Can tradition be innovative?

It's been weeks now that a thought is bothering me. Since I got to Adelaide, I am having the opportunity of listening to many different languages from all around the world. Some of them are so familiar to me that I can get some words and even get the general meaning of the conversation, some others I cannot distinguish the ending nor the beginning of words. However what fascinates me the most is the astonishing variety of rhythms and musicalities they have. That made made me ask to myself how did my own language sound like and how was it like to hear it without knowing the meaning of the words. Of course I will never know the answer, because I will never be able to hold that perspective and I find it really puzzling.

Nonetheless, this week readings shred some light on my quest, as I was really surprised that a very common informal financing scheme in my country was regarded as an innovation in another. I am talking about a group of people making little monthly payments in order to build a pool of resources that is allocated to a member of the group through a raffle. We, Mexicans, call it Tanda.

My grandmother used to organize two tandas a year, my mother used to participate in some her coworkers did, and my father organizes them in order to buy expensive medical equipment. This schemes are so popular that 16.9% of Mexicans over 18 use them as their principal source of financial resources, 4% more than the people of the same age that use formal banking, and among users, women use them more often. That made me guess this is all about learning to hear with other people's ears by getting familiar with their ways and then contrasting them with mine. Maybe if we are able to do that more frequently, we will be able to detect the gaps that have to be filled and turn a traditional solution into a very innovative one by changing its context, adapt it to make it acceptable and available for people that appreciate the world in different rhythms and musicalities. 

-- Ruben Fernandez <rfernand@andrew.cmu.edu>