Loving Earth
Xenophobia
Day 190*
Xenophobia really gets my goat. I love Portugal (as many of you know). I grew up there I think of it as my country... however, when I go back there and see how unaccepting people are - particularly to the influx of immigrants from mainland China - I feel very sad. It has developed into a 'they are taking our jobs' type of debate. How dissapointingly ignorant and, frankly, xenophobic. All the more surprising coming from a people that has experienced so much xenophobia and discrimination over the years.
Signs in Paris, where lots of poorer Portuguese people went to work, used to read (like 70 years ago or so) 'no dogs and no Portuguese people'. Have we not learnt anything?
Treat others as you wish to be treated. How would you want to be treated if you had to or chose to move to a new country? How would you like to be received? And what if your mastery of the local language was not perfect? What if you were still learning the ways of the local culture?... I mean, what if the tables were turned and suddenly your country was in real economic dire straights (not so hard to imagine right now... alas) and you found you had to move, just to survive... to a country where everything was different, even the way people look, talk, act.
Anyway, you get my drift. As Abe says, some xenophobic reaction is a natural by product of a lack of exposure to people who are different but ain't it great when we can learn, grow and go beyond some 'natural instincts'. It is natural to shit when the urge hits, but we hold it in and go to the loo. Hooray for civilisation and some self-control.
Gratitude: I am grateful for living in San Francisco, a liberal, tolerante and wonderfully diverse city, where there are many, many mixed-race couples. Haza!
PS technical note: this photo really didn't come out how I wanted it, but for today i gotto work with what I've got. For one you can't see Kai, in the background - which kinda dillutes the message.
Grateful to y'all!
Xenophobia
Day 190*
Xenophobia really gets my goat. I love Portugal (as many of you know). I grew up there I think of it as my country... however, when I go back there and see how unaccepting people are - particularly to the influx of immigrants from mainland China - I feel very sad. It has developed into a 'they are taking our jobs' type of debate. How dissapointingly ignorant and, frankly, xenophobic. All the more surprising coming from a people that has experienced so much xenophobia and discrimination over the years.
Signs in Paris, where lots of poorer Portuguese people went to work, used to read (like 70 years ago or so) 'no dogs and no Portuguese people'. Have we not learnt anything?
Treat others as you wish to be treated. How would you want to be treated if you had to or chose to move to a new country? How would you like to be received? And what if your mastery of the local language was not perfect? What if you were still learning the ways of the local culture?... I mean, what if the tables were turned and suddenly your country was in real economic dire straights (not so hard to imagine right now... alas) and you found you had to move, just to survive... to a country where everything was different, even the way people look, talk, act.
Anyway, you get my drift. As Abe says, some xenophobic reaction is a natural by product of a lack of exposure to people who are different but ain't it great when we can learn, grow and go beyond some 'natural instincts'. It is natural to shit when the urge hits, but we hold it in and go to the loo. Hooray for civilisation and some self-control.
Gratitude: I am grateful for living in San Francisco, a liberal, tolerante and wonderfully diverse city, where there are many, many mixed-race couples. Haza!
PS technical note: this photo really didn't come out how I wanted it, but for today i gotto work with what I've got. For one you can't see Kai, in the background - which kinda dillutes the message.
Grateful to y'all!