Late last night, the sun moved into the tropical sign of Cancer, marking the summer solstice in the Northern Hemisphere, and the winter solstice in the Southern Hemisphere.
I have been along this journey on some subconscious level for awhile now. Thank you for articulating what I have been feeling: that I am no one to judge people leaving Western cultures to return to the land in a more indigenous culture or people leaving indigenous cultures for Western cultures. Each person in this world is going to make decisions, some may be mistakes and others may better their lives. I'm personally trying to take a deep breath and let go of trying to control everything. It is a cyclical dance and I think any control I think I have is an illusion. I've also been trying to let go of trying to be the solution guy. The problems of climate change, wealth inequality, etc. are so complicated and I can't solve them on my own.
Hell yes. At this point I am far more interested in figuring out the day to day of my life than trying to find solutions to anything. I agree, I don't think we have that level of control or power. It's frustrating sometimes, because I do think I am a problem solver by nature, and sometimes that comes from a good place, but by and large my desire to fix things is for sure a symptom of my desire to control and predict.
Hey Anya ! As usual, thank you for sharing with us, almost in real time, your thoughts during your journey. I was born in northern Africa, and I spent a lot of summers in southern Spain (so it was awesome to see your pictures overthere, I have only good memories of Cordoba, Seville…). I’ve never been to sub-Saharan Africa, and I didn’t witness the paradox of people escaping civilization to finally find themselves in communities irremediably attracted to the same civilization.
In spite of that, I just wanna share one of my trivial but revealing cultural shock when I went to Japan in the summer of 2008. Me and my buddy were mesmerized by people on the metro : 90% of them were head down, watching their phones.
Basically, we were like : this place is the future ! Their phones can do/provide so many things. They’re carrying a mini-computer with them.
And also : It’s impressive, but look at their neck and spine. It’s awful !
Maybe one day, technology will catch up in France. But come on ! There’s no way that the majority of passengers will be so silent and bent over like this.
But somehow, in less than 5 years it happened.
In 2013, I was with a Moroccan friend in Paris. He was there for a short visit to a family member. We were on a bus. 90% of people were watching their phones. He told me :
my God, look at these poor people. Nobody talks to her/his seatmate. This will never happen in Morocco. Even if they give free smartphones to everybody, we just love to talk/gossip/argue. It’s in our blood !
In 2017, I went to Casablanca to say goodbye to my cousins before moving to Montreal. One day, I took the brand-new tramway to go downtown.
I guess you already guessed it : 90% of people were watching their phones.
The conclusion that I draw from this is that we’re witnessing the birth of a man-made planetary nervous system. It’s unprecedented, it’s scary (the speed is the part that scares me the most) and I really don’t have any clue about the final result.
However, I also belive that being "just" a witness of this era is a kind of privilege.
After all, it's a just another ride on the carousel of time.
Thanks for this reflection, Abbas. A planetary nervous system makes sense to me... it's definitely pretty wild to watch, especially not being able to predict where it will go.
I have been along this journey on some subconscious level for awhile now. Thank you for articulating what I have been feeling: that I am no one to judge people leaving Western cultures to return to the land in a more indigenous culture or people leaving indigenous cultures for Western cultures. Each person in this world is going to make decisions, some may be mistakes and others may better their lives. I'm personally trying to take a deep breath and let go of trying to control everything. It is a cyclical dance and I think any control I think I have is an illusion. I've also been trying to let go of trying to be the solution guy. The problems of climate change, wealth inequality, etc. are so complicated and I can't solve them on my own.
Hell yes. At this point I am far more interested in figuring out the day to day of my life than trying to find solutions to anything. I agree, I don't think we have that level of control or power. It's frustrating sometimes, because I do think I am a problem solver by nature, and sometimes that comes from a good place, but by and large my desire to fix things is for sure a symptom of my desire to control and predict.
How has your change in attitude affected your life?
Hey Anya ! As usual, thank you for sharing with us, almost in real time, your thoughts during your journey. I was born in northern Africa, and I spent a lot of summers in southern Spain (so it was awesome to see your pictures overthere, I have only good memories of Cordoba, Seville…). I’ve never been to sub-Saharan Africa, and I didn’t witness the paradox of people escaping civilization to finally find themselves in communities irremediably attracted to the same civilization.
In spite of that, I just wanna share one of my trivial but revealing cultural shock when I went to Japan in the summer of 2008. Me and my buddy were mesmerized by people on the metro : 90% of them were head down, watching their phones.
Basically, we were like : this place is the future ! Their phones can do/provide so many things. They’re carrying a mini-computer with them.
And also : It’s impressive, but look at their neck and spine. It’s awful !
Maybe one day, technology will catch up in France. But come on ! There’s no way that the majority of passengers will be so silent and bent over like this.
But somehow, in less than 5 years it happened.
In 2013, I was with a Moroccan friend in Paris. He was there for a short visit to a family member. We were on a bus. 90% of people were watching their phones. He told me :
my God, look at these poor people. Nobody talks to her/his seatmate. This will never happen in Morocco. Even if they give free smartphones to everybody, we just love to talk/gossip/argue. It’s in our blood !
In 2017, I went to Casablanca to say goodbye to my cousins before moving to Montreal. One day, I took the brand-new tramway to go downtown.
I guess you already guessed it : 90% of people were watching their phones.
The conclusion that I draw from this is that we’re witnessing the birth of a man-made planetary nervous system. It’s unprecedented, it’s scary (the speed is the part that scares me the most) and I really don’t have any clue about the final result.
However, I also belive that being "just" a witness of this era is a kind of privilege.
After all, it's a just another ride on the carousel of time.
Thanks for this reflection, Abbas. A planetary nervous system makes sense to me... it's definitely pretty wild to watch, especially not being able to predict where it will go.