Spirituality,Religion, and Land

 Anyone who has a sense of spirituality wants a place and people with he or she can share their beliefs.  In order to attain that spirituality, we have religions that enable people to practice rituals and customs of their chosen dieties as their ancestors had done.  Many religions have rules and customs that require their followers to live a certain way, eat certain things, wear certain clothes, and practice certain rituals.  In our modern times due to economic circumstances, people of different religions have to work together, study together, as well as live together in cities and countries.  Sometimes this works out very well and other times there is friction due to the differences.
     The question then comes up is when does one religion or belief have more rights than the other in their own domain or territory so they feel their own sense of spirituality and identification.  In privately owned buildings such as religious buildings, homes, or businesses, people are allowed to create their own rules within reason so they practice their own principles.  In publc, semi-public, or semi-private places, the administration or owners of the spaces must accomodate a wide variety of people as the state, national, or other laws allow.
    In some countries or cities it is more simple when one religion dominates but in more cosmopolitan countries, people and administrators must be more compliant and flexible so as not to offend one group or another.  Is there a limit and should we have some organizations who can clarify these issues more?  In many countries we have a separation between religion and state but some times this can hurt as well as help people since their religious beliefs are not being allowed.  Sometimes one group is not allowed to practice their ritual since it might intefere with another group. 
    People living together in modern times therefore is much more complex in many respects than in ancient times since people of different religions have to interact with each more than not.  Most of the times these interactions are good but many times, one group feels it does not have to respect the other group’s rights and belief.  Instead of leaving this to chance, cities and countries should create some multifaceted organizations who can deal with these differences before problems start. This should be done in such a way that even the common person on the street is aware of the issues and not just the upper eschelons of society.  

Religion,Economics, and People

In our Ancient world, give or take a few thousand years ago, there were many more religions in the world with proportionally larger number of members than today.  In modern times, only 4 or 5 religions with large amount of members exist and a few them are truly transglobal as their followers live in all parts of the world in large numbers.  This can be attributed to new technologies over the centuries, exploration, as well as the age of imperialism.  The newer religions such as Christianity and Islam have expanded dramatically in the past thousand years and have truly crossed national and tribal lands since their members belong to many cultures and follow many customs. 

      So according to our more recent scientific theories, these religions have been more successful in creating a global marketplace where their economic success is due to their ability in utilizing resources in many lands and from many different people.  Religion is therefore no longer contrained to one particular area where people practice it due to traditions and customs in their land and of their people but has crossed many ethnicities and lands. 

    It seems however that the original or ancient laws and customs from the originators of many religions have been transformed and reinvented to  accomodate the newer religions.  To accomodate many of our modern business practices, people of smaller percentage religions often have to compromise their land and customs in order to survive in our current business environment.  The newer global religions often bring in outside people and technologies in order to  facilitate their own growth and are not concerned about the original people or customs.

     This transglobalization of religion has also created new lands and people that did not exist before. Due to migration, exploration, expansionsion, and military events, the people of the world have changed and are changing due to these economic and religious interventions.  The more ancient religions therefore stand a chance of extinction since they are less economically viable as scientific laws can explain.   Certain groups, languages, and lands have also become more prominent due to their technological and organizational abilities and therefore have a better chance of success in modern times.  They might even think they can overtake their fellow ideologies through advertising, mass media, music, literature, and other means besides just through our familiar notions of warfare. 

    The world is therefore in a state of flux and it seems our various religions are at at one instance in odds with each other in various respects but at the other instance, working harmoniously with the others.  The more prevalent religions however have a better chance in controlling and directing the world and their counterparts have to play a smaller role in ther global scheme of things.  Maybe at some other time in our human history, things were reversed and people looked and thought differently as they do today but those times are gone and all we can do is stay strong with our beliefs.

Employers Keeping Degrees

   It has become common practice for employers at least here in India to keep original college degrees of employees as insurance of their continued employment.  As a global and human rights issue, this seems very unfair to the employee.  Many multinational companies and even hospitals request this form of blackmailing the employee and even demand from them money if they depart.

