THE HOLISTIC HUMAN BEING

“And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work…Now he that ministereth seed to the sower both minister bread for your food, and multiply your seed sown, and increase the fruits of your righteousness” – 2 Corinthians 9:8,10

We have got past the pilot phase of CBET (Barbados), Barbados Business Enterprise Corp., the partnership of the CBET Shepherding Model^TM with the Government and private sector in Barbados. BBEC has assigned a Shepherd to each of another set of entrepreneurs who have recently begun their journey towards sustainable business success.

Wikipedia defines creative industries as the range of economic activities which are concerned with the generation or exploitation of knowledge and information.  The creative economy may include advertising, architecture, art, crafts, design, fashion, film, music, performing arts, publishing, R&D, software, toys and games, TV and radio, and video games. Of these eleven entrepreneurs in the BBEC family, eight of them are in the creative industry sector, which many have said will drive the new economy.  Two are in the ICT innovations sector and one in the Health and Wellness sector.  There is often a question about the boundaries between creative industries and the cultural industries among the purists but for the purpose of this discussion I shall make no distinction.

As a “left brain” practitioner, I have had a contrasting “right brain” musical influence in my immediate family unit and my recent avalanche of experiences with these “right brain” creative industry practitioners has further stimulated me to think about the contribution of culture to human development.  Surely to become a holistic human being one must not only be influenced by social, economic, spiritual and physical environmental factors but also by cultural factors. My interest in the impact of culture on human development has therefore been aroused.

In researching this matter, I came across a website which I now share with you. It is http://sites.google.com/site/earthling09/ .  In particular, there is an article on the Holistic Human Being from which I shall now quote liberally.

“Human nature must evolve in order for human civilization to remain sustainable. There are plenty of resources on earth to supply a comfortable quality of life for all of us. It’s just a matter of improving our attitude, and our culture, in order to supply a vast and diverse assortment of equal opportunity and free enterprise, to establish a more perfect union, a world wide federation of nations, our universal common wealth”.

“If you really want to thrive, both materially and spiritually, during this next generation of human civilization, then read all the essays on this website. You can read the stories in the order they are listed in the website navigation, which I think is the best way, or you can read them in any order. They promulgate an attitude of unity in diversity, living healthy and wealthy, living in harmony with each other and our natural habitat, and peace and prosperity for the entire human race, individually and collectively. They are a synergistic group of stories; a balance of science, religion and business, presenting an entertaining and educational experience, for improving ourselves and helping others”.

“There is only one reality. Science, religion, history and business are different facets of that one reality. Science and religion are complementary aspects of our search for truth. Business and economics are social manifestations of our appetite.  Science is our search for truth about natural reality. All of our ideas must be reasonable, not rigid or fanatical. We have a fairly accurate, although definitely incomplete, understanding of our universe.  Reason and science are also contributing to the progress and development of our technology, which is evolving spectacularly”.

“Modern aircraft can fly from anywhere on earth to anywhere on earth, non-stop without refuelling. Cell phones and Internet enable us to communicate with each other, from anywhere on earth to anywhere on earth. Every school, library and hospital on earth are interconnected nodes of a global information and entertainment network, making all the knowledge of the human race available to all of earth’s citizens. The Internet is one global intelligent network, one world wide knowledge management system, transmitting all the stories of all the people, to all the people of earth.”

“Religion is an inherent attribute of human nature, our search for truth about spiritual reality. It’s the source of our moral and spiritual principles, the rule of law, the inner essence of human nature, the difference between wild animals and civilized human beings”.

What I really don’t understand is why the agricultural sector (often deemed to be partly an art and partly a science), which is certainly basic to our survival, is traditionally treated with such scant respect.

May I quote from www.bible.com a paraphrasing of part of the text above: “This most generous God who gives seed to the farmer that becomes bread for your meals is more than extravagant with you. He gives you something you can then give away, which grows into full-formed lives, robust in God, wealthy in every way, so that you can be generous in every way, producing with us great praise to God”.

Not only must we expose ourselves to the cultural industries to effect the holistic human being but we must also pay attention to the export and import substitution potential of the agricultural sector to benefit fully from the resources which abound.