As a person that has lived in four different countries with distinct cultures, I knew exactly what was being said in the readings Cosmopolitanism and The Global Soul. This was especially true when Pico Iyer was chatting with the man living in a trailer to support his family living in Mexico. Although he said he to be American, he was proud of his original country, missed his family and did not lose his identity.
The pictures above are a perfect example of this. In them, I am in Costa Rica, on Nation Day. Although I am Brazilian, I arrived to the school event in Costa Rican traditional clothing, but changed my clothes later. It symbolizes globalism, the fact that I appreciate the culture yet I still know where I come from. While I did miss my family and my roots, I felt at home and comfortable - I am a global soul. This did not mean that I completely agreed with the people I met there, for example, I got teased for liking a sport as "ridiculous as soccer", but we all managed to still be friends and talk to each other, especially in a diverse international background. As Cosmopolitanism said, "Conversations across boundaries of identity- whether national, religious, or something else- begin with the sort of imaginative engagement you get when you read a novel or watch a movie or attend to a work of art that speaks from some place other than your own (...) Conversation does not have to lead to consensus about anything, especially not values; it's enough that it helps people get used to one another."
Sometime when I'm older, I am definitely going back to revisit each of these places from where I grew up. I'd also like to note that when I'm in my home town, which is São Paulo, I feel unsatisfied. Having been born there affects me, as the team that I cheer for in soccer is São Paulo Futebol Clube (SPFC) and my family lives there, but clearly what truly completes me are these different places and environments I had my childhood in. Because of this, I completely understand the man Iyer met in rural Japan, as he said in The Global Soul: "When I'm in England, there's a part of me that's not fulfilled; that's why I come here - to find the other part." These different places definitely shaped me to become the person who I am today, who understands others cultures and is not drawn back at something different.
We like to think that being outside your country affects you, but it also affects those around you while you are there. It is a symbiotic relationship to those who come and go, as shown in my brother's kindergarten class:
The picture looks as if Brazilians are taking over Costa Rica, but there is only one true Brazilian, which is my brother himself. Often times we forget that we are not just one in billions, but rather force that can change what is around and beyond. This is usually seen in younger people, with powerful tools such as the Internet, more prone to open up and discover and admire other cultures, but knowing where their heart lies.
This also brings me to a point: my "Tokyo" is in Japan itself. Even though I have never been there, the Internet made me love the place. I've seen documentaries, people talking about it on YouTube (positive and negative), and know about the traditions, everyday life and manners. I am glad the Internet introduced me to so many things, showing me many that wouldn't be possible without a connection between peoples. But this can also be a danger, especially since society is now being modeled after the Americanized way. In this video, Naoki, a previously wealthy man, suffers in poverty everyday after an economic crash. He rambles to the British interviewer from 8:30 to 9:17, "You gave me this capitalist system" and that it was the West's fault for having Japan forcefully opened up. Another example, in Brazil, because of capitalist greed, many are chopping the forests illegally, not caring for the future of the planet but rather for green paper in their pockets. So, in order for us to truly be open communities that respect one another, without having a system to go after while destroying the place's unique cultural heritage, as Planetary Culture explains: "It means affirming the widest possible spectrum of non-harmful individual behavior- defending the right of individuals to smoke hemp, eat peyote, be polygamous, polyandrous, or homosexual. Worlds of behavior and custom long banned by the Judaeo-Capitalist-Christian-Marxist West."
