Dear you,
In my previous post, I promised you a story.
This is how it goes. I met a guy from Scotland, we fell madly in love and wanted to get married. Choosing a locality where we could get married was difficult, because if we got married in South Africa, his family and friends from Scotland would not have been able to attend, and if we got married in Scotland, my friends and family would not have been able to attend. So we decided to meet "half way" - half way between South Africa and Scotland. Measured over Africa, the destined locality was somewhere in Chad, which was a difficult to reach and remote area. So we had a look at the "other way around" and we stumbled on Vanuatu, an island group in the pacific ocean.
During that time (around 2008), Vanuatu had been voted the happiest country in the world, so it seemed to be an apt choice. We traveled there in October 2008, and got married in a wonderful island style ceremony.
What struck me though, was the people of Vanuatu. They were such peace loving, friendly and kind souls. We did not see one neglected person. Every person was looked after. Their community structure was such, that discipline from the elders, tradition and culture stood before anything else. No one would do harm to another, because it would just not be tolerated - people would be abolished from their community.
There are no homeless people in Vanuatu and there are no orphans in Vanuatu. In our modern day and age, they are a sterling example of how life could be lived, if we had the correct community structures in place. I wished the whole world could be like Vanuatu, and hoped that Vanuatu will stay the same forever. I'm affraid the world might change Vanuatu, before Vanuatu gets a change to change the world. Never the less, the lesson was that living in harmony is totally possible. It is.
Beautiful Vanuatu....
In my previous post, I promised you a story.
This is how it goes. I met a guy from Scotland, we fell madly in love and wanted to get married. Choosing a locality where we could get married was difficult, because if we got married in South Africa, his family and friends from Scotland would not have been able to attend, and if we got married in Scotland, my friends and family would not have been able to attend. So we decided to meet "half way" - half way between South Africa and Scotland. Measured over Africa, the destined locality was somewhere in Chad, which was a difficult to reach and remote area. So we had a look at the "other way around" and we stumbled on Vanuatu, an island group in the pacific ocean.
During that time (around 2008), Vanuatu had been voted the happiest country in the world, so it seemed to be an apt choice. We traveled there in October 2008, and got married in a wonderful island style ceremony.
What struck me though, was the people of Vanuatu. They were such peace loving, friendly and kind souls. We did not see one neglected person. Every person was looked after. Their community structure was such, that discipline from the elders, tradition and culture stood before anything else. No one would do harm to another, because it would just not be tolerated - people would be abolished from their community.
There are no homeless people in Vanuatu and there are no orphans in Vanuatu. In our modern day and age, they are a sterling example of how life could be lived, if we had the correct community structures in place. I wished the whole world could be like Vanuatu, and hoped that Vanuatu will stay the same forever. I'm affraid the world might change Vanuatu, before Vanuatu gets a change to change the world. Never the less, the lesson was that living in harmony is totally possible. It is.
Beautiful Vanuatu....
