Too little, too much

Working internationally gave us a chance to review our thinking on 'enough'.  Enough food, shelter, education, employment, health care, ....  enough is good; it makes the difference between a gracious existence and a daily struggle for survival.  Moving along that line, where does it become too much?  

Children, particularly the youngest, can be misshapen by wealth and privilege.  It can do too much for them and leave them without the life skills they'll need. Keeping their stuff organized, taking care of their clothes, household tasks, interacting with adults, and prioritization among demands, all are learned first as a child.
Or not.

If a child is given everything they fancy and more, what does that teach them to expect?  Will life disappoint and discourage them? Will they spend their adult efforts on 'having' things instead of 'being' anything?  Is having 50 pairs of shoes a noble goal?

If you have money in the bank, clothes in your closet, a place to live, and food in your fridge, you're in the world's top wealthiest 10%, by the way.

These west African children and their families (pictured) are living on the edge of 'enough', but interestingly, they're an extraordinarily gracious culture. Children relate well to adults, they participate in discussions and decisions, and they share the family workload. They have the skills and insights to participate in community, and they work hard to do well in school. Their community has virtually no crime or violence, and children are safe anywhere. It's not an easy life, but it has none of the fail points common in the developed world's raising of children.


From the developed world,  a mother talks about her journey through the issue of excess with her children, "I equated giving them stuff with making them happy, a message that our consumer driven culture hammers into our psyches from the time we our born.  Oh, what a lie!"  See  Why I took my kids’ toys away


Does more stuff make us happier?
Is there such a thing as 'too much'?
What's the goal?

Recognizing that our children can be warped by wealth, are we curious what might be happening to us as well?

Parents 'Trapped in Cycle of Too Much Stuff and Too Little Time for Kids' Says New Unicef Study - See more here.

Great Heart

Can a child have a great heart?

A child can indeed learn great things like justice and compassion and generosity ... and then live a magnificently great-hearted life!

Can we encourage a child's thinking?

Some thoughts:

• we can explain the basics, but a child will have to grasp and act them out before they're real.
• a child's attitude about money will be like mom's and dad's. it's learned from example.  that's a tough one, but not set in stone.
• a child may not be able to relate to the poor or those in need.  it's also learned. that's another tough one.  we don't teach class distinctions usually, but kids learn them from unspoken things.  it can change.
• a young child's first awareness of injustice may be in abandoned pets or abused animals or some such; it's a legitimate start.
• you can, of course, just talk a lot about charity and the poor starving people overseas.
• talking without doing deadens conscience and insulates from reality.
• talking without doing is the same as walking by on the other side of the street.
• or you can gather up the family and do something! 



Youngest member of a gracious family, east Africa

• children learn more from what we do than from what we say.  
• they learn even more if they themselves get to be part of doing it.
• a child can befriend another in a moment and truly care.  
• stepping in alongside another because you care is more instructive than a thousand lectures.
• down the street or across the ocean, unless you help your children see the larger world, they'll think their small part is the norm. It's not, of course.

Friends in a rowdy neighborhood, just minutes from where we work, west Africa

Here are some odds and ends along the same line of thinking ...

Where Children Sleep

Children's Toys

What Children Eat

Childhood's End

The Adult Mind - Part I
African Life
Lip Service
Why Educate?

Lip Service

Lip service doesn't count.
We can say that something is important, but what do we do?

Among the hardest things to do, we find:

• homework
• honey-do list things
• helping others

It's true.  So many things demand our attention, and it gets worse as the years go by.  Our families are fully engaged with school and birthdays, science fair projects and sports and shopping ... well, you know. We're really busy!

Precious, amazing children in Kenya.  The elders from
their community are hoping we'll be able to lend a hand
getting some school projects started.  About $4K over
two or three years will equip and staff their facility.

Then there are other important issues like families that are struggling, children in a famine region, or kids who can't go to school because their family can't afford it.  Those are distant concerns that we see and affirm but we just can't get around to them. Fortunately, they're less important than the stuff we have to deal with every day.  At least that's what we tell ourselves.  

