Cross Purposes - Cross The Infinite Divide?
(cartoon source)
I was one of the 8 million who watched Question Time on the BBC last week. That inspired me to google 'cultural diversity BNP'. What would an oxymoran like that throw up?

The column piece below (from The Times no less) popped up and fair blew my mind. I think it artfully sums up the challenge for us as individuals, as cultural members and, importantly in the context of this blog, as geographers.

From this relative viewpoint, you would be doing yourself a favour by clicking below (come back though):

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article6886174.ece

...I wonder, much like the author, how we can ever get certainty in moral and cultural issues, no matter how much critical debate we have.

...but just to take this line of thought to the Nth level, I leave you with this quote from Frank Herbert's 'Heretics Of Dune' and a little something of my own:

"Most discipline is hidden discipline, designed not to liberate but to limit. Do not ask Why? Be cautious with How? Why? leads inexorably to paradox. How? traps you in a universe of cause and effect. Both deny the infinite."

Now science is banging on the infinite's door and global issues gain intensity, maybe it's time to take the possibility of the infinite seriously.

Leicester and diversity two (but with some oneness thrown in!)

Truly we are helping each other Becky - One Leicester! Click below to link from Becky's previous post:

http://83.137.212.42/sitearchive/cre/diversity/map/eastmidlands/leicester.html

And I am liking this initiative (one click):





Rebranding or something deeper?

Leicester and diversity

I thought that I would look a bit closer to home...Leicester and diversity. The link below takes you to 'diversity and integration' and specifically the ethnicity profile of Leicester which has a majority non-white population

http://83.137.212.42/sitearchive/cre/diversity/map/eastmidlands/leicester.html
(I will work out how to do a proper link soon!)

Cross The Divide - Cross The Sea

So, I was wondering why Grace Nichols (who featured in my first post) has the dual identity she feels she has.

I'm sure it's complex, but somewhere in the mix I think the guys to the left had a hand. Click the crowd!

And afterwards, to get you thinking, compare then to much more recent times...
Similarities? Parallels? Connections?

The more things change..?

Cross-Cultural - Cross The Divide

Becky's last post of "one of the most iconic views of contemporary São Paulo, commonly used in international publications dealing with the city" has pride of place on probably hundreds of walls in geography classrooms. Obviously striking, how much of the story does it tell on inequality between social groups in the city of Sao Paulo? How can it be used to analyse the nature and patterns of inequalities in the city?

Teresa Caldeira, a professor of city and regional planning at the University of California, does what I think is a damn fine job in the below essay:

http://www.urbanage.net/10_cities/08_saoPaulo/_essays/SA_Caldeira.html

Blimey, it even introduces us to Brazilian hip-hop and touches on the issue of the hyping of inequalities and differences in 'street' culture. Maybe this is why so much hip-hop gets a bad rap.
I think the reveling in 'differences' is worse for any society than not acknowledging them at all.
Anyone for a discussion?

looking at differences in living

this is a photo of the differences that can occur over small spaces - a shanty town next to a high-rise and swimming pool.

Cross-Curricular - Cross-Cultural

Hi from The Juice!

Cultural understanding and diversity is not a concept that would naturally jump out at me but I have racked my little brain for the following link from my life!
I've supported pupils in plenty of AQA GCSE English (England) lessons in a previous guise. The students look at mucho poetry in year 11 (15-16 years old) and this poem from 'other cultures' captured my imagination - I suspect it could capture yours too (cue dreamy side to side drift off effect...):

http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningzone/clips/grace-nichols-island-man-poem-only/1368.html

Here Grace Nichols discusses her feelings about having two identities: Guyanan and British, plus the poem again:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningzone/clips/grace-nichols-island-man/1367.html

Knowledge of what other subjects get up in a school can help your own - and the learners get that warm feeling only interconnectedness offers. Win-win. My favourite outcome.

social cohesion

the blog on whether the economic downturn has affected social cohesion, very interesting read and response looks at the affect it has has in Madrid.

http://opencities.britishcouncil.org/blogs/cidalia/2009/08/06/does-the-economic-downturn-affect-social-cohesion/

Considering how people and places are represented in different ways involves questions such as: Who am I? Where do I come from? Who is my family? Who are the people around me? Where do they come from? What is our story? This continues to pupils' understanding of diversity and social cohesion.