The other day, I was talking with a college student, and she mentioned her desire to join the peace corps. She also brought up the fact that you can't choose the country where you are placed, when you join up.

I realise that young nurturer/thinkers often feel the need to have an adventure. It's important for them to see the other half of the world in a very intimate way. I certainly had this need myself, as a young man.

I would suggest that young people consider the idea of going to India. This is a popular attraction for young folks in Australia and New Zealand, because they hear a lot more about India through their mass media. India has squalor, and poverty, it has oppression, and it has a whole lot of history. They invented mathematics and the "arabic" numerals for example. And they're a very philosophical society. Furthermore, they're also going to be a very important economic force in the next few decades. India and China are going to eclipse the Usa at some point in global influence. If you have spent time in India, you will be in high demand by many Usa companies who are doing trade with that country.

China would also be an interesting adventure. However, the poverty is less pronounced there, it seems to me - and it might be hard for a young thinker to stomach the idea of trying to live for awhile under the auspices of a government like that one - because of all those heretical thoughts that are flooding a person's mind when she or he is a young thinker ;-)

Here's a link to a BBC article published today, of a 16 year old in Bengal who started a school for kids in his backyard. The school has grown to 800 students.

Here is an interview with an author of european ethnicity who spent a lot of time in India.

I've made a series of posts of my musings about a very important rift we ought to see in our society. That rift is one which lies between those people who see the world as being something which is self-evident, who are just going to do the best they can for themselves pursuing their own endeavors within that world on the one hand - and on the other hand, those who see the world as being something which is like a puzzle which needs to be figured out using reason.

With different blog posts, I have put different labels on these two groups, and I have looked at this thing from several different angles.

This film is one thing that one of my college-age friends gave me to look at a while back, after kind of a long series of conversations where I was being a bit overbearing in how I was trying to give him advice:

He told me that this was how he felt about humanism... more specifically, this is what he felt happened to people who tried to follow the teachings and advice of those who call themselves humanists. And this is a very important thing to see, I think. I have come to the conclusion that people who care a lot about their society, and want to help it, by sharing their insights and acting in a caring fashion might actually be causing disruptions to the social dynamic around them. I wrote a little about that here.

And this film would show how that might occur - even the kindest, gentlest, least didactic and least overbearing way of giving advice, might not work when someone tries to put it into practice.

An ancient Uighur city in western China is being destroyed because of earthquake danger concerns. It's fascinating how the government is using the opportunity to restructure how society works. They're taking people out of places with narrow streets big enough only for pedestrians and bicycles, and putting them into big apartment complexes. I think it's sad that the history will be lost, and also that the social dynamic will change so much for those people.

One vision I really admire, is that of the author of a series of books advocating car-free cities. I believe in small communities, where people know their neighbors, and where they aren't insulated from others in the same way folks in most Western cities are.

Years ago, when the usa military action against Afghanistan first started - back in 2001 - only a month after the tragedy which occurred in New York City - I wrote several faxes to different members of congress, imploring them to think of the good of the Afghans first and foremost as they went about this military agenda. I used the word "nation building" in those letters; it had not been a idea which had come up before then. Perhaps that phrase infused the discussion in Washington DC because of my letters. I will never know.

At any rate, I eventually gave up with the letter writing agendas as it dawned on me that the more the public became critical of the wars in the middle east, the more obstinate folks on capitol hill and in the Whitehouse became in regards to that agenda.

Just recently, I've started following the rss feed from Al-Jazeera English's youtube channel. And I've found it's hands down the best source of news about events all around the world in different countries. Recently, there was a two part segment about the politics of warlords in Afghanistan. It's very quaint to see the social dynamic around such people like Rashid Dostum. One can see in folks' attitudes around these people what would have happened a thousand years ago in europe with all the different kingdoms and fiefdoms. The main problem I see is that people don't feel a loyalty to the central government... but their loyalty and sense of civic pride has coalesced around these various warlords. People are so passionate about Dostum in some parts of Afganistan that they will tell you point-blank that if Dostum tells them to vote for Karzai, they will vote for Karzai, and that they will rally around and fight for Dostum's causes. In other parts of Afghanistan, people with one voice condemn Dostum as being the person who has destroyed their lives and sent them into refugee camps.

Afghanistan is a very quaint country in that way. Similarly, I remember early in this first decade reading a National Geographic article about Tibet - and it struck me that Tibet was a region which was a throwback in some ways to a thousand years ago, when monasteries and religious traditions had a certain prominent role in Europe. In the last five or eight years, however, China has been trying to railroad change into the region. And I think that Tibet is changing rapidly with more trade ties and more immigration of ethnic chinese folk into the region.

The answer that I see which would solve this problem in Afghanistan also will sadly destroy the old culture that they have there. What I would suggest, is that Afghanistan needs a very big infusion of communication technology - computers, telephones, the internet, and so forth. Those people who hate Dostum need to have some cultural exchange and some discourse with those people who feel loyal to Dostum. Folks in government tend to get big heads, and they believe that they govern the affairs of the country. In practical senses, however, governments have so few resources, that they can't do much to influence the course of a country. Really, it's the people in every town and city who decide what kind of country they will create - what kinds of civic live they will institute, and how they will live with their neighbors day by day.

For the Usa to try to influence the politics of Afghanistan - by playing off one warlord against the other, and what have you is never going to effectively create the needed change in Afghanistan. The only way things will change is if the people themselves see a need for change, and want to work on effecting it.

Someone has collected these classic television programs at this website.

• Enjoy these programs at Chyco.com