Declining populations and reactions to it

The remote Japanese village of Nagoro is known around the world for its population of life-size dolls- approx. 350 dolls to the approx. 37 residents left.

One craftswoman is responsible for their creation, and for the last decade, she's made them to represent those who left and those who passed.

You can read an article about it at the link below:

https://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2016/08/26/490687505/a-dying-japanese-village-brought-back-to-life-by-scarecrows

What struck me about the entire thing is that she did it because the population of Japan is declining, and this can be seen in the more rural areas, one of which is where her village is located, nestled deeply amongst the mountains. 

In general, however, the world is gaining a longer living population, with less babies being born, and the young migrating to more densely populated cities in search of jobs.

It happens everywhere! That is why in the UK, the pensionable age is rising, and why there's been arguments about whether to retain or keep the travel and TV licenses free for the elderly.

Now, due to the covid pandemic, the argument is whether to raise NI for the young to ensure better resources for the old. That is only one example amongst many  arguments going on within the political realm, and you know, with arguments, there are never any winners.

I accept that my idealistic view of the world will never come to be, but all I can do is contribute and create my own type of legacy so even when I pass to the other side, I am somewhat immortal. This blog will probably exist longer than I am alive and that isn't a bad thing! 

Best to make the most of what I have now, eh?! With a couple of frozen margaritas to start me off!

How to defuse a culture war in the right way

I read an article today in the Evening Standard, page 12, by Tom Newton Dunn. It's called 'How to defuse a culture war: a group of London schools found a way', and it basically talks about how the benefactor, Robert Aske, started the Haberdashers' Aske's set of private educational institutions from a request he made when he died in 1689.

The issue with the benefactor was found out recently, in March 2021- that he partially funded the Royal African Company, which, apart from obtaining gold and other valuables from Africa, also extracted people and made them slaves.

Due to this, the Haberdashers school  governors had to decide: should they cancel Aske as a benefactor, or defend him? They decided to do neither, and consulted with all students, parents, alumni and school staff, the numbers of which exceeded 800+, for 6 months.

In the end, they decided to remove his name from school titles but not from the formal legal name of the federation, and they used his statue as an educational tool to teach Aske's history and explain it, both good and bad.

They found a third way that was almost universally accepted by all people associated with the schools, which can be summed up in the following excerpt: 'Undoctrinal, built with intelligence and sensitivity. Peaceful resolution and consensus has been found to an extremely sensitive cultural divide by painstaking consultation and debate'.

I read somewhere that each person is the sum of every person that they have ever met. If every person could be exposed to variations of such a 'third way', and realise that making a choice is not just either one- right, or two- wrong, perhaps our society would be much calmer.

It's nice to hope.

(A picture of the article is below, which you can read in its entirety.)