Where do I come from?

I posted this quote on facebook a few days back as it struck very closely to where I see myself.  As most know I was born in New Zealand and lived there for 55 years.

A few years ago I moved to Australia and then on to Bangladesh teaching Physics at different secondary schools.In the last year I have visited Australia, New Zealand, Bangladesh, China, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Turkey, Italy, France, Spain and England.  An exceptional travel year made extraordinary but the illness of my wife.  (See earlier blogs if interested!)

I travel on a New Zealand passport but that is really the limit of any real association with that country, outside of my wonderful daughters, a few family members and some excellent friendships.  My money is invested in Australia, I work in Bangladesh and I feel most at ease in South East Asia.  I have excellent friendships in New Zealand, Australia, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, England and other places as well (my disclaimer in case I missed you).  I am not involved in any electoral process and my only affiliations are with world wide organisations in education and community.

Yes, I do support the All Blacks when they play but I also support the Rabbitohs in the NRL and of course Chelsea in the English League.  I follow baseball a little and the Yankees benefit from a small amount of support.

Hence Krishnamurti quote above.  I don't particularly like Krishnamurti as a philosopher/guru.  When a philosopher becomes so self-absorbed he considers himself (or others do) a guru then it is time to look elsewhere.  I think it was Clive James who said "It takes a thousand followers to support one guru burbling on."  But this quote makes sense.  All of the nastiness in the world appears to come from people taking entrenched positions based around nationalism, xenophobia, or religion.  If those three were removed from the world it would be a much nicer place.

I have become interested in the growing movement of internationalism.  My fear of course is it has the potential to become an oppressive movement utilised by the elite to make capital from the poor (goodness me, I sound like Marx).  But the idea of nations working for the good of all humanity rather than just their own nation sounds wonderfully pure.

After all a New Zealander is not better than a Bangladeshi or a Cambodian just because he was born in New Zealand!

So my answer to where do I come from is now going to be "the third planet from the sun".