Zero Discrmination day, that is today and every single other day of the year, although until discrimination will be removed from our cultures, behaviours and practices it is important to mark this day, remember it and as UNDAIDS called in 2017 “Make some noise around zero discrimination, to speak up and prevent discrimination from standing in the way of achieving ambitions, goals and dreams.”
Throughout our life on earth we have come to believe that creation of stigmas, social exclusion, division of The Other into categories made by culture, ethnicity, faith, orientation, ability is something normal and natural and part of our evolutionary instincts. Perhaps true in the Ice Age, and yet think of how much we manage to unlearn since the time we were cavewomen and cavemen an replaced with new knowledge, values, beliefs and how much those kept on changing and evolving throughout the centuries, our transformation from nomads to farmers, to dwellers, to kingdoms and republics all the way to today. Do you believe that today we hold dear the identify with the same values of a fellow human from, say 500 years ago? The environment has changed since those days of the past, and the new environment influences our values and coping systems to survive, evolve and progress as a species with definite responsibilities towards our planet.
Our world is increasingly diverse and increasingly interconnected, while divisions and differences are starting to merge more and more into a global and human culture, transcultural, intercultural, multicultural, where diversity brings value and richness compared to monocultural environment, because for individual humans, as for entire societies growth come from meeting, confrontation and dialogue, that allows opening our eyes the new, different and enriching worldviews and new learnings.
Therefore in terms of evolution and progress, discrimination is something completely and utterly irrational, that has no place nor connection to present day human nature and the present environment in which humanity is dwelling, as it does not contribute to solve any of the challenges we are facing, does not support our existential needs, and it is just a harmful past behaviour that survived until the present day, and is in need of transformation.
Rescogita is a startup that focuses on education through training, coaching, capacity building and consulting, grounded on the principles of ecopsychology, meaning in identifying practical solutions to affect the wellbeing of the individual, the community and the biosphere in a single approach.