Global Citizenship and Sustainability are symbiotic. This page provides information and knowledge from a diversity of cultures around the world. One of Symbiotic and Sustainable Systems' aims is to assist in creating a world of global citizens with a high level of cultural literacy.
Please bear with us this page is under construction. In the meantime, here are some quotes to ponder ...
When we interact with people with backgrounds different than ours, we are often confronted with alternate ways of viewing the world. These differences often challenge our own beliefs, and they may give us a reason to examine the world from a different point of view. Many times we tolerate the differences of others, but we don't accept their differences. True acceptance of differences empowers us to create a world that is based on equality and respect. The next time you encounter a difference, question if you are tolerating it or truly accepting it. If you are tolerating it, ask yourself what is keeping you from accepting this difference, and then move towards acceptance, thereby appreciating the richness that the world has to offer.
(Culture Coach, 2007)
Only when the last tree has died
and the last river been poisoned
and the last fish been caught
will we realise we cannot eat money.
(Translated by New Internationalist Magazine from Native American Cree Proverb, ND)
… individuals can make a difference in society. Since periods of great change, such as the present one come so rarely in human history, it is up to each of us to make the best use of our time to help create a happier world. … Each of us must learn to work not just for his or her own self, family or nation, but for the benefit of all mankind. Universal responsibility is the real key to human survival.
(Dalai Lama, 1992)
Tjukurpa provides the Anangu Aboriginal Peoples with a whole way of life. It includes rules, obligations, responsibilities and guidelines for relationships. Tjukurpa is the key that underpins Anangu attitudes and guides people's spiritual, physical, mental, emotional, moral and economic behaviour. It guides daily life through a series of symbolic stories and metaphors. The stories are not simple stories, but represent technically complex explanations of the origins and structure of the universe, and the place and behaviour of all elements within it. Ancestors provide the example of how to behave.
(Anangu & Australian Government, 2008)
The Industrial Revolution raised the material standard of living and brought many conveniences into the lives of ordinary people; but its success depended on the destruction of self-sufficient and symbolically rich cultures, turned much of the environment into a wasteland, and put the world on its current environmentally destructive pathway.
(Bowers, 2002)
Living in harmony with our environment entails a whole lot more than picking up rubbish one day of the year. It's about changing the way we do things every single day, and making sure our ecological footprints are small and temporary.
(Ian Kiernon AO, 2005)
Another founding principle of Damanhurian philosophy is openness to change. With every new step on the path, new horizons can be discovered that were unimaginable a moment before. As a result, Damanhur is a society in continual transformation, based upon the exaltation of differences and with a political and philosophical system in continual growth and evolution.
(Damanhur, 2010)