'The tyranny of the urgent', it's been called, and we're more stressed and less productive as it piles up. Years pass, overly filled with busy-ness, some worthwhile, some not.

What if we sat down with our kids and took the time to work through real-life things?  Did you know that it costs about $45 a semester to keep a kid in school in Kenya?  For the price of an X-Box, you could put some kids in school for a year or so.  That includes a mid-day meal, usually, and it may be the only meal the kids get sometimes. You and your children could be world changers for those kids and their families.

Children learn more from intimate involvement in such things than from years of words. A great heart isn't formed by talking.

If lip service is the best we can manage, it doesn't count. No peace, no joy, no help at all.  A little time and effort invested, however, is great fun, and it pays back more than we'll ever give.  If you like, we'll introduce you!

Feel free to join us.  TexasEx.Org

C. O. W. EIEIO!

Political
 Ideologies
   Simplified

SOCIALISM
You have 2 cows.
You give one to your neighbour.

COMMUNISM
You have 2 cows.
The State takes both and gives you some milk.

FASCISM
You have 2 cows.
The State takes both and sells you some milk.

NAZISM
You have 2 cows.
The State takes both and shoots you.

BUREAUCRATISM
You have 2 cows.
The State takes both, shoots one, milks the other, and then throws the milk away.

TRADITIONAL CAPITALISM
You have two cows.
You sell one and buy a bull.
Your herd multiplies, and the economy grows.
You sell them and retire on the income.

ROYAL BANK OF SCOTLAND (VENTURE) CAPITALISM
You have two cows.
You sell three of them to your publicly listed company, using letters of credit opened by your brother-in-law at the bank, then execute a debt/equity swap with an associated general offer so that you get all four cows back, with a tax exemption for five cows.
The milk rights of the six cows are transferred via an intermediary to a Cayman Island Company secretly owned by the majority shareholder who sells the rights to all seven cows back to your listed company. The annual report says the company owns eight cows, with an option on one more. You sell one cow to buy a new president of the United States , leaving you with nine cows. No balance sheet provided with the release.
The public then buys your bull.

SURREALISM
You have two giraffes.
The government requires you to take harmonica lessons.

AN AMERICAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You sell one, and force the other to produce the milk of four cows.
Later, you hire a consultant to analyse why the cow has dropped dead.

A GREEK CORPORATION
You have two cows. You borrow lots of euros to build barns, milking sheds, hay stores, feed sheds,
dairies, cold stores, abattoir, cheese unit and packing sheds.
You still only have two cows.

A FRENCH CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You go on strike, organise a riot, and block the roads, because you want three cows.

A JAPANESE CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You redesign them so they are one-tenth the size of an ordinary cow and produce twenty times the milk.
You then create a clever cow cartoon image called a Cowkimona and market it worldwide.

AN ITALIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows,
but you don't know where they are.
You decide to have lunch.

A SWISS CORPORATION
You have 5000 cows. None of them belong to you.
You charge the owners for storing them.

A CHINESE CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You have 300 people milking them.
You claim that you have full employment, and high bovine productivity.
You arrest the newsman who reported the real situation.

AN INDIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You worship them.

A BRITISH CORPORATION
You have two cows.
Both are mad.

AN IRAQI CORPORATION
Everyone thinks you have lots of cows.
You tell them that you have none.
No-one believes you, so they bomb the ** out of you and invade your country.
You still have no cows, but at least you are now a Democracy.

AN AUSTRALIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
Business seems pretty good.
You close the office and go for a few beers to celebrate.

A NEW ZEALAND CORPORATION
You have two cows.
The one on the left looks very attractive...

TWO COWS ~{Matthias Varga}

It's only funny from outside of the kill zone, of course.

Allegiance

NYTimes 18 FEB 2014

"With hundreds of riot police officers advancing from all sides after a day of deadly mayhem here in the Ukrainian capital, anti-government protesters mounted a final desperate and seemingly doomed act of defiance late on Tuesday evening, establishing a protective ring of fire around what remained of their all-but-conquered encampment on Independence Square.

