Xenophobia
Ruth: Life means adventure, change, things that not everybody has the courage to face and accept. When one sees someone who is unfamiliar, a subconscious fear springs up: “why dare he take two steps forward and run risks where nobody knows him? I wonder if he wants to infiltrate his ideas and destroy the world that we have built with so much toil?”
D.H.: For a few months in 2001 I had an Arab student living in my home here in Boston. Everyone admired his kindness, and on many an evening we would gather in a local bar to chat about the customs of his country. Right after the attacks of the 11th September, the very same people who had laughed the day before at his stories began to hate him.
Dasha: Xenophobia isn’t just the fear of strangers, it’s being afraid of what happens between different generations. Most people are afraid of today, they prefer to live in the past. My country (Russia) is an excellent example of this.
Aspen: Every child, if he is raised with the necessary amount of strictness and freedom, could collaborate infinitely to make this planet a better place to live. But one of the first things we learn is “not to talk to strangers”.
Warrior of Running Water: Here in Denmark we have a festival that lasts about a week and attracts 100,000 strangers to celebrate life, share common interests and learn from the differences. People embrace for no reason except being on the same path, they sing and get drunk together. When the festival is over, a strange atmosphere takes over the town again, and strangers are once more seen as a threat.
Neel P.: We have to trust in love. We have to remember what we were told: “love your neighbor as yourself”. If we trust in love, we don’t need to fear anything any more, but the truth is that we never trust enough…
Radek: People in my country (Poland) lived through the tyranny of Hitler and the Soviet oppression, and they don’t seem to have learned anything. It terrifies me to see people who experienced the horrors of Nazism behaving the same way today, avoiding everything that is unknown or different. The worst of it all is that they use religion to justify their acts, arguing that all those who aren’t Christians should be banished from society. This blind faith is worse than having no faith at all.
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
marriage is of course very sacred that is why both partners should give respect to each other :-:
marriage is one of the happiest moments that a person will experience in his/her life;”‘
marriage is great specially if you have found a very special someone that is beautiful both on the inside and outside.:*”
Dear Tammy,
I am with you as well. As all women in the whole world, we are united and we can feel what one of our sisters feels.What you see around you is your view upon your situation. In the very moment, that you are able to unite your desire to follow your carreer and love you`ll be able to live it!
Hello Mr. Coelho,
I have been engaged for almost 3 years and during the first year everything was rosy and we were very romantic to each other. Thereafter, our relationship started to change drastically because I could not meet her expectations in my carrier. In terms of status and carrier, she is well ahead of me. She has a strong ego and like to be in competition with her cousins and friends to reach higher and higher.
We already talked to each other and put forward our feelings. To say the least, we are simply uncompatible. At the beginning, we missed the chance to understand each other because we were driven by our carnal desires and we set important issues aside.
Whereas, I have a secure job and i do have ambitions to climb the ladder but at my own pace, my main ambition is to follow a spiritual path along with her instead of toiling in satisfying her egos which is purely childish and ridiculous.
The irony in our case is that, we know that our love for each other is fading with each of the many clashes we have but, here in Mauritius, we have a conservative society and over and above, both our families are extremely conservative wherein engagement is binding. So we will tie the knot anyway.
I am still open to start all over again and rebuilt the relationship on a more solid foundation..
Vanessen
Well, I have lived in USA for 19 years for now. I came from former USSR, (Azerbaijan). I am glad that I was exposed to Europian culture, back in my country. Otherwise it would be too much chock… I was an French/Russian Interpretor/Translator for several years for a French societe and an International model for short period of time. When I got married, my ex husband, jornalist,writer and editor for a magazin requested from me to quit my modeling carier, otherwise he would not merried me. I did not have a chance ,because we were in love at that time…
I moved to USA as an refugie from Azerbaijan… There was a war between Muslims and Christians. I am an Orthodox Christian…
The point is, who in the name of the God in Europe or USA, or ln the different progressive countries would stop his loved one from being exposed to the society, and do not letting her to express herself through this kind of carier?
I am in pain, when I see that In this society woman can choose whatever she wants to become and do not choose between love or loved carier…
Dear Tammy, I’m with you and I feel the same pain. It is not fair but each person have to make a choice and live with it until they decide other thing.