In Australia we celebrate our national day on 26 January – “Australia Day”.
While technically a public holiday, my day started with a trip to my primary client’s site and several hours of crisis management before heading out to celebrate. Normally having my phone battery die is a bad thing, but this day was an exception.
Our main event was going to a concert featuring Australian band INXS. The support act was the US band Train. At one point Train frontman, Patrick Monahan, thanked the audience for letting the band share our independence day.
This got me thinking about national cultures and how this may shape the meanings we place around resilience.
On 26 January 1788 the ‘First Fleet’ landed in Sydney and raised the Union Jack. It does not mark an Independence Day (as July 4 does in the USA), but is actually the beginning of colonisation by the British. As the colony began as a prison, my convict ancestors may or may not have seen this as a day to celebrate.
I know for certain that from the perspective of my Aboriginal ancestors, this is seen as ‘Invasion Day’ and not really a cause for celebration at all.
The culture of the USA stems from the break with Britain and celebrates the day they adopted the Declaration of Independence. Australia celebrates the day the British established the first colony here – not the birth of the nation. This was on 1 January 1901 when all the Colonies (States) combined to form the federation (the Commonwealth of Australia).
Surely we must expect these two national cultures to have different perspectives around what constitutes resilience? Can we then have totally shared meanings and definitions?
Going beyond the these two specific examples we find societies can be differentiated on dimensions of Individualism and Collectivism. Often this is seen as an area of sharp contrast between European and Asian cultures.
While the western liberal tradition contains both streams, you will often find that one tends be the dominate theme. One of the core philosophical themes of western liberal democracy is the idea of the ‘Social Contract‘ – that people give certain authority to a government to establish and maintain civil society. Ever since that time philosophers have argued about the size and role that government should play.
When disaster strikes, then we need civil society to respond, the resources of the individual are overcome by the disaster. The philosophy of Adam Smith and the freedom of markets did not take account of large-scale disasters in the post-industrial era.
If our culture promotes concepts of rugged individualism, then we will expect each to be able to support themselves for longer, and respond on their own, when a disaster strikes.
I have read many BC Plans that expect work units and local sites to recover on their own – but these stemmed from the culture of lazy central BCM teams rather than anything more profound.
I cannot help but feel that the strident individual cultures will be less resilient as a society than those who accept the more collectivist model. I am not saying that there we should do nothing and then rely on government to bail us out, but that like all things there needs to a balance. We need to know when we can (and should) rely on civil authorities to assist – and the circumstances in which we need to be self-reliant.
It is not either or, but the correct blend.
The collective response was on display in Brisbane recently, where local people came out in large numbers to help those who had been impacted by the floods.
Perhaps the clear philosophy for resilience comes not from the east or west – but instead from Africa – where we find the philosophy of Ubuntu.
This African philosophy promotes understanding in the context of our relation to the world around us. It promotes the inter-connectedness of the world, and defines our own meaning in terms of our context. “I am what I am because of who we all are”.
I know the blog is accessed by people all over the world at one time or another, would appreciate perspectives from different nations on this issue.
Do you see different meanings, and different attributes of resilience?
Do you find yourself confused by some of the concepts that other cultures use to describe resilience?
Footnote : The concert was great! It was especially pleasing to see the resilience of the INXS guys – all would be in their 50’s, but still putting on a great show. My wife went to High School with these guys, and they formed the band while they were at school so have been playing together for a very long time.
Train were great too – and special thanks to Monahan (pictured) for the inspiration for what is emerging as a series of posts!
He sang one number as the front guy for INXS, shame there were not more!
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