Friday, August 17, 2007

Princesses in the world

Yesterday, I came over a picture that Nettus took on our street a few months ago. It was a bit blurry, but when that smile and those gorgeous eyes and chubby cheeks, I just fell in love with the little girl who so generously flashed them. Despite the fact that the photographer was an unknown nasara who had just been invited in by her older siblings.

She made me think of all those little girls all over the world who want to be princesses from time to time. (True, Ishtar was never such a girl; she settled for the Queen title right from the start but that is an other issue...) The point is, we look at our own society, and we think "aha, this trait or this behaviour is specific for us!" But if we look around, we will find elements of what we believe to be true to own society is all sorts of form and variation all over the world. So why do we keep telling ourselves that we are so different? We do we look for differences?

I am all for the differences of individuals, because I don't believe that any man or woman is the other alike. I also think that it is exactly those differences that makes the world such a rich place.

But when it comes to society however, I see no reason to divide and set up fences and walls. Does it matter that I am a nasara? Does it matter that my father is of one nationality and my mother of another, making me neither, or both? Does it matter if I celebrate Christmas or not? Does it matter if I eat smoke salmon but not sushi or roasted crickets?

No, I didn't think so. Most of you judge me by what I do with my life - not by my genetical heritage or social affiliation.

If only we could judge people by their heart's desires and not by the colour of their skin or the society they belong to. What an intriguing place the world would then be!

Ishtar

5 comments:

Szavanna said...

True Ishtar - unfortunately here in South Africa - we have a lot of problems with this (well there are similar issues in Hungary as well)- I am having a hard time convincing everyone otherwise - in the OpenCafe I try create a very diverse environment - kids, students, teachers, older people, Asians, Africans, Europeans etc and see how they can all work together.

Interesting how some people have no problems with just turning to someone else from another country and ask for the time. Others visibly withdraw and feel uncomfortable if I try to involve them in a "multicultural" discussion or projects.

I think South Africans must especially focus on this - since there are so many types of cultures and people - and at the moment we here are doing really poorly in accepting each other exactly as we are.

Anonymous said...

Ishtar, I totally agree with you. If what you said would happen, the world would probably be a nicer place to live in.
Congratulations for this blog of yours.
It's wonderful

Esther Garvi said...

@Szavanna: I think it's a global issue, occurring everywhere. It's as if our own identity is threatened when the group is threatened, because we live through our group affiliation... I think you're work at the Open Cafe is a good way of building bridges and showing that at the end of the day, we are all individuals with the choice to do good or bad with one's life...

€Pier: So glad you liked the blog! :-)

MYM said...

I'm loving your blog, I'm so glad I found it! Beautiful pictures here, especially this little girl...so cute. Hope you don't mind that I add a link from my blog, I look forward to checking in for updates. Thanks for sharing & educating.

Esther Garvi said...

@Drowseymonkey: Of course you can link from your blog! I'm glad you dropped by!