I spent a big week in Kathmandu this Spring. It was 10 years ago since I last passed through there coming down from Tibet. A salesman asked me whether things had changed in the past decade. In an attempt at diplomacy, I replied that a lot was still the same, only 10 years older. He laughed, and agreed.
In this city, mostly Hindu but including different cultures - of which a large part Buddhist - cultural segregation is visible. The communities live alongside one another, but moving from one part of the town to another, it is almost like passing a frontier. Singapore makes it more official: you have the Chinese, the Indian, the 'Colonial' quarters; in Xi'an there is a muslim quarters like a cell within the ancient city walls...
We recognize it all. There used to be the 'Polish' and 'Belgian' quarters in Detroit. It is human nature to seek out and connect to the like-minded. It is a survival technique: to create some sort of permanence in an otherwise impermanent world. But evolution is only possible in the intersections, where the challenges lie, and we need to consciously and conscientiously deal with those in order to progress.
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