One of my favorite things about traveling is meeting all the people that come from different places and backgrounds, bringing unique life stories to the table. On our camel tour, we met an awesome man from Amsterdam (now living in Belgium) who works for the European Union. Couple things about this man (hope he doesn't mind I'm writing about him, but I imagine the chances of him stumbling upon this blog are pretty much non-existent)
-He is one of the smartest and most culturally intelligent people I have ever met
-He has traveled all over the world and has awesome stories (He has made me develop an urge to go sand surfing in Africa)
-He has an awesome job
-He had some pretty inspiring and interesting conversations with all of us
One of the conversations that stuck with me related to immigration, both in the past and present. We were talking about how immigration is such a debated topic (this stemmed from talking about gypsy immigration in Europe which I learned about in Spanish class...yea Spanish class...I know...) and how in an overall sense, people are very much against immigration. He spun it in such an interesting way that I was able to discover a new perspective. Here's the gist of what he said:
Nowadays, we have a fear for newcomers to invade our land and to put their own mark on our culture. This happens everywhere...US, Europe, etc. We are so focused on all the things that could change and ruin the status quo that we don't realize that immigration is a part of the evolution of our societies and world. Think back to the Middle Ages or even previous to that when Muslims invaded parts of Spain and other European regions. At that time, this was the worst thing that could happen...but now looking back, it was a blessing in disguise. These people that immigrated into Europe brought incredible knowledge to Europe, such as mathematics, science and medicine, languages, etc. If it wasn't for this immigration, Europe might not have acquired these nuggets of information that sparked a wave of knowledge and social development. Had this immigration not occurred, things might have evolved very differently (and maybe in a negative manner, who knows). If we look at the present, we can see how diversity has fueled great innovation and development of knowledge across the world. We have begun to cross borders, not only physically but intellectually as well, and this has allowed societies to learn from each other and work to become more open minded and intelligent.
His idea in a nutshell was...maybe immigration is just part of human evolution, maybe its inevitable...a part of human destiny...and for the own good of our communities and humanity in general.
I never had seen it this way. This big picture makes sense to me though...and I am going to carry forth with it and see things from that viewpoint as well to understand why history occurs the way it does.
So, thank you EU man for sharing some very interesting thoughts with us youngens. This, to me is one of the beauties of trekking the world...learning from people and gaining new perspectives on the paths that are around us and the foundation of our existence.
Oh and props to him for hanging out with 10 twenty year olds ;)
Dear Inge, traveling always give you a great oportunity to know amazing people, people that leave their foot print in your life, so who cares if some times you feel like you could be doing better or maybe have better company, I'm sure there is always a great surprice ahead of you, let life surprise!!!! Love, Ali
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