February 1, 2015

When I published ‘What a Great Start to the Year, Not’ it opened up some really interesting discussions with friends in Asia, as well as one person I’ve never met who believed the victims of Charlie Hebdo deserved to die. While horrifying to me that anyone could think this, in our online discussion, I came to appreciate their perspective – even if it is a perspective I could never agree with. We all have a right to free speech yes? For me, no one deserves to die for cracking a joke. Others don’t agree. But this is where I had an epiphany. I had the great privilege to grow up in Australia when the golden age of expressing one’s opinions became OK. So taking the piss out of god, religion, each other, etc… well it was completely acceptable. Sure we could offend each other – ask my Mum and the Nuns at school about that – but there was more humour and irreverence to it than anything else. It was part of life and being Aussie remains all about having opinions, with the green light to argue yours vociferously. It’s gotten me into trouble around the world sometimes…. Nothing is off limits in Australia (we do talk politics, sex and religion), and if you know an Aussie, you know this is true. But generally, people were not hateful in expressing their views, that wasn’t part of the culture I grew up in. You do hear more hatred today, but overall, Aussies still remain opinionated, but generally most are kind. However not every country is like this, not even fellow Caucasian nations – especially the US. My American friends found me a bit weird on this front. Well probably on quite a few fronts. However, after publishing my blog, when I spoke to my Asian friends – some Muslim, some Hindu, some Buddhist, some Christian, and some agnostic o aetheist – they said to me that Charlie Hebdo publishing the cartoons was not OK, not OK at all. They also completely disagreed with my take on it – even though we came to appreciate where each other was coming from. But they couldn’t ever agree with my perspective even if they could see why I thought the way I did. While none of my friends would ever go into a magazine HQ and murder people, they were all consistent on one thing – respecting another’s faith is something that cannot be played with. Never. In their view, the cartoonists went too far, and with a very large percentage of the world’s population living in Asia (62% last time I checked, and the Muslim population is around 32% of the world’s Muslim population) it appears that many fundamentally disagree with Charlie Hebdo. Obviously I am not declaring that I speak for everyone in Asia, however my decade of great discussions about all sorts of stuff – but especially religion – leads me to believe this view is probably fairly consistent. Do tell me if I’m wrong please? If I was telling someone my impression of Asia, I’d say the people have a quiet dignity here. A fundamental respect embedded in cultures. Of course, many outside believe the region is not vocal due to totalitarian regimes or communist governments, but it’s actually not that at all. People here just don’t think they’ve got the same God-given right to say whatever the hell they want like we do and they keep those sorts of conversations closer to home – if they have them at all. Hey elders are still respected around here. Not bad that. This fundamental respect can be misplaced (i.e. respecting a dickhead boss because they’re your boss because hierarchy still matters), and it is annoying to be around this sometimes, but let me be clear – it certainly doesn’t mean people won’t fight for their rights. They do. However it’s this other hard-to-define-thing I’m talking about, something I’ve come to admire and be conscious of living and working in this region. With my colleagues, I want them to speak up, disagree, and argue with me, but it takes effort gaining the trust to get them there. It’s been a valuable learning ground for me. Don’t get me wrong, we see horrific violence between faiths and races in Asia, as well as racism that is mind-bogglingly appalling and entrenched, however it is the other side I’ve come to love living in the region, the qualities that come forth during peace time. I appreciate it’s hard to get your head around this if you’ve only ever visited or never been here, but it’s a very different place in our world, a place I adore. So what do we do about this constant problem we’re facing? Do we silence ourselves? No I’ll never do that, but then I work hard not to say anything that crosses lines, or at least, I never intend to. On this blog I’m always trying to discuss ideas with kindness at the core. I might not always get it right, but I try hard, because I believe humour, kindness and love must be at the core of all I do. Do we silence our media? Of course not. But then, do you trust the media anyway? I’m pretty ambivalent about the majority of the world’s media that’s for sure. Thank god for social media I say – we all have access to so many more viewpoints. That’s the game changer. Or can the world’s governments’ solve it? I’m definitely not confident that’s ever going to happen. Too much vested interest and all I see is a lot of dick wagging and chest pumping. No we, the common people, have to solve this one. So what is it we can do? Well…. We’ve got to acknowledge that we live in a truly global world and anything created digitally reaches any corner of the globe instantly. Those distributing viewpoints therefore, have a responsibility to all of mankind for what they