It seems as though more and more of us live a life of conformity and order, and few now life a live of ‘being wild’; of throwing caution to the wind; of taking a chance to follow their dream; to embark on an adventure. What is this doing to our evolution as a species? Where will humanity be in a hundred, a thousand years if we give up ‘being wild’ because our fears prevent us foresaking the safe places?
I feel strongly that we should and must treat asylum seekers with compassion and humanity.
I am involved as a volunteer with the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre for last 13 years and have seen the damage inhumane processes have on people including families and children.
I came with my family as refugees in 1939. We were deemed enemy aliens at the time despite escaping the Nazis because of Jewish ancestry. It seems to me that “we” still don’t know who the enemy is!
I would want and keep hoping that more people when realizing the inhumanity being done in our name as well as the millions of dollars being spent from our taxes, that they would want to change the system. there are better ways.
I ask this question because I genuinely ponder over it daily. We are on this constant hunt for self reflection and improvement but really whats the point? We are only around for 80 years or so, why does it matter if we are the best we can be? Why don’t we spend our time attempting to improve the lives of others instead?
I believe we need to seriously consider a set of complex problems – economic, social, and scientific – that pose great threats to our world. However, if we continue to talk about these problems in ways that create fear rather than inspiration, and look for protection rather than for possibilities, then we may always default to fearing the unknown, rather than embracing change. I also believe that no one perspective or discipline, neither side of politics, nor any one country or group, can solve the world’s problems alone – so I would love to have the Brains Trust’s diversity of experience and expertise applied to identifying the modern world’s great opportunities.
About one in twenty Australians live overseas at any given time – among the highest ratios of expatriates to residents of any country in the world. Why do so many of us leave? How do we relate to the people and places and culture we leave behind? And why do we come back? Since becoming an expat myself (one of the 200,000 Australians in London) I’ve often imagined that our wanderlust says something about our national psyche. But what?