Subject: Acculturation by plan and design to facilitate the rescue of animals and foster the humane treatment of animals
I read the article by Dave Matins article, "So it go: knowing the fine, fine,"
This article deals with the issue of acculturation, of how one cannot know a culture unless they are part of that culture. Yet it overlooks the fact that we are now in a global community with cultures clashing. We can either work together to find solutions in harmony based upon established and defined missions, or sit back and watch as the flood of overpopulation and poverty around the world results in greater poverty, the plundering of resources and such horrible behavior as the barbaric cruelty to animals.
Certainly it is true that one needs to be present in a community to know and experience a culture to intimately understand the find details. But we are now living in a global community and the BIG PICTURE is understanding the fact that ACCULTURATION is now accelerated. Acculturation is that process where by a culture is effected by bringing into its heart those customs, traditions, values, laws, etc., of other far and distant cultures. This process can be effected by such factors as immigration, the media, marriages, communication, transportation, etc.
Ideally acculturation would work to educate, inform and improve a culture; but it can also work to destroy a culture. Many times in history acculturation has been taken to the extreme and destroyed cultures. One of the greatest examples of this was the discovery of the "New World" and the genocide that then began and destroyed entire populations of native Americans, in South, Central and North America. This also involved the enslavement of people in Africa, their export as products to the "New World" and subsequent generations of slavery, completely cutting these enslaved people off from their culture. Man's inhumanity toward his fellow man (or animals) really knows no limits!
With respect to Guyana and the issue of animal rescue, the people and animals may BENEFIT from the process of acculturation. This may involve the import of aid, resources, trained professionals, and all sorts of help, advice and considerations. Those in Guyana must filter through everything and decide what to use or what to reject, or even how to best apply the "gifts" or other forms of aid to the benefit of the people and the animals.
This is certainly the case when one begin talking about poverty and such issues as cruelty to animals. Often the law needs to be changed, needs to be rewritten, such that change can be begun. This in true of EVERY COUNTRY where there are forms of cruelty to animals. In China, for example, the government has in the past destroyed millions of dogs, beating them to death in the streets. That is an "acceptable" form of animal control by corrupt communist Red Chinese government officials who may later profit from the marketing of canine animal fur products lying to the rest of the world saying the mass killing were done to control rabies (when everyone knows rabies is best controlled using vaccines) and lying further that the dogs so brutally killed were given an honorable burial in mass graves.
The fact is, there is greed and corruption everywhere and it exists in many levels. To paraphrase an old phrase, "The price of tea in China does matter," because in a global community as now exists, what happens in every other nation effects everyone in the world. If there is an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico it is going to effect people everywhere, as this effects the price of oil and even the price or availability of seafood.
These are just a few examples of how in a global economy people everywhere are influenced by the process of acculturation. With specific regard to animal cruelty issues and poverty, those living in other nations may aid or help by working to change or reform laws, through education, through providing products or services, and in many other way where their skills and benefits may be of service. Yes, the fine points of a culture come into play and clash with all influential forces; but it is this vary clash which creates conflict and change that may work to end poverty and cruelty to animals.
Certainly those in other nations can not know all the fine details of a culture unless they visit far away lands and places to see and experience for themselves a different culture. But this does not negate the fact that people everywhere can come together and work toward common goals to make the world a better place.
With specific regard to animal welfare a society is just that, an association of people everywhere who have in common a mission and goals. That creates a collective effort, a binding of sticks, such that where one stick may be easy to break, when you have a bundle of sticks it becomes strong and a formidable force. This principle is used in building everything from dams to suspension bridges. Did you know suspension bridges are held up by massive cables made out of twisting many, many smaller cables together? Did you know dams are made by mixing many small stones with concrete to create massive walls and buttresses to hold back walls of water? Churches, societies, groups and organizations are build the same way; you have a common mission, belief or goal, and this binds people together so you can work toward achieving that otherwise seemingly impossible goal.
