#291 Colonialism, Creolization & Mindfulness

     "Colonialism is ‘the conquest and control of other people’s land and goods... the takeover of territory, appropriation of material resources, exploitation of labor and interference with political and cultural structures of another territory or nation.’" Loomba A. Colonialism/postcolonialism. ed 2, Routledge, NY, 2005. Quoted in Kral MJ et al. Unikkaartuit: meanings of well-being, unhappiness, health, and community change among Inuit in Nunavut, Canada. Am J Community Psychol 2011; 48(3-4): 426-38.

     The paper above deals the destructive impact of colonialism on the Inuit. But none of us is spared from the massive impact that multinational big business has on our local economy, culture, community, and ultimately our individual life. One of the many warning signs comes from this morning's headline in my small city of Halifax, NS: "Last year the Mainline Needle Exchange handed out close to 565,000 sterile needles to intravenous drug users. This year, the program has handed out about 660,000 needles, and the year isn't over yet. That's a 14 per cent jump in demand." http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/story/2013/03/01/ns-halifax-needle-exchange-mainline.html

     "I call creolization the meeting, interference, shock, harmonies and disharmonies between the cultures of the world . . . [it] has the following characteristics: the lightening speed of interaction among its elements; the awareness of awareness: thus provoked in us; the reevaluation of the various elements brought into contact (for creolization has no presupposed scale of values); unforeseeable results. Creolization is not a simple cross breeding that would produce easily anticipated results." Glissant E. Poetics of relation (B. Wing, Trans). Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press 1997. quoted in Kirmayer LJ. Culture and psychotherapy in a creolizing world. Transcult Psychiatry 2006; 43(2): 163-8.

     As Einstein said, "We cannot solve the problems of today at the level of thinking at which they were first created." To not just scrape by, but actually thrive in our increasingly complex, potentially disorienting environment, we must intentionally, wisely, continuously upgrade our level of consciousness via mindfulness-enhancing practices.