Feeding the blazing defenses with blankets, tires, wood, sheets of plastic foam and anything else that might burn, the protesters hoped to prolong, for a while longer at least, a protest movement against President Viktor F. Yanukovych, a leader who was democratically elected in 2010 but is widely reviled here as corrupt and authoritarian."

Does allegiance to country include obedience to government?

Not at all.  Not morally, not ethically.  A person of conscience does not equate country with government.  Governments serve the people who are the country.  IMHO.  (Kneejerk response. It's an ancient idea that citizens exist solely to serve those who rule. Such thinking brings corruption and extraordinary injustice still today in much of the world.  Too much.)

Protesters at Independence Square on
the first day of the Orange Revolution

The heartbreaking violence in Kiev (pictured) and across the Ukraine in the last few months is specifically about that distinction.

The Euromaidan (Ukrainian: Євромайдан, literally "Eurosquare") protests started in NOV 2013 when the majority of Ukrainian citizens demanded stronger integration with the European Union. Demonstrations followed the president's refusal to sign an association agreement with the EU, which he insisted was disadvantageous for the nation. Euromaidan has come to describe a wave of ongoing demonstrations and civil unrest in Ukraine.  The protests have included many calls for the resignation of President Yanukovych and his government. In January 2014, the government enacted the Bondarenko-Oliynyk laws, also known as Anti-Protest Laws. Violence has escalated in frequency and severity since then.

20 FEB - The EU and the US are threatening targeted sanctions against Ukranian officials they hold responsible for the violence in Kiev that has killed at least 26 people and injured more than 200 since November. 
There's a truce announced this evening. We hope for progress and a end to the violence.
Thursday morning, another 20 have died as the truce crumbles.

21 FEB - In a statement, EU foreign ministers said targeted sanctions including asset freezes and visa bans would be introduced "as a matter of urgency".  Dozens of anti-government protesters died in Kiev on Thursday. Many were reportedly killed by snipers.  In all, 75 people - including policemen - have been killed since Tuesday.  In addition to those, Ukraine's health ministry also said that 571 were injured during three days of violence in the Ukrainian capital.

Protesters had captured 67 police, the interior ministry said. A number of them were later released by activists on the main protest camp in Independence Square - widely known as the Maidan.  The tense stand-off is continuing overnight, with the activists standing guard on the Maidan barricades for possible new police attacks.

24 FEB - President Yanukovych has fled the country ...
Our great hope for humanity; freedom from injustice, protection from the wicked who would put their own will above the good of others, a safe place to raise our children.  Stunned Ukrainian citizens view the opulence Yanukovych purchased with the country's meager wealth.

“It’s beautiful here,” Svetlana Gorbenkova, a real estate agent, said of Mr. Yanukovych’s privately owned residence. “It’s so peaceful. But why all this for just one person?” she asked. “This was all stolen from us. It’s obvious now how much he stole. Why didn’t he give anything to the people? When he was running for president, one of his slogans was ‘I will listen to every one of you.’ But he didn’t listen to any of us.”

27 FEB - As my father would have noted, the Ukrainian government appears to have been crooked as a dog's hind leg.  If they're as smart as they are corrupt, government officials will run for their lives.
6 MAR - Disturbingly, now Russia (Putin) is making a play for land and resources, much like earlier land grabs.  All ultra-high-risk.  

We all know something's wrong.

There's a gap between young folks who are discovering life and older folks who have already walked a little of that path. The gap is real, of course, because today's discoveries appear on top of yesterday's, and the older context eventually gets left behind.  Things change.

Technology changes rapidly.  Science and business are fast movers as well (there's money involved) along with youth culture and the arts.  The mainstream runners are next; the media, educators, intellectuals, criminals and politicians. Among the last to change even a little, we find institutions like government (and law), and the church.

Institutions are deliberate slow movers.  By definition they are monuments to moments in history and to ways of thinking that had such virtue and nobility when they were new that none were willing to let them go. Institutions exist to solidify and support those unchanging cornerstones of civilization.  At least, that's what we've thought.

There are truths that endure, of course, but old laws and old hymns and old ways cannot speak those truths with clarity today.  

