The implementation of major trade agreements such as the one between Canada and the European Union (CETA), the Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), and the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) are a testament to a wide market opening on a global scale. The expanding variety of communication solutions, increased access to the Internet and the rapid growth of tourism worldwide are melting barriers between nations and cultures.
If our international perspective grows ever wider, even going beyond terrestrial borders by propelling more humans into orbit and probes on Mars, how then can we ignore the need to open up to different cultures?
Whether globalist, nationalist or individualist, it is impossible to exist today without interacting with other cultures. In business as in everyday life, cultural diversity is as natural as different perspectives. Whether it arouses good or uncomfortable sentiments, we must admit that to ensure peaceful coexistence on this planet, we’d better learn to accept difference.
If some misguided, ignorant or downright malevolent heads of state insist on building walls to avoid difference rather than making it an ally, let us hope that common sense, compassion, and harmony will triumph, regardless of cultural differences.
May 2019 be the year of openness to cultural differences!
To you all: peace, harmony and joie de vivre!
Photo by Anderson Guerra from Pexels
