East or West, What's Best?

Thanks @Ken Boddie perhaps we meet on another holly jolly day 😃🎄

In reply to your request, @🐝 Fatima G. Williams , you may find my remodelling of my old high dunes country post of interest here: https://au.bebee.com/producer/sands-through-the-hourglass-gone-zi7Tr1lvsIVU 

As you can see from my posts, Fatima, I reside in Brisbane, on the other coast to Perth, and a whole country away, but will be visiting New Zealand over the festive period.

@🐝 Fatima G. Williams I remember Dubai in the 1970s while visiting from my base in Abu Dhabi. I was travelling there out of London and wirking on oil and infrastructure projects in the southern interior of the Emirates, in high dune country. It would’ve been impossible to get around without driving back then, as everything in ‘town’ was low rise and spread out. I can’t remember any traffic lights, never mind one way streets. Happy days. I guess I wouldn’t recognise Dubai these days. The one other thing I remember is the number of dead camels on the road between Abu Dhabi and Dubai. Camels were a traffic hazard at night, as the road, although sealed, was narrow and unfenced, and the camels didn't wear reflectors or lights. ☠️🐪

All quiet on the western front that's it I fully concur with your comment 

Perhaps, @Pascal Derrien , you are referring to the ultimate false call to arms, the abuse of the young with the horrific stealing of their life aspirations, the shear horror of man's inhumanity to man in the trenches of World War 1, and the ultimate revelation that the wrong men fight wars … “All Quiet on the Western Front”?  The weapons and the theatres of war may be different now, but how quick are we to still follow leaders who, when opinions clash, are all too ready to escalate to conflict, and ultimately to destruction, at the expense of the innocent?

I hear you, @Franci 🐝Eugenia Hoffman .  A good politician these days is rarer than hen's teeth, but there are a few around.  We seem to be doing not badly at the moment here in Oz with our new Labor Government.  We threw the last one out essentially on the grounds of their ignoring climate change and the obvious demands from our citizens for action.  As you may have heard before, politicians and nappies (diapers to you) should be changed regularly … and for the same reason. 🤣

As for standing back and looking at the world overall, I came across an interesting list of best performing countries, based on “broad access to food, housing, quality education, health care and employment … quality of life … such as job security, political stability, individual freedom and environmental quality”. The top ten countries for quality of life, which is obviously based on the long term performance of politicians and leaders, is reported to be as follows, with best first:

Sweden, Denmark, Canada, Switzerland, Norway, Finland, Germany, Netherlands, Australia, New Zealand.

The US came in at number 21.  

I believe you are correct, @Lada 🏡 Prkic , in that Australia has had some successes in the ‘melting pot’. 

Your comments have prompted me to look at some of the figures produced from our most recent (2021) census. These indicate the following:

• Out of an Australian population of just over 26 million, some 30% were born overseas and most of these are ‘skilled’, although the immigration quota includes family members and refugees.

• 57% of the population identified as being of European ancestry (primarily UK, then Italy, then Germany), 24% of Oceanian ancestry (mostly Pacific Islanders), 17% of Asian ancestry (includes Indians, then Chinese, Philippinos, Vietnamese, Malaysian, Sri Lankans, South Koreans, then Hong Kongers).

Some of these groups are not uniformly distributed across the land; with, for example, higher concentrations of ethnic Italians in Melbourne and higher Asian numbers in Brisbane. This is my observation/estimate only, and was not measured to my knowledge in the census figures. I also remember noting local concentrations of ethnic Chinese Asians and South Africans when I lived in Perth a few years back. Another obvious grouping I've observed is that many Australian cities appear to have more than a statistically anticipated distribution of Indians/Pakistanis across their taxi and Uber industries.

As for religion, here is an extract from the census figures:

• 39% of no religion

• 44% Christian

• 3.2% Islam. 

As you would expect to deduct, Lada, Islam is not perceived to be a threat here in Oz, despite the Bali bombing incidents many years back.  I would also suggest that this is also due to a predominance of Muslims here being from the more moderately practising Islamic countries such as Malaysia and Indonesia, rather than the more traditionally, hard line, areas such as the Middle East and North Africa.

We have our trials and tribulations when it comes to racial integration, but, all in all, I believe we are more fortunate than Europe and the USA, based on what I see portrayed by the unreliable news media.

Ken, I'm glad my comment brought the discussion back to the topic. 
I also miss those days of participating in great discussions on multiple posts. :)

From what I read and hear from my friends who live abroad, the real ‘melting pot’ is Australia (not America), despite the challenges brought by multiculturalism.  

