This prolonged social isolation has given time to ponder about social aspects of many of the cultures and also relativeness of our nationalities and religion and our identities.
Some of us are multinational and multicultural and this tendency is on the rise. While visiting an elementary school in a European capital, I was astounded to be presented to polyglot pod of children, with almost all of them claiming to be multicultural and multinational.
Home is where your heart is and it is high time the people begin to view and give importance to what the person perceives to be their home, their language, their preferences, rather than assuming a cultural and religious and national for the individual based on their colour (white or black or brown) or an accent or the silkiness of their hair .
This new generation would serve as a role models if they would accept their diversity. I was a little sad to note that a young black Japanese American athlete, felt neither Haitian nor Japanese nor American. The concept of the citizen of the world is much applicable to an intellectual like the Iranian writers (sheyagan) , rather than to an Indonesian passport holder who lives in Istanbul. I always politely enquire, where are you from, and accept the answer, having met Vietnamese born in Belgium, Malians born in France, Indians born in Israel .. this is becoming more common these days.
Because of my looks, my manner of speaking and dressing, I am mistaken for multiple nationalities in context. Also I have learned how to confuse the other: a nice Rakhine Longyi makes me Burmese; A long Kurta while giving a lecture in Phnom Penh confuses the locals and of course, I can affect a Brasilian accent when speaking Spanish… all examples of how fragile peoples notions of who you are … what is important to know is you know who you are …
American Indians were the first people to drill the differences between WHAT you are and WHO you are. In the West, WHAT are you, is highly stressed, and Asians are becoming more and more quantitative as well. Many people in American identity themselves as I am a doctor or some other profession or a religion, I am a Methodist or sometimes even with their ancestral origin, as such in Minnesota and the Dakotas, you would often hear the white persons say, I am a Norwegian (but don’t speak in Norwegian to him or her, they would not have any rudimentary idea).
American Indians also do not ask quantitative questions such as how old are you? I have been asked, are you a father or are you a brother or are you a son .. Of course no native person is interested in where you went to medical school.
Here I digress a little bit to talk about Lame Deer of the Lakota. To help this earth we have to overcome our peculiarities and narrow-mindedness and intolerance , As Little Prince would say: It is with the heart that one sees.
Lame Deer, Lakota
Thinking about my constantly wandering life for the past twenty odd years, I noticed that I had attached myself to some countries, only later to shed them (Jamaica) and taken on new affections. Currently I can say that the following places feel very congruous to my character (subject to change of course):
Australia
Cuba
In other places, the attachment is to a particular place and not to a country or culture or language
Miami (but I have no special fondness for Florida or USA)
Cochin (I am fond of Kerala but not the rest of Kerala with the exception of Tamoul Nadoo and the Northeastern States)
Malaysia (definitely not to their politics, religion, Intolerance of the Other)
Quiberon (but not France)
And of course, Israel
I am comfortable being in any of these places.
The glossy magazines always have “lists” of the best of this or that. Yesterday’s list was : where to live if you are to leave USA ..( a distinct possibility for people who do not wish to live under Fascism in the future)
I was surprised how many of the countries would be suitable for me, that I would not mind living there, while carrying on my lifestyle.
Lifestyle is far more important than a geography of a place.
Colombia, Brazil, Mexico, Chile, Argentina all are welcome in this continent.
With the advent of high-speed internet and good telephone connections, the life of a Doctor without Borders has become easier..
This social isolation has made me realize that I should volunteer the little talent I have in Health Care to two distinct places
Indigenous people along the Amazon
Give a hand to my friend, Maurits van Pelt of MoPoTsyo.org of Cambodia
Maurits van Pelt of MoPostsyo.org at a Peer Education Site in the outskirts of Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Once I was in the company of my good friend M Mathew PP at a place in Cochin. Some suspicious fellow asked me: why do you come here so often, especially since you do not have any family here. Even before I could answer, Mathew interrupted: I am his family.
When I wrote, I am homeless, my younger brother Shimon from Haifa wrote: But you have rooms in the hearts of many people in many countries.
In Cuba, if someone asks where are you from, my dearest friend Castro would intervene: Many countries claim him but he is really one of ours.
Thank you dear friends and lovers ..
