It's a familiar scene.
A woman delivers a baby, her partner by her side. The couple is elated. Exhausted, overwhelmed and more than a little terrified. But elated. They can’t stop looking at their child. After nursing, the mother cradles the infant to her chest, her heartbeat a soothing lullaby. As she rests her chin on her baby's fragile head, she understands a love like no other. It’s visceral. Powerful. Unbreakable. The mother tenderly strokes a soft round cheek before she closes her eyes to rest. The child’s father is moved by the sight of his sleeping family.
He will never forget this day. The day he became a father. The day his life changed forever. He glances out of the window. A whole new world awaits this new life. A whole new world awaits them all.
A woman delivers a baby, her partner by her side. The couple is elated. Exhausted, overwhelmed and more than a little terrified. But elated. They can’t stop looking at their child. After nursing, the mother cradles the infant to her chest, her heartbeat a soothing lullaby. As she rests her chin on her baby's fragile head, she understands a love like no other. It’s visceral. Powerful. Unbreakable. The mother tenderly strokes a soft round cheek before she closes her eyes to rest. The child’s father is moved by the sight of his sleeping family.
He will never forget this day. The day he became a father. The day his life changed forever. He glances out of the window. A whole new world awaits this new life. A whole new world awaits them all.
And what land lies outside of the window that frames this scene... America? England perhaps? Could it be South Africa. Or Australia. Pakistan, Yemen or Syria? It could be anywhere really. Does it really matter? Well, yes in fact it does. It matters very much. For this child. And every child.
Babies are born every second. In every country across the globe. They all come from the same place. From their mother’s womb. All share an instinct to survive. And while it’s no big deal how a baby is born, these details are irrelevant. Trivial in the grand scheme of things. Where a baby is born is a big deal.
As a person who happens to have been born in South Africa, I can enter 90 of the 218 countries in the world without a visa. Without prior permission. For entry into the other 128 countries, I’ve got to prove I am who I say I am, who I’m currently married to and all the people I’ve been married before, who my parents are, where I currently live, where I’ve lived for all eternity before, how much money I have, whether I own property, what its value is, how much I owe to the bank. I’ve got to describe the exact position of the mole on my left buttock and my natural hair colour. Ok so maybe not the last two, but it won’t be long. The process is expensive. Time-consuming. Frustratingly complex and confusing. Some people strip their moer with it all. So they hire professionals. And pay extra. This is simply to visit another country. Many people can't afford to do it it at all. To live, work or study across borders? Well, that’s a whole new visa. More paperwork. More money. And that’s where they go for blood. Literally. And lungs. Those too.
Someone born in Germany or England for example can enter double the number of countries I can without a visa (a massive 176 and 173 countries respectively). Simply because they drew their first breath in a country different to mine. “There is still huge disparity in the levels of travel freedom between countries, despite the world becoming seemingly more mobile and interdependent,” says Dr Christian H. Kälin, chairman of Henley & Partners, a citizenship and planning firm. It doesn't make it right. It doesn't make it fair. It's just the way it is.
No matter how you look at it, the simple and ugly truth is that borders are open or closed to people on the basis of birth. Children die in countries they cannot escape from. Literally trapped in famine or war. Politicians perpetuate the polarity of people and call it nationalism. Prejudice has a party and invites all of its hateful friends. Those who are other do not belong. Cannot stay. Cannot settle. Do not pass go. But do pass your passport, please.
We raise our children to believe that human beings are all equal. That we are all the same. We encourage them to travel. To experience new adventures. To learn from other cultures. We inspire tolerance. Kindness. Hope. Freedom. We nurture their dreams. We do all of this in a world where we are clearly not all equal. In a world where we are not all free. In a world where a child’s destiny is very often determined from that very first breath. In the country of its birth.
“And we call ourselves the human race,” John F Kennedy once said an ironic statement. I agree. There’s little humanity in the way we live. Little humanity at all.
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| Words to live by. Literally. |
