Culture & Cultures

Culture - 

the arts and other manifestations of human intellectual achievement collectively.

Cultures -

the ideas, customs, and social behaviour of a particular people or society.

I enjoy the arts - music, literature, paintings & crafts, drama. I love opera & reading & going to exhibitions. So I suppose I am cultured, but have never thought of myself in that way before. I just know these things give me immense enjoyment & develop my thinking. They broaden my horzons & make me realise how varied, creative & talented people are.

When my husband & I retired we travelled a lot to most continents & some very far flung places. My views on holidays & travel have changed now we are in a climate emergency, but I think we did it in a way that actually benefitted local communities rather than big tour companies. I gained a lot from seeing that there are different ways of living & thinking. We were lucky in that we got to interact with local people & listen to their beliefs & opinions. I learned that our way of living, our culture, is not the only one or even the best one.

Human beings are very diverse in every way, but most countries have some sort of code of belief & behaviour that recognises the sanctity of human life & allows for great individual divergence. For some that comes through religion, for others it is a simple moral code. 

For a minority they have no such guiding principle. I am truly glad that Assad has been overthrown. It is such a shame that the world stood by knowing what he was doing & did nothing to stop him. I hope that the Syrian people can rebuild the country that I visited 24 years ago. It was a country that was very tolerant of all religions. A country of history, wonderful buildings & fascinating landscapes. Assad & his father are responsible for destroying much of that. I hope that we will remember what went before, rather than the last years under criminal tyrants & their followers.

 

Ummayad mosque Damascus

Ummayad mosque Alleppo before & after

The destruction of buildings & culture is awful, but the destruction of human lives is simply dreadful. Yet again we failed. We should have done more.