Hello, and again, welcome from Shunyi for September 21st. ‘Tis Mid Autumn Festival celebration in China, Asia. Colloquially called Moon Cake day. We talked about that here:
So today is actually a holiday – we are closed. That means we have an opportunity to talk about something other than China Marketing Business directly.
Because this is a sensitive topic, let me set the scene a little bit. I want to try to make it clear that we are not out to ridicule, belittle or exploit any particular group of society.
OK, now we have previously mentioned a guy called Steve who is a practising psychologist in Scotland. He has a web site called: ” CHANGE THERAPY” which is rather apt. Now Steve and I come from different perspectives, his is social, mine is commercial. Yet I often find creative literary inspiration in his articles, such as here:
Steve writes on a variety of topics, from as many perspectives, but one of his regular’s is the subject of Autism. In a recent piece, titled: Autism – a young perspective with a sub heading: “Sometimes you need to look at life from a different angle.” Now I am not being critical of Steve in any way, nor suggesting it is a glib expression. But rather to say, easier said than done. Which is a massive pity – – because he is right!
In the piece mentioned above, he writes:
One of the most amazing things that I have come to learn about people who are on the Spectrum, is their ability to see the world we live in from a very different perspective than I can.
https://changetherapy.org.uk/2021/09/10/autism-a-young-perspective/
This also reminds me of one of the things we learnt in day one class one of teacher training: “People who speak different a language often think differently.” At the time I probably dismissed that as part of the “touchy, feely, new age stuff that was required to be taught.” Decades later, travelling the globe I realised there was more than a grain of truth to it. And, to paraphrase Steve, very often they saw a very different perspective to the same question, problem or action than I did.
Now, forgive me, but we are going to turn a little political here and probably step on more than a few toes.
Very often in our daily news, we read how certain groups of people are doing bad things. And how we, courageously, in the name of all things good and honest are attacking them. Killing them to be blunt. But that’s OK because we are just killing the bad guys, they are killing innocents. We know this for definite, absolute, positive sure because we have high tech surgically precise military hardware, superior data and intelligence gathering from credible sources and reliable, trusted informers.
That very same data that said Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, The Taliban would never take Kabul and that white Toyota was loaded with dynamite. Heck, we were even shown post attack images of the back seat converted to rocket launchers to further justify the attack. Besides, we have God on our side. Funnily enough, in 1066, King Harold was led to believe he had God’s ear, as was William. I guess misinformation and fake news isn’t so new.
Today, some countries also use this “undeniably true and proven” intelligence gathering to verbally attack and try to destabilise other countries that don’t think the same way as them. Probably to divert their own population’s attention away from their own failings. Or because they feel threatened in some way, are unable to see things from a different perspective to their own. Or unwilling to accept and allow.
Global leaders, afraid of being left out, missing a photo opp or being chastised by their “peers” are quick to join the fray. Hastily organised media standups: vitriolic condemnation, expressions of shock, horror or disgust, calls for boycotts. International groups, world organisations, groups of eyes call for sanctions, investigative committees. Collective moral indignation. Yet on the other side of the coin, the world is strangely silent, broken only by the sound of distressed coughing in Guantanamo Bay.
Where this becomes a concern to us is when mass media picks up the story putting a salacious or sensational spin on it knowing it will attract eyeballs and advertising revenue. This of course just fuels the fire of mistrust and hatred and launches an uptick in hate mail to our inbox.
Putting aside the obvious, proven dangers of relying on unshakeable Military Intelligence and credible witnesses, I just want to end by going back to Steve’s quote again and maybe also reference John Lennon’s work; “Imagine.”
Very likely you are one of the millions of people who do not suffer from Autism. In which case, consider yourself fortunate. However, there is still no reason why we can not all begin to see the world on a different perspective than our own and understand some people may think differently to us. And that’s OK. It is, as many poets and song writers before me have pointed out, part of the rich tapestry of life.
Today is, in the Lunar calendar, mid Autumn as we have noted above, for the northern hemisphere and a day of celebration in China. So wherever you are we wish you a pleasant day and suggest that you take a few moments to look gaze skywards tonight and reflect, that we all live under the same moon – regardless of our differences.
Aim2D China Business: News 
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