Integritus Prime

Continuing with our Beyond Medicine series on Baggage Claim, we talked about baggage between nations on Facebook and shared some examples. Racial and ethnic tensions are not uncommon between countries, however there are other levels of biases and prejudices that also operate and create harm.

One example that comes to mind is when people are discriminated against due to where they are born. Descendants of indentured laborers in migrant countries were usually treated as ‘less than’ those born in the original countries. I was made to feel this as an Indian born in Fiji by some Indians born in India. It also happens to minority groups whose parents migrated to another country for various reasons.

The U.S. is a nation built by immigrants, and yet past and current atrocities point to deeply ingrained racism in whites against people of color. People whose families originated in Africa, Asia or Mexico are treated as ‘less than’ in America. There are even more pernicious examples, such as the Holocaust which I have mentioned before, and the current genocide happening in Gaza. Clearly, humanity still needs to learn how to accept differences.

Islanders are often regarded as insignificant when compared to people of larger countries. Let’s look at the example of carbon footprint: how would the people of larger countries behave if their livelihood, children and grandchildren as well their countries were at risk of drowning or submerging into the sea, at no fault of their own?

Another example is people of so-called third world countries are regarded as not being very intelligent. Donor agencies usually dictate what their funds should be used for instead of listening to the needs of locals who understand their context much better. People who have lived their lives in a third world country, know what their needs are and are aware of the local circumstances, but they are usually ignored. This situation is slowly changing, I’m happy to note.

Women throughout history have been treated as inferior to men who owned them as daughters and then the husbands owned them after marriage. This discrimination appears in many cultures, religions, corporate organizations, ethnicities and other avenues. Taking it another step forward, women from Asians countries were taken as comfort women and sex slaves. This also happened with colored and/or black women in many countries where slavery existed in some form or other.

The question is why this discrimination when we are all humans? Isn’t it time to think it through instead of following the culture and tradition of discrimination that we grew up in? We can change this thinking and the negative practices that we observed while growing up. It takes mindfulness, effort and persistence to change learned perceptions and behaviors, especially from loved ones, peers and teachers. If we start now then there’s hope for peace, acceptance, love and cooperation for the coming generations.

Share with us your experiences regarding baggage between nations and how you’ve managed to claim, unpack and heal.