rambling.

globalization: a word that has been on my mind a lot lately. i just finished reading the book "a fortune-teller told me" by an italian journalist, tiziano terzani. he is warned by a fortune-teller in hong kong that it is dangerous for him to travel by plane in the year 1993, and on a curious whim, decides to oblige and avoid air travel for the year. journalism brings him all over south-east asia.. by boat, bus, train, car.. his descriptions of particular cities and countries take me right back to the dusty roads and palm trees. tiziano meets with several famous fortune-tellers; some meetings set up by friends, some through random "chance" (or is it?) although the story involves continuous contradictions as to whether these 'seers' actually 'see' or whether it's all a pile, i felt in the end that it all kind of made sense and i liked what he had to say. he also put a particular amount of emphasis on what he felt and saw through the simplicity of travelling by land which is lost when you hop on a jet and arrive within hours to a destination far from the one you left. we're living in a world that is progressively materialistic.. the west is taking over. not new news. this is extremely prominent all over asia, tiziano saw it 15 years ago, i saw it myself in the last 8 months, i'm sure to a greater extent as the cycle continues.. languages, customs, buildings, knowledge of the past, lost. it makes me feel helpless, and yet at the same time more willing to sit and listen, to learn from my elders, and take a lesson from the generations before me. needless to say, i enjoyed the book.