Rant!

After a bottle of wine and much sleepy contemplation, I come once again to the same point I alway come to after such evenings. What is the point of it all?

Perhaps Job was always drunk. His whole Biblical book seems to say, what is the point of all of this? Life? Why do we live it? But he goes as far as to say that everything is meaningless. I don't agree with that...I think everything we do means something, whether we want it to or not. We can act selfishly, as if our actions won't affect anything; but however drunk, upset or rageful we feel we can still act out of care for those around us. Me hiding in my room after a bottle of wine may not be the bravest of things to do, but at least I avoid making my housemates uncomfortable with how I am, or making the God who created me and loves me, whose ambassador I want to be, look bad.

Of course, one could argue that if I really cared about making God look bad I wouldn't have drunk so much in the first place. This may well be true. But contrary to popular opinion I'm not in-human, i'm just a girl trying to make her way in this world, despite all its hassles and heartbreaks and worries.

I want to change the world around me. I want to move back to Seoul, and get into North Korea, care for the people, the children there, whose sense of reality is so distorted, and show them that the rest of the world does not hate them, but wants them to be free.

Of course, prejudice and racism is rife in this world, in the sense that Kim Jung Il is sort of correct (dare I voice such an opinion) ...for example, only the last few days this British government has been discussing whether or not to allow 'immigrants' into this country or not any more. I hate that word, rather I hate the connotations it has attached to it. And I hate how people can make it sound intellectual, like this debate is something genuine that we need to be investing time and thought into, because these evil 'immigrants' are stealing our work from us. Yet in the next breath they complain about all the millions of British people who are scrounging benefits off the government because they can't be bothered to go out and get a job. It's just wrong and twisted, all of it.

They say 'immigrants' are messing up our economy, but in reality if everyone who wasn't British were sent back to their country of origin, this country's economic state would totally collapse in on itself. And if anyone was brave or unprejudiced enough to look at it with a clear head they would see that this is the case.

It's so hypcritical. We export people constantly; how many Britons move to the south of France, or Spain, or Australia, even the USA? What right do we as a country have to say that those people will earn their keep in those countries, and yet cast such suspicion and hatred towards people of other ethnic origins who move here looking for such a cultural change, a new start?

If, when I had moved to South Korea some years ago and jobhunted, I had met with such suspicion and derision, and been told that I had to either do menial jobs or move out, I would have felt indignant, confused, rejected and very, very small as a person. But I wasn't. I was accepted, taken in by many people, and loved and appreciated for my cultural differnces time and time again. Although many South Koreans (particularly the elderly members of society) often found me as a white British girl strange, and my appearance, my culture, my habits bizarre, I was always respected, and even if was laughed at, it was always in good humour.

Why can't this country be the same?

I hate racism and I always will. Just because a governmenal law is passed does this mean it is right? No. I am the most law abiding person you will ever meet. But if the govermnent's laws ever cross the line to defy moral and social justice, the laws of humanity, then I can not cross that line with them. A human, a person I am first; an British citizen I am second.

So what if different cultures do stuff differently to us? We are all different - that's the point!!!

Obviously if another people group was practicing some horrible immoral law, causing other people to be hurt and killed, or rejected and treated unfairly compared to other people (which some countries do practice, I am aware of this!) then I would be against that too. But me being against this kind of behaviour is not racism, it's just right and wrong. All too often it is not about race, it is about individuals and their own personal choices.

Of course one could always ask, what is right? What is wrong? I think anything that causes harm to a person, or to the person that is performing that action, is wrong. There are always personal moral points that we can debate, this I do not question. But if a person comes to this country looking for a fresh start, for excitement and for a new culture to learn from and submerge themsleves in, then I say, go for it!! That isn't hurting anyone. It isn't robbing English people of their jobs!! How many people in this country are too lazy or stuck up to do half the jobs that are taken by 'immigrants' in this country anyway? Thousands, if not more!!

Different cultures and mindsets bring variety and beauty to this country. As a nation we were built on variety. I hate that we are beginning to turn in an almost Nazi-ish direction. This whole 'British people only' mindset is headed on one direction - that of fear, prejudice, and separation from the rest of this world.

Sure...people can be evil. They can be perverse. They can be dangerous.

But they can also be beautiful. They can be comforting. They can be loving. They can be encouraging. They can be wise. They can be insightful. This is the nature of people, of diversity, or beauty in all its forms. If we do not open up to this, there is no hope for us as a nation.

It doesn't matter where you come from. It doesn't matter where you grew up or where you have lived. It does not even matter (to a degree, when talking of acceptance and respect) what your beliefs are or what your government dictates.

What matters is Who You Are. This is the only think that matters. God created us, under Him, and if we put Him first and we put the poeple around us first, and if we put love first, and consideration, then what else matters? We can learn from one another's differences!! We are all beautiful in our own way!! Adults, children, healthy, handicapped, whatever. We all deserve love and respect.

And that is all I have to say on the matter. So be it. Amen.