Our future lies with our communities thriving.

If we have any hope of creating a sustainable planet–we must look to our communities and how we live day to day first.

                                                      By Greg Barden

In my early to mid-twenties, I served in the UK Special Forces across different countries. My reasons for serving along with arguments for being in these countries in the first place are not for here. The fact is I did, and without which I would never have learned first hand, how, with the right common ground, it doesn't matter who you are, where you're from, barriers that we inevitably put up in our lives out of ignorance and fear are quickly dismantled and connections made even in the most unlikely situations.

Most often or not, that common ground I mention was the need/desire to trade (or more specifically buy food in my case). The simple act of wanting to buy something from someone who wants to sell what they have made is our communities and humanity's foundations.

But what we see with the digital revolution is the dehumanising of trade, where we no longer connect through what we buy as it's displaced with mass-produced, impersonal experiences. And in doing so, we are losing the common ground that brings us together, where prejudices, bigotry and narrow-mindedness would not usually be allowed to take root.

That's why xplore is creating a local world where we can come together and trade on common ground with people, who like you, yearn for human connection, where quality and passion are as important as making a profit. That through them we get to experience different cultures and opinions, which is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.'

So as I look back from my days buying bread from a baker in Lashka-Gah in Afghanistan to coffee beans from the bizarre in Baghdad, I had no idea how those experiences connecting me with different people and their stories would come to be the core idea behind xplore.

That idea being: localism

We all come from vastly different backgrounds, cultures and places. And yet, no matter how much seems to separate us, when we are given the opportunity to meet and trade on common ground, our desire to experience, connect and understand one another as human beings are too strong for us to ignore.

So together, we can create a local world where independent businesses and our communities play a significant part in our lives, where we can connect on common ground, where no matter where technology takes us, it's through localism where our communities, humanity and our planet thrives.  

- Greg

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