Example:  don't steal.  Thousands of pages of regulation and law on that simple truth, and they weren't enough; Wall Street players knowingly made and sold worthless mortgage securities.  Government couldn't keep up, couldn't change fast enough to do their job. Aha! A relevance gap!?!

So, real church; is it an institution?

As complexity and change accelerate, we have to adapt if we want to participate and contribute.

What occasions of the institutional model are still worth the cost?

There's a huge and fascinating debate underway regarding church relevance. Experimentally, communities are rediscovering what fellowship is about and what living their faith broadly might look like.  It certainly can't be reduced to a one-word issue.  Are there risks?  Many.  Opportunities?  Many more!

Everybody loves change ..., 
    and everybody hates changing.
Such upheavals are probably good, especially in retrospect.  Meanwhile ...

                    "... the place to start ... and stop. 

... Jesus interacted with culture. He spoke the languages of His nation, wore the clothing, worked in a common trade and engaged with people where they were, socially, emotionally and spiritually. He also used references and stories that people of the day understood. 

... He remained untainted ... He lived counter-culturally while inviting others to join Him."  From Focus on the Family's Meredith Whitmore

Do you have any of these symptoms?

A century ago, we acquiesced to popular preferences and divided our attention between the newly-named 'highbrow' and 'lowbrow' content categories for our entertainment.

Meaningful literature gave way to pulp fiction, and the nay-sayers faded away into the intellectual void.

Today we have Honey Booboo, the Kardashians, and an absolute deluge of internet drivel.  That's our cultural target for mass consumption.  If our trend over time is a descent from highbrow to lowbrow (with not even a pause at middlebrow), then what might we call today's drivel?

Underbrow?
Nobrow?
Chin?

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Oh, good grief.

I do love the internet.  It's better than a good library and Saturday morning TV put together.  There are parts of it though that are absolutely mind-boggling.  Somebody is actually reading this stuff, and what's worse, somebody else is making money off of them doing so.

Growth vs XGrowth

For a fun addition to our perspective,
let's watch grass grow!

A handful of seeds in a good patch of soil will do well.  In just one or two growing seasons, the area will fill nicely, and you'll perhaps need a goat.

The goat is a nice solution, since it will give back by keeping the grass trimmed and fertilized.

A goat and pasture make a nice illustration of simple balance.  There's more needed like rain and sunshine, good soil and drainage, but still, it's a nice picture of balance.

Over the years, the goat grows and the grass grows.  Simple, probably easy to manage.  It gets a bit more complicated with a breeding pair.

Two goats, in our simple illustration, will of course become four and then eight.  Not a problem at first, since we have a large and fertile pasture for our example.

For our example, lets say that after 30 generations, the goats are consuming half of the pasture's production. How long do we have before the capacity is exceeded?
One more generation.  Just one.

So, if it took a thousand years to go from 200 million to 300 million people in the world, that means it will take another thousand years (or maybe ten thousand) to go from 2 billion to 3 billion, right?  Hardly; it took 30 years.  Then it took less than half that time for the next billion.

Population grows exponentially. Despite our intellectual preference for linearity and a steady pace forward, exponential growth is the norm, right up to the point where you have to expand the pasture or get rid of some goats. If unmanaged, the die-off can be massive.

For those who hope that perhaps
    the many concerns are exaggerated,
           here are a few thoughts that might be worth a moment.
                 The interesting part for all of us is figuring out what comes next.

Note:  Feral goats, to clarify a bit, have an actual fertility rate of between 10% and 35% under favorable circumstances.  Populations tend to retreat in line with unfavorable conditions; high juvenile mortality accounts for most of the decline.  A generation varies; females begin reproduction at a year or so and will continue fertile for perhaps 8 breeding seasons.

Childhood's End

   Things our teens deserve to know

... conform, non-conform

1. You don't have to live the way your friends expect you to. 

2. You choose your path, or circumstance will choose for you.

The cultural tension between conformity and nonconformity surfaces in every generation as young people labor to establish their own identities and prioritize their own values. 

There is substance on both sides of the discussion regarding conformity, of course.  Teens must learn how to hold on to the good parts, challenge the pointless parts, establish a larger perspective, reach higher, take risks, dig for truth.  They'll learn from us.

