08 April 2016

North America, North Africa, How do you do?

I've been thinking about how people from North Africa, the area many call "The Middle East" were not in my awareness much when I was growing up.  I knew that Israel existed and that there were other countries that didn't like Israel, I didn't understand why.  I was brought up with virtually no religion, so understanding that other people had religious beliefs that led them to go to war was completely bizarre to me.  It still is. I had no idea that gasoline was made from oil that came from that part of the world.

Now in 2016 people from North Africa are much in my awareness, and many more are here in the US than were in the 1960's when I was a child.  There are people from that part of the world who have moved here to this land, who identify as Muslims, Christians, Jews, and other religions too.

Certainly the advent of air travel has contributed to people moving around the world, but I've been thinking about this in the context of balance.

The various oil and drug cartels based in "The United States" (I put that in quotes because I just can't take it very seriously anymore, nations, when we know that corporations are calling the shots) have invaded, killed, pillaged, and exploited the people and the lands in that part of the world relentlessly for over 100 years now.  It seems fair and just that we should thus experience an influx of people and culture from the area "we" have exploited.  It's karmic justice.

The western propaganda machine has so vilified our brothers and sisters in North Africa, the way this universe seems to work, it makes sense we would now be living the scenario of being with those same people so we can learn who they really are, and they can learn who we really are ("they" and "we" being huge generalizations).  It will take time but, as has happened countless times in human his/herstory, eventually the perceived differences will become less important, and will dissipate, people will intermarry and have children, and the differences that people feel so strongly about now will become memories.  This is generally how humans do it, unless one group rises up and kills the other group, that happens too, but hopefully less and less.

So the upshot of this is...my message to people who talk about "Islamification"... this our western culture has created this situation by warring and oppressing.  Just something to think about, especially when vilifying "the other."

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