a random international, cross-cultural thought... globalism

(This was originally posted to renown on December 15, 2009.)

I have so many random thoughts. I have them constantly. Seriously - the thoughts never stop. I don't write about a lot of them, but I think I am going to start more often.
That's really why I started this blog - not so much to always have these polished articles to dispense knowledge & ideas to the world [sarcasm], but as an outlet for me to think out loud! I'm going to start doing that more & this post is an example. They might make me look ignorant, but that's ok... it's my blog & I'm just thinking out loud. A lot of completely unprocessed, still-forming-in-my-brain-thoughts...

Here's my thought: If someone just wakes up 1 day and wants to go live in another country, THEY CAN'T.

isn't that weird?

Maybe it's not weird to you because that's just the world we've always known. Those geo-political boundaries are set in stone. But to me, it's really weird that if I just wanted to go live in another country... just for the heck of it... I couldn't. It wouldn't be that easy!

I would have to fill out all kinds of paperwork, make sure I have a passport and a visa if I'm staying forever... + probably a lot of other stuff I don't even know about. I couldn't just hop a plane & go. Why not?

*I haven't looked up all the rules or anything. I don't really know what the laws are going to & coming from all the other countries, so I admit, I am a little ignorant. But I figure that renown readers can probably tell me more about this than wikipedia, so go ahead and leave me a comment & explain all this if you want...

I guess it's all about keeping tabs on everyone? All our geo-political borders are so solid that countries don't want peeps from other nations slipping in unannounced. (And I am well aware that 9/11 changed the world, but these laws were the same even before that, right?)

To me it's just a weird world that we live in when we have to stay so divided. If I wanted to move to New Zealand tomorrow, or Egypt, or Germany, or Kazakstan, or Malawi, or Chile, or Indonesia, or Canada, or Mexico, or Kenya, or Ireland, or Poland, or anywhere else... I couldn't just "up & do it." That is SOOOO weird to me. What if I just wanted to move to Liberia, get an apartment, get a job, try the local restaurants, make some friends, and just live there for 5 years and then come back? not that simple.

Same with the U.S. When did it even start that if someone wanted to come live in America they couldn't just come move here? When did it become "illegal"? Maybe it has something to do with paying taxes? Or making sure we all get counted in a census? I don't know...

I just think it's weird in our world of 6 billion + that any person doesn't really have the freedom to live wherever they want.

Do YOU think it's weird too or am I just weird for thinking it?

the fever (repost)

(This was originally posted June 28, 2010.)

do you know anyone with iPhone fever? i know some people who have come down with a severe case of it. the iPhone 4 is pretty awesome and i understand the "fever". there was the same craze for the 3GS & the iPhone before that, etc...

There is a "fever" that breaks out for all the latest and greatest new stuff in our culture. The "fever" is this overwhelming desire and perceived "need" to HAVE THAT THING. that thing that is so awesome and that thing that everyone else has.

i was thinking about this tonight. is this "fever" that comes on us something we were created with? did God make us that way? i know God made us with strong desires and He put in us an insatiable desire for satisfaction.

but where did this all out "fever" come from to have the latest and greatest thing?... whatever that thing may be this week. (because next week it will be something else new.)

i don't think we were created this way. i think it's from our culture. i think our culture tricks us and dupes us into this fever.

tonight i was asking myself if other cultures... non Western cultures experience the "fever" in their context? i don't think so. (i may very well be wrong though.) it doesn't seem like a cross-cultural fever to me. i think we have created "the fever" with our consumeristic, materialistic, gotta have it now, society here in Western culture.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?