The important element, as Kipling suggests, is not the challenging of established norms but the informed choice involved. If we haven't thoughtfully labored through that foundation laying, the structure we build will be lightly reinforced and unable to endure the first strong wind.

It's difficult to encourage a teen in the midst of that particular developmental upheaval, but it is among the critical change points that will establish who they will be.  If we're wise, we'll help them lay a foundation long before that particular wind blows.

Historical Note:  From the Old Testament, the encouragement to instruct our children should perhaps be understood in the context in which it was given.  A child's transition to adult responsibility is understood to have begun around age 12.  Might that affect our thinking and practise?

~ Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it.  (How old?)

~ And you who are younger, listen those older than you. And all of you, leaders and followers alike, are to be down to earth with each other. (God has had it with the proud, but he really enjoys plain, genuine people.)

Western culture tends to hold on to teens and control them ever more stringently until suddenly turning them loose around 18, as though everything were complete at that point.  

Does it help if we view a child's progress as periods of transition and continuous change, like:

Age 0-6:  we do everything for them, make all the choices, and they do everything our way.

Age 6-12:  they do everything as they're taught; we teach them how and why ... and how to choose.

Age 12- ? :  they do everything and we mostly coach from the sidelines.  They participate in our decisions.

'Continuous change' describes the passing years best, perhaps.

If we encourage them along the way, compliment their thinking when they grasp the whys of choice, back them up while they labor through their list of important things, include them in our discussions and decisions ....

By the way, where was that transition to adulthood?  It's probably continuous, beginning in the preteen years.

Interestingly, on the development of adult thinking and choosing, we now know those processes continue for decades.  

Shall we go?

There's is another way, another opportunity, another chance, is there not?  Shall we go, then, while we can?


At some point, we might find ourselves on a path moving away from our goal.  Whether career or relationship or life, it's not uncommon to be overwhelmed by details, by demands, and the daily drudgery.  You look around, and all you see is the rut in which you find yourself.

Time for change!  Grab your partner's hand and run for your life.  

Everything will consume your life and years unless you choose otherwise.  Work will. Culture will. Media will. The expectations of others will. Even every narrow rabbit trail will.  That's just the way it works, unless you choose otherwise.

Do you remember your goals?  
   Are they good ones?  
      Time to go?

Pretty much everybody loves change and hates changing,
      just in case you were wondering if anybody besides you
             was stuck in a rut.

Ponzi Population

Exponential growth, often expressed in terms of "doubling time", is what we see the bacteria doing in the petri dish pictured here.

On a chessboard, if you put a grain of rice on the first square, doubling to two on the second, four on the third, and so on until you completed the 64 squares, you'd have piled up all the rice in the world and then some. Doubling.  Pretty impressive.


'Linear growth' is perhaps like a tree that grows at a semi-steady rate, year after year.

'Exponential growth' can describe things like population growth and the associated consumption trends.

Microorganisms increase in number exponentially. The first will split into two, then two into four, and so on until some essential survival element is exhausted. Maybe it's food or perhaps the size of the environment.

Ponzi schemes (and pyramid schemes) show this kind of growth, providing good returns for a few early on, and losses for the rest down the timeline.

Meroe, between the Nile and Atbara rivers, was the capital of the Kingdom of Kush, a major
power for a thousand years beginning in the 8th century B.C.  Meroe was the seat of rulers 
who occupied Egypt.  They built pyramids, temples and major installations for water 
management. Their empire extended from the Mediterranean to central Africa.  Meroe
was magnificent until the forests were gone, harvested for charcoal and the iron smelting
industry.  Erosion and agricultural failure followed.

Human population grows exponentially. With occasional variations caused by large-impact factors like famine and disease, we follow the accelerating curve.

Some informative failures do occur such as in the Kingdom of Kush and it's capital, Meroë. The kingdom grew and thrived for 1000 years, then disappeared, having exhausted the local resources of land and wood. No forests, no charcoal, no smelting, no trade, no economy.  No arable land, no food, no cattle, no people.  No kidding.






Here's what human population growth looks like on a timeline.  When a bacterium does that, it increases in number until some tip over point; then it dies in its own waste and decay.

