When it comes to nicknames
Nicknames with affection or insults?
Most human beings have a sense of belonging to their country of origin. There is no class, race, gender or region at the moment of expressing love and identifying with the country that saw you born. On the other hand, there are human beings who can not identify with their country, seeking to identify themselves in another part of the world.
A country is a piece of land shared among strangers, but it becomes a single flag when all those strangers push towards the same goal, respecting diversity in unity.
Now, as chimoltrufia would say:
"“Let's not do plugs, after you know that as I say one thing I say another, because if it is like everything, there are things that neither what, I have or I'm not right?”"
People who go around the world in search of a better future, enter a very old game called "Emigrant - Immigrant", they automatically become emigrants for their country and immigrants for the country that receives them. Consciously or unconsciously, they resist labels, nicknames, names and terms without realizing that the mere fact of thinking about changing latitude is already stamped with the "Emigrant - Immigrant" and any other label that is born in the path.
Let's cut to the chase: There are some qualifiers, nicknames, names and labels with which you can identify any foreigner and in some cases may be cause for "offense".
Before going on I want to clarify that my intention is not to hurt some kind of susceptibility in the subject, but rather to reflect certain situations that afflict all foreigners.
Let's dig deeper into the subject, Venezuela is a small piece of planet earth and although many Venezuelans do not like some of the names associated with them abroad, one should take a step back and objectively analyze the situation. history of contrary cases in which we Venezuelans have used and worse still, we continue using names, nicknames and labels to immigrants (foreigners) who chose Venezuela as their new home.
I will name some real and specific examples of everyday life that I hope will help us to realize the mistakes we make as individuals and in society in general. Most of the time it happens without bad intention, being victims of the wheel of life, becoming automatons and slaves of our idiosyncrasies:
Let us begin:
• The Chinese It is the most frequent case, we go to a food establishment (market or market), restaurant, bazaar, etc., and if the person who looks after us has eyes torn and oriental physiognomy immediately what We identified as "Chinese." I spent some time directly asking some Orientals about their origin (obviously not all, only randomly when the subject came to my mind), impressively half of these people are not Chinese (made in china) "Ohhh that amazing!", yes, it turns out that people with slanted eyes do not come only from China, there are also other countries and localities, their correct name would be "Orientals". Some Eastern countries are: Taiwan, North / South Korea, Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines, Cambodia, Burma, Laos, Singapore, Mongolia.It should be noted that Russia also belongs to the Asian continent, then you know, "the chinese" that you attends p It is ostensibly "Korean" or "Cambodian".
• The Arab: Although in this case there is indeed the Arab world, an Arab league and Arabian peninsula; Likewise the same previous case is repeated, you go to a clothing store, food, "the man who sells sheets", shawarma restaurant, etc., and we all say "The Arab" or in their defects "The Turk" (worse yet). Well, there are 22 countries where Arabic speakers are the majority, therefore they are countries of the Arab world, but nevertheless they are independent of each other and each one has its own name. In the particular case of "The Turk" is worse because Turkey does not belong to the list of countries where the majority of the population speaks some Arabic language.
• The Haitian: Every ice cream man is Haitian, well no. A curious case was that of a ice cream man who was called Haitian, it was his nickname, natural label, since it turns out that the gentleman was from Barlovento (an area of the Miranda State, very close to the capital "Caracas", that is, he was Venezuelan).
The above exposed probably happens in many countries but it is always good to start at home
All this helps us to take awareness of where we are, what we are and how we interpret the world. We also realize that we are victims of the wheel of life and that it is a matter of ourselves to become aware and separate ourselves from that wheel to see and understand life with other eyes.
Just think how you should feel a Filipino who has to make a living call to be told "Chinese", or a Lebanese to be told "Turkish", knowing the sensitivity of the topic for many cultures worldwide. It is in these empathic processes where we can see reflected what would happen or what we did in a case like that, it is not anything right?
Before complaining about any label, improvised nickname given to us, think that you in your country also used or used similar terms and that to a large extent are part of your idiosyncrasy.
We must study, analyze and assume new ways of seeing life, new human relationships, new ways of communicating and, above all, feeding on that rich and infinite sea of learning that comes from being human.
We must know that no matter where in the world we are, we are all equal, but with particular idiosyncrasies that make the world the only place where life exists.