Have Joel as your travel partner in Malawi to help you in all travel need &culture joel.1warmheart@ymail.com
Good luck to Alex and the team

Sometimes – cultures die because they’re too expensive to maintain. Or they have too much competition from cheaper sources.

In India – any given group of people will lift up their voices and sing.

In the US, singing is viewed as something to be done by those who know how. There’s a strong feelint that the rest would do better by keeping quiet.

COnsider the differences: In the US so many households have TV/ Radio/ and now acccess to the web – that this kind of entertainment is widely available.

But in poorer places – the local community provides it for themselves. In the place of TV and radio, they still tell stories out loud, perform skits and sing at home.

It’s a dream and a seeming luxury in the US to have a artisanal career. In America some view the tailor, baker and candlestick maker with near awe.

Right now those skills continue to be almost mundane in 3rd world countries.Will those skills be priced out of existence as the demand and buying power in places like Brazil, China and India increases? Factories are faster even if the quality’s not as good. The artisan will therefore be able to demand a higher price for handmade traditional goods but how many will survive to do so?

Hispanic families who come to the US tend to hold on to their language longer than other language speakers. Haitian creole on the other hand can be lost in one or two generations of living in another country.

There’s little to no money in it and HC’s not looked on with the same fascination by the new population as for example, Spanish is.

Chinese and Arabic speaking families may send their youngsters to school to maintain familiarity with the culture and the language. Many haven’t the funds nor the structures to do the same.

If the goal is to “save cultures”, museums and festivals are the only ideas I have. I don’t complain as much as some people about the commoditization of culture because I have a feeling that connecting culture to money might extend the life of some.