Cultural differences and the conversations between cruisers of different nations are fascinating stuff.As we meet and talk with a variety of people that we would never have met in our previous lives, so our perceptions and beliefs about the world in which we live change and grow. Just simple things like exchanging DVD's opens a whole new world of cultural education. Sure there are the global Hollywood numbers but also each nation has its own favourite movies, the ones that contain pointers to the psyche of that nation and even to the sector of that population that the cruiser comes from. The cowboy tale, the ex slave etc.
Sometimes my mind finds it difficult to cope with the information that bombards it. Some cruisers simply switch off, I have been shocked by the number of times that I have heard the statement, 'Oh we really don't want to think about those things, we just live in our own world'.
Maybe I should not be taken aback by this, but I am. It is inconceivable to me that an individual refuses to face the information and changes that are going on around them, all the time. It must be like being dead.
Recently a young friend sent us an email asking about our careers, how we trained,what we did, what we learnt etc. My final advice to her was whatever you choose to do remain curious, ask questions, don't be afraid to express a point of view.
Books like Naomi Klein's 'The Shock Doctrine' are raising disturbing issues. Take a look at this piece of film...
With the current election fever raging in the US this is a time of fundamental reexamination. Even the Oscar`award for best documentary 'A Taxi to the Dark Side' reflects this trend of questioning.
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