Difference - What are we so frightened of?

There's a famous coffee shop found in the souqs of Khan al-Khalili in the Islamic quarter of Cairo called Fishawi's - It's open 24 hours a day and all they appear to sell is tea, coffee and Sheesha (a water pipe used for smoking). The only question the waiter asks after he has identified that you want a coffee is "do you want sugar in it?"
All Cairo seems to pass through their doors - I say doors only in a metaphorical sense as it has no doors; in fact the only way you know where the coffee shop starts and ends is when the chairs run out! Like so many shops in the Souqs they exist in one of the many alley ways populated by hawkers and panhandlers.
The waiters will proudly show you an ancient photograph of the old King Farouk in his dark glasses, who used to frequent the place. What can you say about Fishawi's? It's so .........Egyptian!
It's the distilled essence of Cairo; King's have been deposed, Presidents have come and gone, but Fishawi's like the Pyramids of Giza has always been, please God don't let it disappear.

Then there's the Coptic quarter, the part of Cairo that came before Cairo even existed. When Byzantine Rome became a Christian empire and before the armies of the east brought Islam. Here stand the great Christian Coptic churches, side by side with the Islamic mosques - each respecting the others tradition yet each determined to maintain their own identity.

Finally there are the kilometers of bland anonymous-looking high rise flats, typical in its own way of suburbia that surrounds any of the great cities of the world. Yet even here in this apparent anonymity, people crave recognition. Many of the porches from which hangs so much washing are painted in vivid colours; some in single colours, others using quite complex designs. So everywhere you look over the eons of time humankind has always wanted to leave a mark - a plaintive cry, "remember me!"

All of which makes Cairo airport like so many airports around the globe such a depressing place - a synthesis of global mono-culture. Where Coke, Cappuccino, Pizza, Pasta and French fries dominate the menus. A sanitized, stainless steel and plastic society. One that subjugates individuality. Where now is the confidence in our own cultures; our own traditions; our creative addition to our world?

Is it no wonder therefore that despite being better educated, having more opportunity than any previous generation, so many in our society reject what is on offer and seek to disfigure and disrupt.

In Jersey where I live we don't appear to be able to trust our own people to even deliver such key projects as a design for our waterfront or our own tourism website. We like so many cultures today are frightened of being different - taking a chance; in turn our own society becomes indifferent.

Rather than being indifferent to our own cultures we must get back to celebrating them. Celebrating the creativity of each and every individual from whichever culture that goes to make the human race such an extraordinary force.

Long live Fishawi's and those who strive to be different.