Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Past Meets Future

Where in the world can you see people eating goat brains and rice with one hand while holding a mobile in the other hand?

Where in the world do men work as geologists, accountants, and businessmen during the day, and then go home to wives who have twelve or more children, no education, and cover their faces?

Where in the world do people have air-conditioned homes with modern conveniences, but choose to lease them out and live in a palm branch tent in the backyard?

Where in the world can you live in an apartment in the city and have goats as your next-door neighbors?  (They are actually pretty good neighbors, for what that's worth.)

Where in the world do men and women go to jobs in the technology industry wearing clothes right out of the first century?

In the Gulf, that's where.  This place is a socialogist's dream-come-true.  A place where past and present don't just meet, but where they collide and sometimes cause an explosion.

In 1970, our country had ten kilometers of paved roads, two schools, and one hospital.  It was a third world, living in the past, civilization.  In 2011, there are schools in almost every village and town, modern hospitals all across the country, and paved roads between all large towns.  Amazing progress, amazingly fast!  How did this happen?  A new leader and oil exploration, exploitation, and exportation, with profits being put into developing the country.

This super-fast progress is good, but it causes some amazing phonomena.  One of the most important is the opening up of the culture to influences from the western world.  With internet and social networks, the people can now see and talk to westerners and watch their TV shows, movies, and news.  However, the western views they are seeing and hearing are skewed.  You have probablly tuned in to some form of western media lately.  Think about what these people are seeing.  It is the only way they have of knowing what the western world is like.

The time seems perfect for an enlightening of Gulf minds, but to do this, we must go to the people and show them who we really are.  Their culture is changing rapidly, they are more open to change than ever before, and the fields are ripe for harvest.  We just need workers willing to be a part of the great gathering of souls.

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