I can only hope that Europe (EU) will promote true multiculturalism in which distinct cultures, western and non-western, can coexist. It is a very complex issue in countries with colonial pasts, especially with regard to Muslim communities. The fear of the spread of Islam in Europe is widely present. Muslims comprise the majority of all immigrants in Western Europe. Once a homogenous society, the EU is faced with a sharp rise in the number of immigrants, and their proportion of the population continues to grow. 

There is a lack of intercultural dialogue that addresses the problems that arise from significant cultural differences. The lack of knowledge about different cultures allows prejudices to run rampant. The identification of Islam with terrorism doesn't encourage multiculturalism.

Multiculturism is one of the most significant issues Europe is facing today.

Nothing is more certain, @Franci 🐝Eugenia Hoffman and @Javier 🐝 CR , than change itself.  However, the important point to be made here, I believe, is how we manage change and how we communicate it, at all levels, before, during and after transformation. The ideal situation (rarely achieved) is to be able to bring people along with our amendments to systems, whether it be within companies, or within society more generally, and not to have them be dragged along kicking and screaming. Herein lies the challenge, as change sometimes requires tough decisions to be made and, as has been stated many times before, we can only make some of the people happy some of the time, and there's little likelihood of keeping all of the people happy all of the time. 🤔

Thanks, @Lada 🏡 Prkic , for addressing the subject matter of my post, and for not being drawn in by my throw-away final ‘beyond the post’ line, “I still miss the days …” 🤗

I believe that the West has much more to gain by adopting some of the traditional attitudes and philosophies of the East, and fear that many Eastern countries have been, and will inevitably further be, corrupted by Western  individualistic and materialistic viral spread. Perhaps a melting pot ‘per se’ will serve to further the greed which is an endemic part of the advancement of many of our large multinational companies, to the detriment of a host of traditional cultures (both East and West)? The sooner we can embrace and recognise multiculturalism, rather than fear it, and also embrace diversity and sustainability, then the better the chance of us surviving as homo sapiens, rather than going the way of the other hominins (eg homo habilis, homo erectus, homo neanderthalensis, homo floriensis). I believe that diversity and sustainability are no longer mere benefits of successful species growth, but requirements for our survival. 

@Ken Boddie , it probably wasn't the best decision in the world, but it was the most practical one we could make at the time.  We deleted non-active users and therefore their comments or cascading activity. The truth is that I'm still sure that, despite the problems we generated, it was the only possible way to be able to give continuity to the new bebee, which is growing in a healthy and organic way. Soon it will also be available in more than 10 other languages, so that people like Croatians, Serbs, etc., who speak other languages, will feel more comfortable and we will be able to attract many more people. We are always thinking about how to improve. It is the only possible attitude, to try to improve. Thank you Ken for your opinions and comments.

Hi, @🐝 Fatima G. Williams , as @Javier 🐝 CR started to explain to you in #7, when the reworked beBee was presented in early 2021, all accounts, which had had no activity for a long time, were ‘terminated’ (perhaps management got old mate Arny Schwarzenegger in? 🤣). One side effect of this ‘excommunication’, probably well justified in many cases, was that the comments strings in the old reworked posts became curtailed and discontinuous, as comments disappeared from those whose accounts had been closed. 

BTW, Fatima, there’s nothing wrong with conformity, particularly when you’re driving the wrong way up a busy one-way street. ⛔️🤗

This is a well known saying, @Javier 🐝 CR , obviously not used or known in Spain. 😪

It means wherever you travel, whether east or west, there’s no place like home. 

@🐝 Fatima G. Williams , we only migrated active accounts. Sometimes it's reinvent yourself or die. The reality, whether we want to see it or not, is that young people do not write and read little, or as we say in Spanish "lee en la diagonal" = “read on the diagonal” . 

What I can tell you, is that beBee is now very focused on practicality for any professional offering services to generate leads, and for job seekers and networkers.

At beBee we are growing in a healthy, organic way, and we are excited about the evolution of the platform. In any case we are thinking of introducing incentives for bloggers (income), which can facilitate the entry into beBee, and also the necessary motivation to be on beBee generating content. I admire all of you who continue to believe, like me, in beBee, hugs to all of you.

Thanks, Greg, for the positive comment, and also for your post that inspired me to dig up this oldy, fix up the omissions and repost it. 🤗