I have had the opportunity to live in 3 different countries with drastically different cultures and social norms. I grew up in Abu-Dhabi, which is quite an international city, but yet has a strong influence of Arab and Islamic culture. After high school, I moved to India where I pursued my higher education in a small town in southern India, which also happens to be near my parent’s native village. Work took me to several other cities in India before I moved to Switzerland, which exposed me to a totally contrasting value system. My wife and family have been settled in Europe for long and she did most of her schooling in German speaking parts of Europe. All the above experiences have exposed me to a variety of cultural contexts, some of which are extremely different from each other.

For example, in most parts of India, it is socially unacceptable to have physical (sexual) relations before marriage. A person could end up in serious trouble and could be socially outlawed if society finds out that he/she has engaged in a physical relationship. This could be compared with how a pedophile would be seen in the US or UK. It is interesting to note that the situation is even worse for women, as India still has a patriarchal society with low equality for women (which is in many ways similar to the situation I encountered in the Arab world). Yet, I am glad that India is changing, though gradually, starting from metropolitan cities, to respect and empower its women population. A paradoxical aspect is the fact that Indian culture exercises arranged marriage, in which the parents and close relatives of the couple find a suitable partner for them. On the other hand, it is a norm in most Indian sub-cultures that the couple is expected to have intercourse on the night of the marriage and this is known as “First-Night” or “Suhaag Raat (Hindi)”. I find this expectation to be quite hypocritical – “How easy is it for a person who has no previous experience to have intercourse with a practical stranger on the night of the wedding?”

Conversely, I learned that in many several European cities, it is common for the class teacher to take children as young as 14 years of age collectively to a shop where they all buy condoms together and bring it back to class. The teacher then teaches the children how to properly insert / use a condom on a banana (I am relieved that at least this is done with boys and girls in separate classes). This, in my opinion, implies – “You will be having sex shortly; better learn how to be safe”.

The reason I discuss this possibly controversial subject is not to support any of these conflicting value-systems, as all of them have their own pros and cons, but to present a question that has bothered me for long – what are the cultural values that I will hand down to the next generation? Contemplating on this question led me to realize that there is a very crucial aspect that we as humans need to worry about first, before focusing on social norms and cultural values – being Human!  We need to think about how in a society like that of India’s, several women and girls are brutally raped and killed? How most people ignore the starving or suffering in those societies?  We need to think about why several old people in Europe are left to die alone, abandoned by their children? Why do children and older people suicide in countries with such high quality of life?

Thinking about these aspects for several years, I penned down a list of values, which I believe, are agnostic to culture, nationality, religion, race or any other factor that divides human beings. Inspired by the “Three rules of Robotics” by Isaac Asimov, I created what I believe are “The 3 Rules of Human Living” (illustrated in figure). I leave it to the readers of my blog to evaluate and judge these principles. However, these are the core values that I will be handing down to the next generation!

*Generation Alpha
McCrindle, a social research firm based out of Australia, coined the term Generation Alpha to refer to the generation of humans born since 2010, i.e. the generation who grew up with the touch screen smartphones, apps and youtube. You can read more about Generation Alpha on the McCrindle website or in this article from Business Insider.

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The author is a an Indian citizen who grew up in the United Arab Emirates and now lives in Switzerland. He is trying to express this learning and thoughts through his blogs so that he can share his concepts and philosophy with his friends and well-wishers. Any thoughts and comments are welcome.                        

• By jaison.sabu
• Category: Blog, Perspectives