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    What is Diversity?
    What is Diversity?
    What is Diversity?
    Ebook116 pages56 minutes

    What is Diversity?

    By Haikaa Yamamoto

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    About this ebook

    “What is Diversity?” is a graceful account of how someone who did not belong anywhere could find an internal place to call home by expanding her horizons and her notions of what she considered “normal.” Multicultural, singer-songwriter and book author Haikaa shares her experiences of growing up and living in societies with often contradicting concepts of right or wrong.

    Haikaa discusses issues ranging from sexuality to ethics, from beauty to consumption, from health to democracy from the perspective of diversity. She also takes us on a musical journey by writing about her humanitarian project “The Work of Art Global Project” where she put into practice her appreciation of diversity. With the help of a global team of over forty collaborators, Haikaa recorded her own music in more than twenty languages. Through musical and personal accounts, “What is Diversity?” is above all a book that celebrates the global diversity that kindly allows each and every one of us to find a place in this world.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHaikaa Yamamoto
    Release dateJun 8, 2012
    ISBN9781476276502
    What is Diversity?
    Author

    Haikaa Yamamoto

    Haikaa is a book author and singer-songwriter who was born in Brazil but also lived and studied in the US and in Japan. In a graceful and lighthearted manner, Haikaa's creative work expresses how diversity is not only possible but desirable and fun. Her works include the book "What is Diversity?" and her album "Work of Art", both available worldwide on Smashwords, Amazon and on the Apple Store. On the humanitarian front, Haikaa has created "The Work of Art Global Project" where she gathered more than 40 collaborators around the world to write versions of her song "Work of Art" in 20 languages - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2F3ph9QPCb8

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      Book preview

      What is Diversity? - Haikaa Yamamoto

      Part I

      What is Diversity?

      Intro

      Haikaa, a mountain climber

      I am a singer-songwriter and my name is Haikaa, , which is the Japanese pronunciation for the English word hiker. Haikaa is also a variation I made up of the German name Heike. My last name is Yamamoto, which means at the foot of the mountain. I love having a three hundred and sixty degree view of the world and I didn’t want to stay at the foot of the mountain so I became Haikaa or she who seeks to reach summit after summit .

      Even though I was born in Brazil in 1974, I studied and lived in Japan and in the US as well. In these three different countries I experienced a rural and cosmopolitan life, I saw the reality of a developed and developing economy, I met highly intellectual individuals and extremely uneducated ones, I went to Buddhist temples to pray for my ancestors, I confessed and I was baptized and I went to my best friend’s Bat Mitzvah.

      Needless to say, the sense of belonging wasn’t really a part of my life. I was too Eastern for some, too Western for others, too sexy for some, too serious for others and so on. As a young adult, I used to call myself a Bewildered Animal roaming about the planet looking for a place to call home. Can you hear the sad violin playing on the background?

      However, as I got older, what was once a source of confusion has become one of my greatest treasures. Navigating between uncompromising concepts and almost contradictory notions of right or wrong, I had to try to find my own truths. Out of this perpetual state of vulnerability of not belonging, I inadvertently ended up living based on the one constant variable in my life – my heart. Somehow, as a result of my lack of a defined identity, I was blessed with a sense of freedom that allowed me to make decisions based on what my heart was telling me.

      Living life based on my own truths and following my heart doesn’t mean that I have only had happy experiences. More often than not, I am faced with many situations that frustrate me. I also have to let go of the comforting possibility of blaming someone else when something goes wrong. Nevertheless, even in those situations, there’s a certain kind of beauty in the authenticity of these experiences. I get to experience life first hand and that’s very stimulating to me.

      The impressions I would like to share with you through this book are empirical and they have been shaped by my own experiences of diversity. I would like to visit several topics ranging from sexuality to ethics, from beauty to consumption, from democracy to spirituality from the perspective of diversity. I have discussed and tested these ideas for years and hours on end with my inseparable partner Mercuri who was patiently there for me. I will also talk about The Work of Art Global Project which was my way to express musically my appreciation of diversity.

      Ultimately, it is my belief that all of us, citizens of Planet Earth, are here to fulfill our potential, whatever and wherever that may be. I think our individual journey lies in finding out what will set us on this path of fulfillment and in having the courage, personality and determination to go through with it. By presenting us with a broader range of possibilities, I think exposure to diversity gives us the opportunity to compare and make decisions based on a more colorful painting of reality.

      Embracing Diversity

      Respect as the lowest standard of human interaction

      For me, diversity is a consequence of the uniqueness of every individual in our world. It exists regardless of whether we believe in it, embrace it or dismiss it.

      Maybe embracing diversity is difficult sometimes because it seemingly conflicts with one of our most basic needs, the need of belonging. As human beings, we want to belong to groups that are considered groups precisely because they have a coherent and homogenous identity. The groups of moms, soccer fans, the creative types, the engaged types all share characteristics that give their members a sense of belonging. Many such groups serve humanity wonderful purposes and they provide solutions that individuals might not be able to reach otherwise. The problem is when this sense of comfort and belonging to a group comes with an equal discomfort towards those outside our group. This discomfort or antagonism may be expressed towards the supporters of a rival soccer team, women with no children, Wall Street executives, fat people, good-looking people, people with a different belief, faith, sexual orientation, race or nationality. In a way, accepting those outside our group is perceived as validating their choices which in turn would weaken ours. To be a true supporter of our team, it’s not enough to just love our team. We must hate our opponents too. Putting it this way, doesn’t it sound terribly silly?

      Opening ourselves up to diversity does not equate denying likes and dislikes. Attempting to not have an opinion would be a pitiful underestimation of human intelligence. Of course, there’s behavior we approve of and behavior that we don’t. Obviously, there are people we can identify with and people we don’t want to have anything to do with. But we share our planet with those people we don’t want to have anything to do with too, whether we like it or not. Our challenge as a society is to raise the standard of human interaction so that respect becomes our common ground of interaction with each other.

      Embracing diversity also implies a deeper understanding of rights and duties. I have the right to be an artist but I have the duty to respect my neighbors who choose to have 9 to 5 jobs so when I write songs late at night I do it wearing headphones. Likewise, you have the right to be a smoker but you have to do in areas where your choice is not going to affect the health of those around you. I have the right to choose Jesus as my prophet but I have the duty to respect those who believe the Buddha got it right. I have the right to be a race car driver and even risk suffering an accident, dying or killing other race car drivers who made the same conscious choice. But I have the duty to respect the speed limit on the freeway where I can affect the lives of people who are speed-avert. It’s not that complicated, is it? Personal choice is a right and respecting others’ personal choices is a duty. The two are absolutely compatible when respect is the common ground of our interaction and this is what embracing diversity consists of. Wouldn’t it be so much better to live in a place where respect was just the starting point of all our relationships?

      On Sexuality

      A fragmented personality

      If I had to name the one area in life where I suffered the most for trying to fit into an existing model, sexuality would be it. As I grow older, I get tempted to say that diversity in sexuality is the norm. In fact, like our DNA, I think no two people manifest sexuality the same way. Our spouses, our best friends, mothers, fathers, idols all have their own ways to express and experience it. As an inherent part of our personalities, I think our sexuality too is unique. The way we deal with it has a profound impact on who we are and that’s why sexuality is the first subject I chose to discuss.

      I think sexuality is pretty complex and attempts to simplify it make it an even more challenging landscape to navigate. It’s clear that we have to understand first what we call sexuality. In my opinion, sexuality is a powerful and fundamental force that permeates

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