THE POWER OF CULTURE TO CREATE A BETTER FUTURE

Dating back to the prehistoric period (almost 800 thousand years ago), from the Indus valley civilization (3000-1 500 BC) around northwest India using pictograms to Mesopotamian (3000- 750 BC) around the Assyric highlands using cuneiforms to Egyptian (3000- 800 BC) along the Nile river using hieroglyphic the culture of different races have descended to several generations. Different signs and writings were used to pass down this gift called culture which include-pictographic, cuneiform, hieroglyphic, Chinese, Greek, Latin etc.

It beats the imagination of most literates how after many centuries of war, natural disaster and migrations, cultural history has still managed to reach our generation. I will not play down the sad truth of how it has been titrated by several factors both for good or bad. The cultures of several regions have been able to stand the test of time due to these main factors -language, religion, geographical and environmental factors and I have to also add the strong will of the people.
Every day we see how culture affects the social life around us from the way of greeting, in legends and children stories, in the way food is prepared to prayer and so on. From my studies of different world culture I can categorically say that 97% of world culture teaches about respect and welcome of guest into the community. Also most cultures around the world are staunch advocates of the respect and preservation of other forms of life from the least protected to the most secure forms of life. This is not to mention the age long practice of respect of the views of others and their way of life.
Over the years there has been an unimaginable fall in cultural practice all over the world caused mainly by four factors-
1. Natural disaster, famine, and disease-: an example is the recent 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami which affected the people of Andaman Islands.
2. War and genocide-: portrayed by the history of the indigenous population of Tasmania
3. Political repressions-: this occurs when nation states strive to attain a single culture or should I say, try to simplify their culture. This has happened in the case of Native American and Australian communities.
4. Hegemony, and economic marginalization –: this can be said to be the most common cause of modern cultural extinction. This can be seen in the case of Japanese Ainu.
With a population of more than 6.5 million people in 196 different countries the exact number of different cultures cannot be actually ascertained only the current estimate of ten cultures per country which is an extremely played down figure. This value cannot be ascertained due to the fact that every day, cultures of the world either undergo little changes or even go extinct just like the 2010 death of Boa senior which brought an end to Adamanase language. Even with the different cultures there are many striking similarities in them like- the idea of sacred monarchy, that of creation of states, justice being proclaimed everywhere, though with different meaning but usually include treatment of rich and poor as equal before the law. The wellbeing of the people was usually a governmental duty, classes were everywhere distinguished, also the problem between might and right was everywhere and its solution depends on one’s metaphysical system.
If I may be permitted, I will use the 2013 world cities cultural report to identify the world most multi-culture area and I will break it down into these 4 categories-
Highest number of national museum-: Shanghai (27), Paris (24), berlin (18)
Highest number of other museum-: London (162), berlin (140), New York (126)
Highest number of world heritage sites-: London (4), Paris (4), berlin (3)
Highest number of foreign films released theatrically-: London (438), Tokyo (358), and berlin (315).
If I try to draw a line of comparison between multi-cultured areas and mono-cultured area the difference will simply be very plain and the advantages obvious:-
-starting from the unique idea of cultural diversity and man’s urged to know more
-the intercultural competence which will make communication easier and preserve different languages
-the idea of transculturation coined by Cuban anthropologist Fernando Ortiz which involves merging and converging cultures which so far has played a great role in prevention of total extinction of most cultures
- Cultural vigor a term proposed by philosopher Nalyef Al-Rodhan which is cultural resilience and strength from mixing and exchange between various cultures and subcultures.
-a balance will be achieved through the promotion of actions in favor of “cultural minorities” said to be disadvantaged.
-preservation of “cultural minorities” thought to be disadvantaged
Through the work of UNESCO and other NGOs steps are being taken and the machineries are in place to preserve most of the world’s culture since its advantages cannot be overemphasized. These key steps include legislation, finance, administrative measures, procedures to preserve and salvage cultural properties, penalties, repairs, awards, advice and educational programs.
Finance- states should ensure adequate budgets for preservation of cultural properties
Administrative measure-: responsibility for the preservation of cultural properties should be entrusted to appropriate official bodies
Repair-: when the nature of the property so allows, adopt he necessary measure to ensure the repair, reconstruction or restoration of cultural property damaged.
Awards-: encourage individuals, association, municipalities to take part in programs for the preservation of cultural properties.
Educational programs-: organizing lectures and talks about the importance of preservation of culture.
We should all remember “the future is in our hands and if we sacrifice our culture we are to blame for what comes after “.

DAVID ROBIN JOHN ESU
CRIMEA STATE MEDICAL UNIVERSITY, UKRAINE