Reading the two articles found at http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,4198457,00.html and http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2010-05-05-forum-en.html one would be very surprised at how discrimination is boiling in Europe and causing complete turmoil, and if someone or something doesn't step in, chaos. Not the discrimination based solely on the shade of one's skin (as in my earlier blog post), but one based on xenophobia; a word not commonly known for its definition, but automatically grabs one's attention because of the negative connotation it has. This word is the seed where things like racism, judging based on physical appearance, condemnation of religious beliefs and inferiority of social class flourish. This is the word, however, that Europe has once again, commingled with.
It is said that after 9/11, Europe has taken upon itself to "keep it all in the family" and not let what happened to Americans in the U.S., happen to them. Are keeping immigrants and people of different cultural backgrounds away from European borders really going to stop terrorist threats and create a perfect, conforming society?
As the article said, "Europe has to find a way of tackling hazard, risk and uncertainty by harnessing rather than rejecting diversity and difference."
Change can be compared to walking into an unknown, dark room with no lights; you're scared, you don't know what you may trip over or what you will find when the lights do come on, but the walk itself eventually leads you to the light, which would have never been attained without walking in the first place. The fact is, change is scary and you don't know how it will result. We as a human race will not progress without change; which simply means, we need to turn on the light.
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