1471:
At the moment, asylum seekers
are in the news. Hundreds of thousands
are having to flee their home countries and seek refuge in foreign places.
Recently, we’ve just had a
series of programmes on TV, here in Australia, on asylum-seekers. It was called, “Go back to where you came
from”. A group of six went to live
with refugees. Their initial hostility, along with many misconceptions, melted
away as soon as they entered these people’s daily lives and got to know them. There was a huge attitudinal shift in each
member of the group. Inevitably this has
been a hot topic of conversation around dinner tables and in the media. It’s been as much talked about as ‘Live
Exports of Cattle’ - an interesting juxtaposition of two important stories.
In both programmes, the
viewer comes away having learnt a lot from foreigners and about foreign
cultures, whether from another human culture or from a non-human culture. As soon as we come in close to any important
issue, we start to see things very differently, especially how our earlier
uncharitable views come to be much more charitable.
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