Kaksi ajatusta teehetkessä luettavaksi

Sunnuntaina 14.11.2010 Helsingin Sanomat uutisoi Aung Sang Suu Kyi vapautumisen. Matti Mielonen kirjoittaa hienosti (s.B1): Suu Kyi vapautui jo vuosia sitten - pelosta. Näin otsikoitu artikkeli alkaa sanoin: `Maailman tunnetuin mielipidevanki Aung San Suu Kyi on sanonut, että todellinen vapaus on vapautumista pelosta.´ Juhlistan.

Freedom from Fear speech
by Aung Sang Suu Kyi, 1990

- Two excerpts to be read over tea-

"It is not power that corrupts but fear."

"Fearlessness may be a gift but perhaps more precious is the courage acquired through endeavour, courage that comes from cultivating the habit of refusing to let fear dictate one's actions, courage that could be described as 'grace under pressure' - grace which is renewed repeatedly in the face of harsh, unremitting pressure..."
 
Source:http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Burma/FreedomFromFearSpeech.html

Tea moment thoughts October 9,2009

Tea moment thoughts:

"In 1984, Dr. Ted Ward, of Michigan State University, stated that TCKs (those who have grown up in many cultures simultaneously) were the `prototype citizens´ of the future. In other words, the experience of growing up in and amid many cultures coupled with a mobile lifestyle would one day be the norm rather than the exception as it was in the early days of Dr. Useem’s initial studies." Source: http://www.crossculturalkid.org/blog/cross-cultural-kids/

I found the above to be an inspiration to me at a future-oriented seminar,`Edistyksen Päivät´, which I attended today. The `prototype citizens´ of the future world indeed is reflected in the third culture kids("matkalaukkulapset" in Finnish), who carry a "third culture" within: a culture that is a fusion of all the cultural elements which they encountered as a child.

Yet, from my vantage point, it is not their possible lack of roots into one place which should be the focus (which burdensomely was pointed out by someone at the seminar); in fact the "third culture" may act as a common denominator for a diversity of experiences within global mobility. These are, for example:

Bi/multi-cultural/racial children

children of immigrants

both "Traditional TCKs (matkalaukkulapset)" and "Domestic TCKs"

international adoptees