Specifically with regard to poverty and cruelty to animals, these two issues are related. This is why a man who raises chickens to feed himself and his wife and children may brutally beat to death a stray dog on the premise that it may kill his chickens. But when you lift that man out of poverty, not only economic poverty, but spiritual poverty, he will come to love all God's creatures, great and small, and treat them with kindness and with a new found sense of morality, that were it necessary to destroy an animal, it would be done not by clubbing it to death, but in as humane a manner as possible. This is why in some religions which practice the sacrifice of animals, there are adopted strict procedures for animal sacrifice that insure the quick death of an animal sacrificed will not result in its suffering during the process.
Acculturation has always involved the exchange of customs and values as well as products, services, materials, knowledge, and virtually every other fabric of society between different clashing cultures. This even involves the smallest of ingredients, such as one's recipe for making wine or bread. When cultures clash those very fine points of how a make a wine or a loaf of bread may result in a totally new type of wine or bread. This is true in all aspects of a culture, such that what you end up with is a new culture, one that is a combination of old cultures. This is also why over hundreds and thousands of years governments change, religions change and people everywhere change. It is the blending of cultures which creates new societies.
Specifically with regard to poverty and animal cruelty issues, those cultures which are in extreme poverty where situations or conditions result in cruelty to animals, may benefit from the process of acculturation. This involves education, changing laws, teaching morality and good treatment of animals, and doing working to effect change in society.
Acculturation is a process of bringing together different cultures which often happens at random, but it can happen by plan and design. Missionary work is a form of planned acculturation. For example, a church may send mission worker to a far away land to help build homes and schools for people and children who have none. Or an organization may send a team of doctors as a mission to give free medical care to those who cannot dream of such expensive treatment. Or a society dedicated to saving endangered species may send a mission to rescue animal which are endangered by rising flood waters when a dam is constructed.
Acculturation by plan and design is not a new idea and it is not without the potential for
abuse. When the slave trade was created by companies in England it resulted in great wealth and profits for some, and destroyed entire cultures for other. When the nations and states of Europe discovered the New World, sending explorers and conquistadors sanctioned by the Roman Catholic Church, it resulted in great wealth for some, and total annihilation for many native American Indian cultures.
Quite often when people from "outside" a given culture try to help others, to lift them out of poverty, including out of spiritual poverty, they are met with the argument that one simply does not understand the culture which they are trying to change. And this may be true. That is why those working for planned change send missions to other countries and lands, so that they may learn about the people and work on the ground with the people to bring about change. But the fact those upon a mission may not understand the intimate details of the culture they are working to change does not mean they should abandoned their mission; it only means greater effort needs to be spent and made to work with people to effect that change.
With regard to poverty and cruelty to animals, this is certainly the case. There are challenges and barriers that may be put up and encountered every step of the way when one is working with the rescue of animals and their cruelty in poverty stricken nations. It may be custom to permit cows to wonder freely in the streets, which may result in their being struck and injured by motor vehicles. It may be horses are abused and suffer because they are burdened to carry heavy loads to market. What ever the issue, however, it can be addressed and solutions can be found which may work quite satisfactorily. For example, barriers may be established which prevent cows from walking upon highways where they might be struck by a motor vehicle; or in the case of beasts of burden perhaps new market places may be created so that the distance to travel is made less; or perhaps even different breeds of large draft horses may be introduced that can easily carry heavier loads without being burdened. Or perhaps other types of transportation may be introduced, such as trucks that may even be cooperatively owned by those who might not otherwise be able to afford a vehicle.
Certainly the process of acculturation may best be achieved when people work together embracing a common mission. In this way change and progress may be made most harmoniously. When people work together for harmonious change and progress you avoid conflict and you accelerate change for the better. This is important because in its extreme conflict means civil unrest, rebellion and even all out war.
I would urge those who have as a common mission to rescue animals and prevent the cruelty to animals that they work together to achieve their common goal. Certainly there will be issues of clashing cultures and acculturation, but working together solutions may be discovered, compromises may be made, people may come to terms and agreements made to the satisfaction of all parties and to the ultimate benefit of both people and those animals which are God's creatures, great and small.
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