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You can call me Noi! This blog consists of my thoughts. I am just a simple person with BIG dreams! Like the charcoal, hot pressure and extreme heat must be present in order to create a Diamond. I am in the exact same process.
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Perspectives of a Nomad: Birth of a Name / Saturday, August 12, 2006 @ 10:15 PM
Today is a very special day! I have a guest blogger in the house and its none other than Scott, otherwise known as Nomad! If you are new in the blogging world, you have no idea how knowledgable Scott is. His blog is a representative of different ideas and views and it gives me the impression that he is a man who is always thinking. I like that quality in people. Sometimes we tend to take our brains for granted you know. Studies have shown that people only use 10% of their brain. Anyway, I have invited him over to guest post. When I read it, I was moved that he is such a noble and humble individual. He potrays passion in his writings and I like that quality as well. As I read further, I realised that he deserves respect. He certainly got mine.
Therefore, it is my honour and priviledge to introduce you to Nomad, from Perpectives of a Nomad. Click over and realised what is it that is so special about him.
First off, much thanks to Noi for asking me to write this post. I have never written a guest post before, but when she suggested the topic of how I acquired the title for my blog, I realized I had never written about the topic, and that it is an interesting story. So it is my pleasure to write up the story Noi, whose blog I love.
In 1988, I was part of the second group of Americans to be allowed to travel in the Soviet Union as part of Mikhail Gorbachevs glasnost initiative. At the time I was at an excellent but extraordinarily liberal college in the Midwest, with very little understanding of how the world worked or how other people viewed the events of the day other than my own narrow, but liberal, understanding. That all changed in the Soviet Union.
I went to the Soviet Union expecting people to be oppressed, straining under the yoke of communism. I thought my conversations would be about the horror of bread lines, the disgrace of sharing small living spaces with multiple people, and the fear of speaking openly. And I found a great deal of that in the younger generation. But I found an older generation filled with hope, joy, and prosperity.
Many of the older people there remembered a much tougher time in Russias history, a time where few people had jobs, money, or food. These people remembered a day when they were living on the street through the cold Russian winters, where the country had been destroyed by the horrors of WWII, and where little hope was in sight. 40+ years later, with these memories fresh in their minds, the older Russian generation was grateful for all the Soviet had done for them.
Perhaps most interesting, both generations had similar views on more global events. Both generations did not trust the West, but they also both felt, for the most part, that the Cold War was more propaganda than fact. Both feared nuclear escalation, longed for peace, and had the same love of art and culture. I found that, for the most part, all the people had similar core beliefs, but approached different situations with different perspectives.
And this rang true throughout my travels. In Kenya, where the country was technologically far behind the West, people marveled at what we considered pass, but those core values were still the same. In Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey, people approach current events based on what they hear in the media, and through their education, but people who subscribe to a view of people in the Middle East as immoral or evil would be shocked to see how similar their base morality is to ours or to Israels.
I would find as much difference in perspectives between people in New York and people in Indiana as I would find between people in Philly and people in Egypt, but all of the people would have many more similarities that differences, and the similarities would be more fundamental, more at the core of who these people were. Traveling from London to Amsterdam would be as great a difference in perspectives as traveling from Boston to Ocean City, NJ, but different perspectives did not make for different people.
So when it came time to write my blog, I wanted to focus on how similar we are as people, even while coming at events from a different point of view. I wanted to relay how our core philosophies are really the same, and as such we should be able to find ways to get along and agree on issues that right now divide us. It is my belief that if we can find a way to do this, the world will be a much better, much happier, much safer place.
I have been blessed with having lived in most of the places I have been long enough to see events from the perspective of that area, and when I write I try to take all of these different perspectives into account. Sometimes it may come out like I am indecisive, but in reality I am just looking at an event from multiple points of view, and letting others see that point of view while still relating to their perspective.
It is my sincere hope that, by doing this, I will eventually help at least a few people in divergent cultures relate to each other. Then, perhaps, they will help others relate to each other, and the trend will grow. Because in reality, if we can get past the petty differences, we may find so many similarities between people of the world that we can do away with much of the strife that holds us down today.
Finally, Noi asked why I do not write much about myself. Frankly, it is because I am so insignificant in the scheme of things. If I can help make the world a little better, that is all I ask for, and all I need. I canot see why people would be terribly interested in my life. But what I have learned along the way, that I think could be useful, could be helpful to many people around the world.
Thank you Noi for asking me to write; it is a great topic (even if I am a bit embarrassed writing about myself), and one that got me thinking long and hard about my blog, my past, and what I hope to accomplish from the blogging experience. I appreciate your confidence in me, and hope this post is up to snuff with the rest of your blog, which I respect immensely!
