My column in Mindanao Daily News, Cagayan de Oro Times and Businessweek Mindanao
Our globe and its population bear innumerable strange facts. Following many people's opinion, this world shows mostly worried characteristics and symptoms nowadays. No wonder. Just try to consume and digest today's headlines and news from all around the globe.
It is a world with quickly bridged distances - our Mother Earth is becoming smaller and smaller. Any tourist, even with little time and with only a small budget, can travel to other faraway cultures. But joining them as well as different races and religious communities requires first of all, great care, tact, instinctive feelings, empathy, and logical ideas.
The stranger whom we meet for the first time during a business meeting, for example, maybe an uncommon, odd and extraordinary guy. He may be someone from a foreign country, who speaks another language and whose skin is of another color. He may be a migrant, a restless hiker or the expatriate in our neighborhood.
The foreigner beside you and me can become a provocation or a challenge. Strangeness can become exoticism. Maybe, that's why my family and I decided to move to the Philippines already in 1998. On the other hand - going abroad can open other and even better horizons. We must not feel as "a stranger in paradise". By the way, I never did since touring around the globe many times. On the other hand, I am not putting my country of birth into the trash. Heaven forbid, no!
However, a migrant bears a juxtaposition of optimism (even calculated optimism!), confused feelings, nostalgia, and homesickness. Yes guys, during the first years of my expat's life in the Philippines, the round trip ticket was always in my mind, because no one among us can escape his native roots.
But, I am really a lucky guy. I experienced an amazing tolerance in the Philippines. A real practicing tolerance. I am blessed living in and with a wonderful Philippine family. If you check my Facebook accounts, you might believe me. Already, during my first business meetings, I also met supportive, forbearing and broad minded people. A wonderful mix of different cultures without giving up the own identity... .
Every new challenge in a strange country means a change. Changes in life are necessary and important. Let's alter or make a difference; let's put one thing for another; let's shift; let's quit one state for another; let's take fresh clothing. Let's burn the "lock fat" away. And remember: nothing comes from anything.
