4 ms·

Stories like this make me realize how unfairly privileged I actually am by having the passport that I have. I can go damn near anywhere in the world without muc

Stories like this make me realize how unfairly privileged I actually am by having the passport that I have. I can go damn near anywhere in the world without much fuss. But I was just lucky enough to be born on the right side of some line that somebody drew on a map at some time in the past. The folks a few km distant - on the other side of that line - don't have that same luxury. It is kind of sad that we have this way of carving up the world into arbitrary pieces and calling us "us" and them "the enemy".

nolok 8y ago
As an extension to that, as someone else who has a french "powerful passport", you get so used to it that you feel very bothered when you actually need to get a visa for some place. Or worse, when you plan to go somewhere and a member of your group is not from such a country and needs a visa for a place that you didn't expect him to need one for. I'm glad it's like this for me, and I hope the world can keep moving forward in that direction (as an european I'm kind of used to no borders between countries, the same way US people move between states); but at the same time I'm not sure how healthy it is to have such privileges and not even recognize them as such anymore. I guess this is what causes the people from "our" countries calling themselves expat rather than immigrants (we've had a case this week again, where an english immigrant in France complained on twitter about immigrants coming to France ...). I believe remembering what is a privilege you are lucky have is important, maybe if we were better at that we would have less on the modern "social stupidity" issues (another matter entirely but if people knew how lucky they were of not having polio and/or knew someone related to them who got it, they would be much less likely to avoid vaccination ...).
throwawayvisa 8y ago
I'm someone who was born with a "shitty" passport. It's not the visa part, but rather I can't spontaneously just "go somewhere". All my travels need to be planned weeks, if not months, ahead. Fortunately, I'm on a path to acquire another citizenship and my children will have a "good" passport at birth.
- aerovistae 8y ago
  Which two countries, if you don't mind saying? I don't think it would compromise your throwaway status.
  - throwawayvisa 8y ago
    Vietnam -> Australia
beginningguava 8y ago
>It is kind of sad that we have this way of carving up the world into arbitrary pieces and calling us "us" and them "the enemy". It's not arbitrary, our ancestors in many cases fought and died to establish those lines so that they could live their lives how they wanted within those lines. They worked hard so that their children and grandchildren and fellow citizens could have better lives within those lines. To discount that as luck is demeaning to the sacrifices of the people who came before you
- rtpg 8y ago
  The reality of these lines are usually less noble than you describe in many cases. As an example, if you read about the motivations of specific actors in the American revolutionary war, many of the top dissenters were basically interested in not paying taxes and being the boss of their own piece of land (instead of having oversight from across the pond). Nobody is ethically pure, of course, but the main push for the revolutionary war was done out of massive self-interest from people in power. "There was a time that we were noble" is something that rarely plays out in practice. Why should it? If anything humanity has gotten more, not less, ethical and noble over time. There's an idea of fighting for justice and truth, and then there's trying to die to establish lines on a map. They're not the same thing, and I'd say that it's rarely coinciding in practice
  - beginningguava 8y ago
    I never said it was noble, but doing something in your own self-interest can still be positive. Even if the US revolution was for the founders financial benefit, the side effect was the spread of democracy and self-determination across the globe. They might just be "lines on a map" but they mean something to people, just 50 years ago those "lines" were the difference between living in a communist hellhole and freedom and prosperity. There's a lot of cubans and eastern europeans who risked their lives to get on the other side of some lines on a map and get a better life for themselves and their children. If people hadn't been willing to fight and die to defend those lines and their ability to live how they want, we wouldn't be able to have this discussion right now
  - 8y ago
thanosnose 8y ago
You are free to give up your unfair privilege and move to the less privileged parts of the world. > It is kind of sad that we have this way of carving up the world into arbitrary pieces and calling us "us" and them "the enemy". Is it? Is it also sad that we carve up "homes" and "money" for ourselves? Would you give us your address and let any individual just walk into your home? Instead of crying over your privilege and virtue signaling on social media, why not do something about it? You only have your unfair privilege because you choose to keep it. Why?

nolok 8y ago

As an extension to that, as someone else who has a french "powerful passport", you get so used to it that you feel very bothered when you actually need to get a visa for some place. Or worse, when you plan to go somewhere and a member of your group is not from such a country and needs a visa for a place that you didn't expect him to need one for. I'm glad it's like this for me, and I hope the world can keep moving forward in that direction (as an european I'm kind of used to no borders between countries, the same way US people move between states); but at the same time I'm not sure how healthy it is to have such privileges and not even recognize them as such anymore. I guess this is what causes the people from "our" countries calling themselves expat rather than immigrants (we've had a case this week again, where an english immigrant in France complained on twitter about immigrants coming to France ...). I believe remembering what is a privilege you are lucky have is important, maybe if we were better at that we would have less on the modern "social stupidity" issues (another matter entirely but if people knew how lucky they were of not having polio and/or knew someone related to them who got it, they would be much less likely to avoid vaccination ...).

throwawayvisa 8y ago

I'm someone who was born with a "shitty" passport. It's not the visa part, but rather I can't spontaneously just "go somewhere". All my travels need to be planned weeks, if not months, ahead. Fortunately, I'm on a path to acquire another citizenship and my children will have a "good" passport at birth.

aerovistae 8y ago
Which two countries, if you don't mind saying? I don't think it would compromise your throwaway status.
- throwawayvisa 8y ago
  Vietnam -> Australia

beginningguava 8y ago

>It is kind of sad that we have this way of carving up the world into arbitrary pieces and calling us "us" and them "the enemy". It's not arbitrary, our ancestors in many cases fought and died to establish those lines so that they could live their lives how they wanted within those lines. They worked hard so that their children and grandchildren and fellow citizens could have better lives within those lines. To discount that as luck is demeaning to the sacrifices of the people who came before you

rtpg 8y ago
The reality of these lines are usually less noble than you describe in many cases. As an example, if you read about the motivations of specific actors in the American revolutionary war, many of the top dissenters were basically interested in not paying taxes and being the boss of their own piece of land (instead of having oversight from across the pond). Nobody is ethically pure, of course, but the main push for the revolutionary war was done out of massive self-interest from people in power. "There was a time that we were noble" is something that rarely plays out in practice. Why should it? If anything humanity has gotten more, not less, ethical and noble over time. There's an idea of fighting for justice and truth, and then there's trying to die to establish lines on a map. They're not the same thing, and I'd say that it's rarely coinciding in practice
- beginningguava 8y ago
  I never said it was noble, but doing something in your own self-interest can still be positive. Even if the US revolution was for the founders financial benefit, the side effect was the spread of democracy and self-determination across the globe. They might just be "lines on a map" but they mean something to people, just 50 years ago those "lines" were the difference between living in a communist hellhole and freedom and prosperity. There's a lot of cubans and eastern europeans who risked their lives to get on the other side of some lines on a map and get a better life for themselves and their children. If people hadn't been willing to fight and die to defend those lines and their ability to live how they want, we wouldn't be able to have this discussion right now
- 8y ago

thanosnose 8y ago

You are free to give up your unfair privilege and move to the less privileged parts of the world. > It is kind of sad that we have this way of carving up the world into arbitrary pieces and calling us "us" and them "the enemy". Is it? Is it also sad that we carve up "homes" and "money" for ourselves? Would you give us your address and let any individual just walk into your home? Instead of crying over your privilege and virtue signaling on social media, why not do something about it? You only have your unfair privilege because you choose to keep it. Why?