[Consider] The Future Belongs to People Who Connect Different Cultures
http://health20.kr/2124
There is a well-known software developer named Erik Hersman. He was born to American missionary parents who were translating the Bible in southern Sudan and Kenya,and he grew up in Africa.After graduating from high school and returning to the United States, heserved in the U.S. Marine Corpsand thenas a developerbuilt a successful career before suddenly returning to Kenya. He now lives in Kenya and runs the well-knownblog AfrigadgetThrough that blog he introduces interesting technologies while showcasing the ingenuity of African engineers, and he does not stop at blogging alone.He also runs a co-working space called iHubThis space connects Kenyan software developers to the global IT industry. Drawing on deep experience in Africa, Hersman moves through key areas such as Gikomba and Nairobi, communicates with locals in languages like Swahili, and lives seriously as part of Kenyan society. In that sense he acts as a bridge, carrying African stories to the world while also carrying the life and perspective of the wider tech world back into Africa.
At a time like today, when global collaboration matters more and more, the role of people who can serve as bridges like Hersman is becoming increasingly important. The people who are hard to meet are not only those who live far away or speak other languages. Our own society is full of people who live inside separate worlds, divided by profession, industry, and even by the basic conditions of life itself.For groups that are this separated and isolated, simply making them meet is not enough. They need someone who can play the role of a bridge with enough passion to guide different groups toward real cooperation. Otherwise, people fail to understand one another, cling only to their pride and their own position, and often move toward breakdown. Even our politics can be understood that way.
I have had many experiences of this myself. Biomedical engineering, the field I studied, is a discipline where the fusion of very different bodies of knowledge is central. And yet,while I was in Korea I often witnessed discouraging situations.People trained in medicine and people trained in engineering often failed to collaborate as well as they should because of mutual pride. Instead of recognizing the other side or explaining patiently, they often ignored what they did not understand. Perhaps that is one reason I chose biomedical engineering in the first place: it seemed suited to someone who could hear both sides, interpret them, and connect them. I still believe that even simply playing the bridge in the middle can unlock the strengths of outstanding experts and make many things possible.
Someone like Hersman was born and raised in an environment where both the American and African sides could be understood at once. Most people live within a single culture, political position, educational path, and reference group, so they naturally lack a feel for solidarity across different cultures and standpoints.That is why I think people who grow up or are educated in environments where they can understand both sides, like Hersman, carry social importance and also a certain social responsibility. The world we live in is far more complex and interconnected than before. Solving major problems increasingly requires openness, understanding, and smooth communication between people who come from different cultures. Could anyone really make meaningful progress on climate change, for example, while leaving out China and India? As more and more peoples live together as neighbors while speaking different languages, it will be difficult to foster the development of a region without even exchanging a few words with them.
The internet is rapidly intensifying this kind of mixing, and the social web is pressing the accelerator even harder. But at the same time,in some ways the internet and social web only accelerate the connections within existing groups while making their isolation from others even stronger.If technologies built for connection end up strengthening only one group's way of thinking while cutting off relationships with people who are different, that is a deeply sad outcome. In that sense, perhaps we need even more people online who can act as bridges.
From that perspective,we need to identify more people who try to build connections in the middle and give them the openness they need to mediate well. If we take the time to talk and keep making the effort, perhaps many of humanity's problems can be worked through. I also hope that more people like this, people who can serve as bridges, will emerge.
References:
The 21st Century MVP: Bridge Personalities Who Happily Span Cultures
p.s.
As the blogger who wrote the source piece noted at the beginning, this is admittedly a somewhat heavy subject.
But as I kept reading, it struck me as a text with important insight,
