Today, I just want to clarify what I meant by conflicts in my first blog entry. I wrote that conflicts arise when different cultures meet and it was perhaps the wrong way to put it. This is exactly what I meant though. Misunderstandings arise. Sometimes it is due to the written word, which does not always convey feelings such as irony, sarcasm, humor, etc. Therefore, people simply might misunderstand what someone else wrote. Irony might be taken serious and thus cause damage. Unfortunately, these things happen all the time and we need to understand that we cannot prevent them from happening, but that it is up to us to solve these misunderstandings, in order to come to a mutual understanding of one another. If we succeed in doing so, it can make a difference.

Just as this political writer of early American history states, cultural diversity in the Unites States was perhaps the very first diversity in the world. I think that never before so many people of different nationalities went to the same place to live, start over a new life and try to get along with people of different cultures, with foreign traditions and also an individual understanding of what "common sense" is. Nowadays, every 'civilized' country in this world is full of diversity. People understand each other, the world became small. Media, planes and internet make the world accessible to anyone from anywhere. This community is like this New World, gathering people from all over the world, trying to get along, nurturing mutual understanding and making friends. We are seperated and yet we spend many hours together.

To sum up, the most important things in a community are mutual respect and understanding. Broad-mindedness is the key to success and not zero-tolerance.

That's it for today. Just a small clarification to avoid the impression that conflicts necessarily arise upon the meeting of diverse cultures.

Either tomorrow or in two days I will write about one of my hobbies and thus drift from socio-politic issues to personal matters - what this diary was originally meant to be.

Thistle (edited new name in)