldiers are employed by defense contractors and private military companies. The U.S. became re-involved in 2014 at the head of a new coalition; the insurgency and many dimensions of the civil armed conflict continue. The invasion occurred as part of the George W. Bush administration’s War on Terror, following the September 11 attacks. –
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_War
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2.The September 11 attacks (also referred to as 9/11)[a] were a series of four coordinated terrorist attacks by the Islamic terrorist group al-Qaeda[3][4][5] against the United States on the morning of Tuesday, September 11, 2001. The attacks resulted in 2,977 fatalities, over 25,000 injuries, and caused at least $10 billion in infrastructure and property damage.[6][7] Additional people have died of dust-related cancer and respiratory diseases in the months and years following the attacks. – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/September_11_attacks-10042020@1253pm
- The 2008 Mumbai attacks[10] (also referred to as 26/11) were a series of terrorist attacks that took place in November 2008, when 10 members of Lashkar-e-Taiba, a terrorist organisation based in Pakistan, carried out 12 coordinated shooting and bombing attacks lasting four days across Mumbai.The attacks, which drew widespread global condemnation, began on Wednesday 26 November and lasted until Saturday 29 November 2008. At least 174 people died, including 9 attackers, and more than 300 were wounded. –
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Mumbai_attacks -10042020@1255pm
- The present Corona Virus of 2019-2020 crisis where the world got shattered by cataclysmal events which can neither be condemned as war or regarded as some sporadic reckless acts by misguided people. These are simply frightening-even to describe it.
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[5] Dr.PV.Jois, Global Oneness-a matter of understanding”, op cit.
[6] Today, some 821 million people suffer chronically from hunger. And although this is significantly fewer people than the numbers we saw a decade ago, hunger still kills more people than AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria combined. On May 28th, we observe World Hunger Day – https://www.google.co.in/search?dcr=0&source=hp&ei=_WCQXqXkPJmS4-EPxdW1yAw&q=how+many+people+have+pushed+into+hunger+today&oq=how+many+people+have+pushed+into+hunger+today&gs_lcp=CgZwc3ktYWIQAzoCCAA6BQgAEIMBOgcIABBGEPsBSjMIFxIvMGcxMTFnMTA2ZzExMWcxMDFnMTAwZzExMWcxMDZnMTAzZzExOGc5OWcxMDlnOTlKHggYEhowZzFnMWcxZzFnMWcxZzFnMWcxZzVnNWcyNlC0EVi-wQFgg8kBaABwAHgAgAF1iAGjH5IBBDM3LjiYAQCgAQGqAQdnd3Mtd2l6&sclient=psy-ab&ved=0ahUKEwjl1u7f6N3oAhUZyTgGHcVqDckQ4dUDCAo&uact=5#spf=1586520346620
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[7] Global Oneness-a matter of understanding” by Dr.PV.Jois,1st Ed;October,2009; ISBN 978-81-907906-1-1; Vijaya Publication, Jwalamukhi Mudranalaya, Bangalore-at Pp.12-14
[8] Ibid at pp.43-45
[9] ibid
[10] ibid
[11] Vijaya Publication, First Ed., 2008: ISBN978-81-907906-0-4; Jwalamukhi Mudranalaya, Bangalore
[12] https://www.history.com/news/world-war-i-runners-1917
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[13] https://www.cigionline.org/interactives/2019annualreport/disinformation-and-social-media-a-global-governance-challenge?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIo-fvwqXd6AIVShSPCh0P_AYPEAAYASAAEgJcx_D_BwE
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