That's the one of the many difficulties we face but not necessarily the result we'll get, provided we do something other than just mindlessly consuming everything we can.  Like the bacteria.


Plenty of options still available, right?

Thanks and a hat tip (for being a thought-provoking fellow) to Dr. Bob Cahalan, Chief of NASA-Goddard’s Climate and Radiation Laboratory, Director of the Sun-Earth Research Center at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, a Fellow of the American Meteorological Society, and President of the International Radiation Commission, and Co-Grandfather to Her Royal Highness Princess Ruby Marie, our precious granddaughter.
. 

What does food cost?

If you have tomatoes and beans in your backyard garden, you probably don't care about the calories in vs. calories out numbers. You'll spend perhaps a calorie or two for 10 calories in return, but nobody is really keeping score.

Historically, early farmers spent about 1 calorie for every 10 they harvested, more or less.

ONE IN >>> TEN OUT.  That's approximately where we started with the early crop cultivation.  Not a bad return for manual labor.

Since then, of course, we've made dramatic advances in science and technology.  You'd expect maybe ONE IN >>> ONE THOUSAND OUT????  Waaaay wrong.  How about TEN THOUSAND????  Nope, still way off.

Today we spend about 10 calories for every 1 calorie we harvest, and that's just for fuel.  It costs more to farm these days than we get in return.

That's TEN IN >>> ONE OUT.

The 10 calorie input is just the fuel we use.  Fuel for the tractors and trucks.

It doesn't count the cost of fertilizers, of irrigation, of seeds, and of labor.
Then there's the impact of soil leaching, forest area loss and impact on water management, chemical runoff, ground water contamination.  Then add the post-harvest processing that virtually all our products suffer, and transportation to the store, all of which adds to the ratio.

It's not news.  We've known for awhile that the real cost for our food was going up. We're getting away with it for now.

We're consuming resources that are becoming progressively more expensive and that won't be replaced, and we're fostering a consumption rate that's increasing exponentially. It's not the first time it has happened, of course.

A disturbing illustration of how it works is the classic bacteria and petri dish.  The bacteria will multiply because there's room and food, right up to the point where they poison themselves in their own deadly waste and die.

Tree huggers have warned us about this stuff.

Now there are dirt huggers doing the same.

Time for change?

Toy Stories

Naya - Managua, Nicaragua

Naya has a few small cook tools but she never
gets bored to play with them. She uses mud and
grass from the garden to pretend to cook some
cakes for her older sister. She says that in the
future she will manage a restaurant and she’s sure
that tourists will love it!
_____________________________________________________________________      

In our pursuit of perspective, lets take a moment for children and their toys.

Italian photographer Gabriele Galimberti spent 18 months traveling around the world and photographing children with their favorite toys for his ‘Toy Stories’ series.

Gabriele says it was surprising how much toys can tell about the family of the child, and even though all kids just want to play, they do it in very different ways: “The richest children were more possessive. In poor countries, it was much easier. In Africa, the kids would mostly play with their friends outside.”

Go to his website for the whole series: gabrielegalimberti.com

Chiwa – Mchinji, Malawi

Chiwa lives in a small hut with her mother, father and
sister.  They don’t have electricity and running water.
Chiwa helps her mother to carry water to their home
from the river.  In the village there are other 50 children
(more or less) and they always play all together outside.
Chiwa has just 3 toys that some volunteers of an NGO
gave to her when she was born. Her favorite is the
dinosaurs because she says that he can protect her from
the dangerous animals.




_______________________________________              

Galimberti talks about meeting a six-year-old boy in Texas and a four-year-old girl in Malawi who both maintained their plastic dinosaurs would protect them from the dangers they believed waited for them at night – from kidnappers and poisonous animals respectively.

Children reflect their culture and circumstances in so many ways.  Good and not-so-good are written on their faces and in their lives.  It perhaps requires a bit of us to thoughtfully consider what we see here.  The photos are done well and artistically composed.  Underneath, we can see the issues of income inequality, the gap between rich and poor, and how it affects individuals. 