    Since many companies and institutions are doing business globally, they should be bound by some international rules of business and law that protect the employees.  There might be many reasons why an employee might want to leave such a hostile work environment or unforseeable long hours as well all sorts of other on the job problems.  To take the employee’s cerificates and prevent them from further employment seems to be a cruel and unjust way to keep an employee that may actually lead to decreased motivation to do the work.

    If the employee likes the work, the work environment, the pay, and other things associated with the job, there is no reason he or she would want to leave.  Do the employers know they will make the work environment difficult beforehand and force the employee to leave?  What do they do with the certificates? May be they might even sell them to their friends and make money. 

     After enduring many years of education, it seems unfair that an individual should surrender their precious certificates to people who don’t really care about them.  Copies should be enough but it seems employers want some sort of addition blackmailing power to control the helpless employee.  I wonder if this happens in other countries?

East, West, and War

      As the result of imperialism, the spread of various poliitcal ideologies such as communism, and religion, the West and East have become more entangled in warfare more in the past few centuries than in their former ancient histories.   Is this a calculated methodology for the West to open up more markets in the East or is this happening by chance?

    With the Korean, Vietnam, and recently Gulf Wars,  we have seen increased agressions between the East and West which was unknown before the spread of imperialism by European nations.  All this has changed the cultural landscapes and internal ideologies of many countries since no longer are they only worried about their their neighbors, but also about countries thousands of miles away.  You will also find in many of these more Eastern countries a kind of split personality disorder since people have to side with  this group or that group.  Many countries have even been divided even though some countries like Germany have been reunited.  Even in World War II, Japan’s involvement was unprecedented in such a large scale war between East and West.

      But it seems that the West is gaining advantages and reaping more benefits due to their technological miltarististic superiority which has increased western influence in eastern countries but not vice-versa.  Due to this wide gap in technology, most eastern countries find themselves scurrying to catch up to and imitate the West rather than build their own identities.  This increase in warfare has also increased and introduced various new peoples of different ethnicities and changed the cultural landscape of many of these countries.  Xenophobia is accepted and is more prevalent in western countries as a backlash to easterners traveling west.  More permanent military bases in these countries means more permanent or semi-permanent settlements that seems to help the West more than the East.  This also gives the west a more open-door to the east but not vice-versa.  You find more people going on vacation to eastern countries than the other way since for one reason they can afford it and their path has already been cleared.  Also due to the current economic landscape, western money is worth a lot more than eastern money so it is easier for westerners to travel to the east based on this arbritrary conversion scale.  What would it be like if all monies were equal?

      Inducements or roads that lead to the East-West wars for such reasons of oil, religion, politics, and culture should be discussed or identified before international military actions commence by the United Nations or other international bodies.  Ultimately, the East will suffer more since with less technological poweress, it will take them much longer to recover as well giving them less ability to defend themselves. 

Classifying People

     Is color a good way to classify people in very enormous groups?  We often see on forms to categorize our selves as either white, black or other so what does this actually imply?  Is it fair to divide the world into only these few groups?  In many countries, people would find this classificaton difficult since  family members might resemble one or more of the classifications.

    Due to our cultural and traditional heritages, the world does have many different types of ethnically diverse people who share similar customs and history.  Due to the globalization in the past few centuries, many of these groups have now ended up in various parts of the planet and are often required to reclassify themselves or fall into certain of these larger categories.  Many of the ethnically distinct cultures are now being turned into heterogenous cultures due to religion and international business practices.  It seems to simplify this complexity, people are ready accept only a few groups to identify people.

     Is not identity one of the most important part of someone’s self image?  Where do I fit and what group do I belong to?  Since these tradional forms of self identity according to somenone’s traditional heritage are changing in our modern society to a more streamlined version of a few groups, people are being forced to accept tastes that are not normally accostumed to.  Being part of a larger group such as white or black gives people more so called political power but it seems it would be wiser to forget about these classifications since they are too reductive. 

     The beauty of people is their diversity in their cultures and it is important to continue our cultural diversities.  Many people have already forgotten about or have been forced to give up their traditions due to imperialistic practices so should we try not to save what we have?  These larger groups offcourse have much more economic and cultural influences and can control the flow peoples into their groups but many of our cultural roots and ties are being lost in the process.