perceptions....

i recently met a person who had just been visiting some tribal hamlets.. she was aghast at their clothing and casual lifestyles and wanted to activate some help for them...

sometimes intents are misplaced due to fundamental misconceptions..we tend to judge the world by our standards...never sparing a thought to the fact that we may be destroting fundamental fabrics of existence.

The USA of today was created by people from across the seas who felt that they only knew how to live and set the behavioural benchmarks for the world...today the world is discovering the depth and clarity of native american wisdom...and the prudishness and narrow confines of the people from across the ocean...

it has been the history of the world...

i do believe one has to network and synergize skills but lot of supposed help is top down..thus medicines which are often unwanted are shared with under-developed communities( who can forget the norplant issue in india)....initiatives tend to be resource driven rather than need based...and more often than not do more harm than good..

coming back to tribals, there is so much natural intelligence and spontaineity in their lives; in a world characterised by cosmetic smiles and highly difficult to arise laughter, they are spontaneous in their expressions and uninhibited....

i am not able to remember the name of the character froma somerset maugham classic who goes for a visit into the rustic interiors , far away from the confines of his disinfected social world which moves through definition rather than feeling, and never returns back...his peers and his fiancee feel he is stupid but again that is a matter of perspective....