If we knew these children and their families; if they were friends of ours, would we think differently?  Would our children think differently?

If we can, we should go find out.

Jaqueline – Manila, Philippines

Jaqueline has a lot of different toys but her favorite is for
sure Tinker Bell, the little green fairy that her best friend
gave her. Her father is a fashion photographer and almost
every day takes photos of her too. Jaqueline says that she
will be a model in the future.




_______________________________________________________________________________

When photographer Gabriele Galimberti decided to travel around the world and capture snapshot moments of children with their toys, what he ended up learning was much greater than child's play -- he also gained greater insight into different cultures, parenting styles and social attitudes. Galimberti is a commercial photographer trying his hand at documentary and travel photography. On a recent 18-month trip around the globe, he photographed children from various locales, from Boulder, Colorado to Bail, Indonesia, all posing with their most beloved toys. His simply styled photograph series titled Toy Stories speaks volumes about the varying cultural attitudes children have toward their toys, while also highlighting the universal language of good old fashioned playtime that every child enjoys. - See more at: http://www.inhabitots.com/photographer-gabriele-galimbertis-toy-stories-shows-children-around-the-world-with-their-favorite-toys/#sthash.iUiRa2eU.dpuf

Tangawizi – Keekorok, Kenya

Tangwizi was born in a Maasai village in the south of Kenya
in a small hut made of dung and straw. His bed is made of a
few rags on the ground. He always plays outside with all the
other children of the village but every night he sleeps together
with his unique toy: a little pelouche monkey.




_______________________________________________________________________________

Julia – Tirana, Albania

Julia was born in Tirana where she lives with her parents
in a small apartment in the center of the city. Her father
works in a gas station and her mother is a housewife.
Both of the parents speak a good Italian because they
learned from the Italian TV, probably the main one in
Albania! They are sure that their child Julia will learn
Italian soon too. She loves dolls and especially Barbie 
but her father recently gave her a small guitar because
he would love her to be a musician.




_______________________________________________________________________________

Botlhe – Maun, Botswana

Botlhe has a lot of friends, and all of them live really close
by to the small house where she lives with her family in a
residential complex. In the complex, there is one toilet for
every four families. Botlhe has only one toy, the monkey,
but she almost never plays with it because she prefers to
go out with friends and play with them.




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Allenah – El Nido, Philippines

Allenah Lajallab was born and raised in El Nido, a small town north
of Palawan in the Philippines. In El Nido there weren't hospitals and
she was born at home. She has a lot of stuffed animals, and her favorite
is the orange one because she loves the color. She doesn't like the
white stuffed animal as much, because it gets dirty too easily.




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Cun Zi Yi - Chongqing, China

Cun Zi Yi just turned 3, and received a lot of gifts for her birthday.
She plays with everything and can’t choose her favorite toy. Her
parents say that she’s really good at painting, and will be an artist
when she grows up.




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Arafa & Aisha – Bububu, Zanzibar

Arafa and Aisha are twins. They sleep in the same bed,
have the same clothes, go to school together and share
the same toys. They live in a two-room house in which
both of the rooms are bedrooms, and the kitchen and
restroom are outside. The big photo above the closet
is a portrait of the former president of Zanzibar.




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Bethsaida – Port au Prince, Haiti

Bethsaida was born in Port-au-Prince where she had always
lived in a house with her family until, almost 2 years ago, a big
earthquake destroyed it. Her parents are both deaf but fortunately
she’s not. Now they live in a camp site out of the city. The camp
was built by an American NGO which works with deaf, so in
the camps almost 90% of the people can’t hear and talk. All the
toys that Bethsaida has are donated from the NGO. She wants to
be a hairdresser and loves combing her doll to practice, but
unfortunately her brother has cut off half of the hair of the doll.





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Taha – Beirut, Lebanon

Taha was born in Palestine, but now he lives in Beirut where
he's a refugee together with his family. They live in a sort
of shantytown together with a few thousand other people.
Everybody there is from Palestine. To get water and electricity
they need to illegally connect their house to the public service.
Taha has just one toy, the car, and he didn't have any doubt
when I asked him to show me his favorite toy.




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