Sunday, July 13, 2008

Cultural Sightseeing - Barriers


Why are all human beings so different and can´t just enjoy it? is it that we are all afraid of eachother? or is it that we simply don´t need to care about eachother? is there a real cultural barrier besides language or religion? Or maybe it is just our system trying to put us all apart....

Siting for one hour in a sunny summer afternoon at la Rambla del Raval in Barcelona I could see how tourist would walk their fantasy across that rambla and how the local pakistanis and indians that live in the area would wave to eachother, none of both groups even trying to interact.

Invisible barriers extended to define territory, avoiding my sight, my talk, and even my presence even when sitting right in the middle of the, both tourist and locals. Ten the visible one, clothes, accesories, skin, hair, walk, brands, food, attitude an amazing complexity of silent but powerful conversations took place in front of me continously.

The scapepod? our mobilephone, the best way to stand in the middle of a crowd and pretend not to be there. Check or send messages, to pretend to look busy and cannot look around and if the situation around us is too compromising , then call someone, anyone ...it feels like we get away as we talk..maybe soon that´ll be possible and we could travel trough mobile communications... So the urge for communication with real humans that are not similar or desirable just fades away thanks to virtual humans or answering machines on our mobile phone. If there is none to call there is always internet and the games...to evade situations.

Would be better to talk to anyone, smile to anyone, aproach anyone without fear?
I´d give it a try.

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