In 1985 and 86 (December to April) my family and I visited Nepal and then India(two months in each place total). At one point when we were in the country on a bus that had broken down and thousands of people were gathering around us who had never seen white westerners before in person, my 14 year old son turned to me and said, "These people think we are gold plated E.T's." I understood that moment exactly what he meant.
We were surrounded by thousands of people in the country staring at us because we were not in a normal tourist area and as the workmen beat out a piece of metal into a custom made leaf spring to replace the one that had broken right there on the spot, finally the police came and said we must get back on the bus even though it was very hot and we might pass out from sitting on a bus with no air conditioning parked in that heat. So we did so. Luckily, the new custom made leaf springs were put in place and we were off before anyone passed out or died from heat prostration in the bus.
However, the "They think we are gold plated E.T's stuck in my mind." For most of the people surrounding us were the poor and uneducated as 60 to 70% of the people at that time in India were not educated. So, since we were educated and understood the world we were looked upon in a way both as curiosities but also as people who understood what was to them "magical things". To some maybe we were seen as Gods or magical beings. And "magical things" to these people were how cars ran, trains ran, planes flew, building stayed up,and how spaceships flew to the moon, and how to make large amounts of money etc. In other words to these people we were definitely were from another planet than they and they wanted to learn whatever "magical things" they could from us while we were there. And could we please take them with us back to the U.S.
Literally, thousands of people begged us and offered us anything you can think of to take us back with them to the U.S.
I wasn't really scared because they all believed in karma in that area. So being killed wasn't likely. However, things missing might happen but not bodily harm.
The reason I'm bringing all this up is that I feel this same kind of belief system in Americans in regard to our banking system just failed. Our monetary belief system just crashed, maybe for good. It would be like the Government telling us that Jesus was a fake and so we should now close all the churches. Our banks failed us this completely. So whatever belief system we create now it won't be what we had before. Our banks worldwide failed us. How can we ever trust them again with our money? Some new checks and balances have to be put in place for people to feel secure enough to invest in anything now. It is like the last 500 to 1000 years of trusting banks just ended. Now What?
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