~Your Friendly Neighborhood Nomad
Today is a very special day! I have a guest blogger in the house and its none other than Scott, otherwise known as Nomad! If you are new in the blogging world, you have no idea how knowledgable Scott is. His blog is a representative of different ideas and views and it gives me the impression that he is a man who is always thinking. I like that quality in people. Sometimes we tend to take our brains for granted you know. Studies have shown that people only use 10% of their brain. Anyway, I have invited him over to guest post. When I read it, I was moved that he is such a noble and humble individual. He potrays passion in his writings and I like that quality as well. As I read further, I realised that he deserves respect. He certainly got mine.
Therefore, it is my honour and priviledge to introduce you to Nomad, from Perpectives of a Nomad. Click over and realised what is it that is so special about him.
~~~Noi~~~
First off, much thanks to Noi for asking me to write this post. I have never written a guest post before, but when she suggested the topic of how I acquired the title for my blog, I realized I had never written about the topic, and that it is an interesting story. So it is my pleasure to write up the story Noi, whose blog I love.
In 1988, I was part of the second group of Americans to be allowed to travel in the Soviet Union as part of Mikhail Gorbachevs glasnost initiative. At the time I was at an excellent but extraordinarily liberal college in the Midwest, with very little understanding of how the world worked or how other people viewed the events of the day other than my own narrow, but liberal, understanding. That all changed in the Soviet Union.
I went to the Soviet Union expecting people to be oppressed, straining under the yoke of communism. I thought my conversations would be about the horror of bread lines, the disgrace of sharing small living spaces with multiple people, and the fear of speaking openly. And I found a great deal of that in the younger generation. But I found an older generation filled with hope, joy, and prosperity.
Many of the older people there remembered a much tougher time in Russias history, a time where few people had jobs, money, or food. These people remembered a day when they were living on the street through the cold Russian winters, where the country had been destroyed by the horrors of WWII, and where little hope was in sight. 40+ years later, with these memories fresh in their minds, the older Russian generation was grateful for all the Soviet had done for them.
Perhaps most interesting, both generations had similar views on more global events. Both generations did not trust the West, but they also both felt, for the most part, that the Cold War was more propaganda than fact. Both feared nuclear escalation, longed for peace, and had the same love of art and culture. I found that, for the most part, all the people had similar core beliefs, but approached different situations with different perspectives.
And this rang true throughout my travels. In Kenya, where the country was technologically far behind the West, people marveled at what we considered pass, but those core values were still the same. In Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey, people approach current events based on what they hear in the media, and through their education, but people who subscribe to a view of people in the Middle East as immoral or evil would be shocked to see how similar their base morality is to ours or to Israels.
I would find as much difference in perspectives between people in New York and people in Indiana as I would find between people in Philly and people in Egypt, but all of the people would have many more similarities that differences, and the similarities would be more fundamental, more at the core of who these people were. Traveling from London to Amsterdam would be as great a difference in perspectives as traveling from Boston to Ocean City, NJ, but different perspectives did not make for different people.
So when it came time to write my blog, I wanted to focus on how similar we are as people, even while coming at events from a different point of view. I wanted to relay how our core philosophies are really the same, and as such we should be able to find ways to get along and agree on issues that right now divide us. It is my belief that if we can find a way to do this, the world will be a much better, much happier, much safer place.
I have been blessed with having lived in most of the places I have been long enough to see events from the perspective of that area, and when I write I try to take all of these different perspectives into account. Sometimes it may come out like I am indecisive, but in reality I am just looking at an event from multiple points of view, and letting others see that point of view while still relating to their perspective.
It is my sincere hope that, by doing this, I will eventually help at least a few people in divergent cultures relate to each other. Then, perhaps, they will help others relate to each other, and the trend will grow. Because in reality, if we can get past the petty differences, we may find so many similarities between people of the world that we can do away with much of the strife that holds us down today.
Finally, Noi asked why I do not write much about myself. Frankly, it is because I am so insignificant in the scheme of things. If I can help make the world a little better, that is all I ask for, and all I need. I canot see why people would be terribly interested in my life. But what I have learned along the way, that I think could be useful, could be helpful to many people around the world.
Thank you Noi for asking me to write; it is a great topic (even if I am a bit embarrassed writing about myself), and one that got me thinking long and hard about my blog, my past, and what I hope to accomplish from the blogging experience. I appreciate your confidence in me, and hope this post is up to snuff with the rest of your blog, which I respect immensely!
~Your Friendly Neighborhood Nomad
