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The
'Cultural Highway' for a 'Change.
Are
You Ready to Build
it?
 In
a recent press release from the
Natural Resources Defense
Council, among the topics
addressed were coastal flooding
due to an Arctic meltdown, a
Clean Energy Police for the 21st
Century, environmental changes
through new legislation, green
living and greenhouse gases
emulsion and Global Warming
through the production of air
pollution.
However,
Global Warming offers more and is
not only about the environment
that envelopes us, it is about
people and a self awakening
process that takes place from
within. It is a learning process
for all cultures to coexist
through social and cultural
interaction relevant to a
Sustainable Peace.
The
vehicle that will drive this
phenomena and link a united world
with Global Warming is the
'Cultural Highway'. It is a
'highway' with a vision for
'change', creating an environment
in which people of all cultures
learn to live with no boundaries,
while at the same time helping to
bring the ends of the earth
closer together.
The
'Cultural Highway' is to be
ongoing in its 'metaphoric'
construction, built by people
(its infrastructure) and will be
largely comprised of cultural
resources indigenous to our
heritage. And therefore, building
bridges of communication and
cross cultural exchange, will
encourage peaceful coexistence
where we live. The 'highway'
becomes a catalyst to link the
peoples of the world together
through their similarities and as
well as their diversities.
In
that culture is only acquired
through a learning process,
building the Cultural Highway not
only means investing in
ourselves, but in our communities
as well. This exercise will help
to bring the 'changes' needed as
we embark on our journey from
self discovery to world
peace.
Building
the 'Cultural Highway' is one way
to celebrate our diversity while
fostering social equity the world
over. Educationally 'driven', the
highway's resources will be
comprised of the Arts,
Humanities, History, and
Heritage, and will serve as the
common denominator for all
cultures. In that sharing a
common sense of purpose while
identifying cultural differences,
education becomes the key to
opening doors and developing
social relationships in divided
regions of the
world.
With
these 'changes', it is our hope
that warring factions will
reconcile and the 'principles'
behind the 'Cultural Highway'
Concept will become an axium by
which we can start to realize a
renewed freedom, a democracy for
the Ages. Walls will start to
break down and tourism begin to
flourish as the 'Cultural
Highway' takes
shape.
As
an incentive for tourism, the
'Cultural Highway' will encourage
international trade, and economic
and social stabilization, all of
which will attract political
stability, foreign investments,
social integrity, cultural
biodiversity and religious
harmony, vital components for a
Sustainable Peace.
Whether
you are from a country war torn
from a political upheaval or a
rich sociodemocratic country,
this sharing of a common sense of
purpose will help to ease
cultural and religious
differences in various parts of
the world. It's only by sharing
our similarities, that we can
begin to heal our differences,
with all cultures participating
in the Peace
process.
In
addition to Global Warming's
social and cultural aspects and
The "Cultural Highway's" Journey
of Self Discovery, we must turn
our attention to travel again
naturally. EcoTourism, a 21st
Century phenomena, is about both
natural and cultural resources,
not only of our flora and fauna,
but of our cultural Heritage as
well. It is the showcase for
environmental disciplines in the
21st century.
Prior
to the advent of The 'Cultural
Highway', EcoTourism and Global
Warming evolved the term Cultural
Tourism, which found its roots on
the Island of Bermuda. It is
there that the employ of the
Department of Tourism, I saw the
need to increase off-season
tourism. The result was that I
utilized the Arts, Humanities,
History , and indigenous Heritage
to link Bermuda's nine parishes
via a common bond, while
packaging the Island as a single
entity. It worked, and Bermuda
perhaps became the prototype for
The 'Cultural Highway' and its
principles.
Cultural
Tourism
had caught on and was here to
stay, and to this day,
destinations throughout the world
use the 'principles' to advance a
better quality of life. The Arts,
adversaries of the Tourism
industry for decades, now had
become an important attraction
for the Tourism industry and are
here to stay.
It
was inevitable that EcoTourism
would follow Cultural Tourism,
that in the same way, The
'Cultural Highway' Concept would
stimulate renewed awareness in
people's cross-cultural
awareness. EcoTourism would
promote their natural resources.
Whereas in the past, EcoTourism
was used to describe native based
travel to relatively undisturbed
areas of the world while
protecting natural
resources.
Today,
people have become part of the
process in all three stimulants
&emdash; 'Cultural Highway'
(Cultural Tourism), EcoTourism
(environmental awareness), and
finally Global Warming (People to
People for Peace).
Whether
it becomes Peace through Tourism
or Tourism through Peace, these
three proponents stand to play an
important role in your part of
the world. Make it part of you
where you live.
Now
is an opportunity for each of us
to take the lead in our
communities by investing in the
Arts as a cultural resource to
partner with our natural
resources. Not only will the Arts
help to improvequality of life,
but they will humanize our
neighborhoods as well. Let's make
the 'Cultural Highway' the
cornerstone between Global
Warming and EcoTourism. Not only
is it economically correct, but
it invites a new greening of the
planet earth. Global Warming can
also become a cultural and
environmental 'change'. Perhaps
Africa, its membership and its
member nations of The Africa
Travel Association will become a
case study for developing
EcoTourism in the years that lie
ahead.
Start
today to celebrate the 'Cultural
Highway' Concept, its cultural
resources, and EcoTourism, its
natural resources, marketing
Peace as a natural resource. You
can make a difference while
helping to warm the globe all
over. Are You ready to build it?
People first - for a 'change', a
Culture ofPeace! If not the
greening of the earth's planet
the seeking of a culture
indigenous to World
Peace.
END
Jonathan
Meigs
jmeigs1@yahoo.com
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