How Do We Expand our Global Circles and Make them More Inclusive?

Like a stone dropped in a still pond, our circles are continually expanding. We have become part of an ever expanding global network with its benefits and all its challenges and risks

Circles. Copyright: aesta1

The rings grow regardless of what we do or like and we are drawn into ever more complex circumstance. The only real choice we have is to spend our energy prepping to hide in our caves or to reach out and grasp the ripples coming at us.

People we have never heard of till now, living in the Himalayas or the Caucassus mountains or villages in countries we can't even find in the map, are suddenly thrust in our circle.

No man is an island. Yes, John Dunne really became popular in the 70s when many of us boomers started to peek beyond the smoke and mirrors of our narrow selves into the world that media and finally internet thrust at us.

Global Interconnectedness. Source: aesta1

No person or country is immune from this interconnectedness. The internet continues to add access to global growth and stretches our world view as the distance that separates us shrinks. We have become part of a growing spider web and there is no place to hide. No shelters.

Everything everywhere pulls on the web and we feel it. Bad financial decisions in a small country like Cyprus meant nothing to us in the past. But, now, an awareness of their problems is factored into the worries we bring to stock markets or confidence in our banks and our savings.

When I walk through the streets of Hanoi, I look at the things I enjoy now and I wish that they will be there into the future for me to enjoy. But I know they will disappear and new things will spring up.

I can feel nostalgic about these inevitable changes or I can start asking myself questions and thinking sideways. How will these changes affect the world I am in today? The world of my grand children?

What are some of the changes I see here right now which will have implications in my own life? What do I do now so I can welcome these changes and take these as opportunities?

Global World. Source: aesta1

11 Simple Steps to Expand your Global Circles

1. Visit another country and know more about its culture and its people.

2. Talk to a neighbour who comes from another country and invite them to your home.

3. Meet with other communities not just your own.

4. Go live in another country for a while but don't hide in the hotel.

5. Shop in an ethnic community area in you own town.

6. Read books penned by foreign authors about life in their own country.

7. Learn a bit of Spanish, Chinese or French or any other language. That is your door into a whole new way of looking at life.

8. Go and buy something from a store run by someone whose country you have not visited.

9. Meet a parent in the school of your child who comes from another country you know nothing or little about.

10. Be a part of a global circle where you interact with various ethnic groups. You can do it on the web.

11. Think sideways when you watch events on television. What does it mean? Where does it lead us?

A Parade in Hanoi. Copyright: aesta1

There are many more questions to ask and I keep asking them but the key thing is to recognize that there's nothing happening anywhere that does not affect us individually. No longer can we hide in our own tiny circle.

Start understanding the interconnectedness of our globalized lives. If I have bought a product that was manufactured in a factory that just collapsed with many deaths, how should I react.

The web has given this information that in the past I would never have known. Do I run for the cave? What do I do?

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