Pablo Neruda had written that if you do not know or have a cultural identity, you are like a boat without an anchor, moving where the wind takes you, without direction.
There are countries where you could mould your cultural identity, the best example being USA, and also to a high degree in Australia or Aotearoa or Canada. These countries encourage you to adopt their cultural identity without giving up your own private identity.
With the current Refugee crisis in Europe where they are expecting close to One million migrants, half of them could be refugees (Interesting to hear that if a refugee is resettled in a country not of his choice, he either chooses another country or goes back to his own. Migration is a personal thing and the current refugee problem from Syria is real, but I think it is difficult to classify Bangladeshis as refugees!)
What about their cultural identity? How long before they can become Germans? since Germany is the country of choice for refugees? or can they become Germans? Look at the non integration of children of Arab migrants to France, with the best intentions of French government to make them French! As an anthropologist I find it difficult a path lies ahead of a migrant from Congo to become Belgian Flemish?
The following pictures are interesting from the point of cultural identity
Here I am lighting Shabbat candles in a country which does not welcome Jews, Malaysia.
The Kippah is from Cochin in India. I am holding a bag from Cuba, with the picture of CHE, which is not welcome in most conservative Asian countries except Vietnam and Kerala. I am drinking wine, which is prohibited to half the population of that country. The person sitting across me, would not be permitted to do so in her own country by the religious authorities.
I said my prayers in Hebrew.
The shirt is a gift of my brother who lives in Portland married to a Canadian of Egyptian Jewish descent and he was born in Bombay and grew up in Kobe, Japan.
Cultural Identity is the choice in this new world of ours.
I wear my cultural identity around my neck
Dream catcher made by Indians living along the Amazon River
Shesh or Hamsa to keep away evil eye with Star of David, bought in Buenos Aires
Che Guevara's face on a Cuban Coin.. mi isla Rica..
There are countries where you could mould your cultural identity, the best example being USA, and also to a high degree in Australia or Aotearoa or Canada. These countries encourage you to adopt their cultural identity without giving up your own private identity.
With the current Refugee crisis in Europe where they are expecting close to One million migrants, half of them could be refugees (Interesting to hear that if a refugee is resettled in a country not of his choice, he either chooses another country or goes back to his own. Migration is a personal thing and the current refugee problem from Syria is real, but I think it is difficult to classify Bangladeshis as refugees!)
What about their cultural identity? How long before they can become Germans? since Germany is the country of choice for refugees? or can they become Germans? Look at the non integration of children of Arab migrants to France, with the best intentions of French government to make them French! As an anthropologist I find it difficult a path lies ahead of a migrant from Congo to become Belgian Flemish?
The following pictures are interesting from the point of cultural identity
The Kippah is from Cochin in India. I am holding a bag from Cuba, with the picture of CHE, which is not welcome in most conservative Asian countries except Vietnam and Kerala. I am drinking wine, which is prohibited to half the population of that country. The person sitting across me, would not be permitted to do so in her own country by the religious authorities.
I said my prayers in Hebrew.
The shirt is a gift of my brother who lives in Portland married to a Canadian of Egyptian Jewish descent and he was born in Bombay and grew up in Kobe, Japan.
Cultural Identity is the choice in this new world of ours.
Dream catcher made by Indians living along the Amazon River
Shesh or Hamsa to keep away evil eye with Star of David, bought in Buenos Aires
Che Guevara's face on a Cuban Coin.. mi isla Rica..
