THE HARMONY GAZE

(From Whatsapp Classroom) Do you recall the first slide we discussed when we introduced the idea of natural equality? The image showed six skeletons. One represented a poor person, another a wealthy one. There was a Black person and a White person, a Christian and a Muslim. In death, their skeletons were indistinguishable. The point was simple but profound: at the most fundamental level, we return to the same truth. We are equal. From there, we reflected on humility. All of us share the same life cycle—birth, living, and death. As a Society of Harmony, we chose to focus on the moral principles that enable us to live well during that limited period of being alive on this planet. The central question is not abstract:  How should we live? There are many moral compasses that guide human life. Some are religious. Religions offer structured frameworks for virtuous living. Cultural traditions do the same. Some societies have not adhered to formal religions, yet they are deeply guided by v...

Ongoing global crises, including ecological degradation, climate instability, and accelerating social fragmentation, resist resolution through technical intervention alone. These conditions signal more foundational failures in perception, value orientation, and relational understanding between human societies and the living systems that sustain them. This article examines harmony as a relational and ethical orientation, understood as an active mode of engagement rather than a condition of passive equilibrium or aesthetic coherence.  Drawing extensively on the conceptual framework articulated in  Harmony: A New Way of Looking at Our World  (Prince of Wales et al., 2010), the discussion situates harmony within philosophical, ecological, and cultural traditions that foreground interdependence, diversity, and moral restraint. It advances the position that education oriented towards harmony must begin with perception and values if it is to exert meaningful influence on behavio...

This short essay was originally published in Germany by the Leadership Excellence Institute Zeppelin (LEIZ) at Zeppelin University and formed the basis of a guest lecture I delivered in German on 2 March 2018 at the same institute. Birkaskolan students in Stockholm participating in a twin-school project to increase empathy and wellbeing . “ If the young are not initiated into the tribe, they will burn down the village just to feel its warmth. ” 
  (An African Proverb) We live in an interconnected world, yet our understanding of one another is still distorted by preconceived notions created through the differentiating ethnocentric gaze of “Us” and “Them”. Homogeneous cultures are gradually becoming a thing of the past, giving way to more complex societies in which human interactions must seek to embrace and reflect unifying human values that promote peaceful coexistence. Our bewildering situation evokes the historical moment when Fernando Ortiz coined the term “transculturation” to ...

This short essay was originally published in Germany by the Leadership Excellence Institute Zeppelin (LEIZ) at Zeppelin University and formed the basis of a guest lecture I delivered in German on 2 March 2018 at the same institute. The fable of the six blind Men and an Elephant reminds us that "truth" is constructed in our heads. The explosion of visual media sharing around the world presents great possibilities but also an urgent need to address the chronic misinterpretation of images and spaces of “cultural others.” The dynamics of making sense of the world, or making truthful assertions about the realities of others, is not a straightforward process because the world appears differently to different people. The meaning and function of objects or concepts are culturally coded, and therefore an interpretation is fixed according to the “cultural toolkit” available to the one perceiving the object or other people. Philosopher-journalist Walter Lippmann calls it “the pictures ...