XENOPHOBIA – Being born in South African, and having lived there for the first 23 years of my life, I grew up with an inculcated knowledge of what racism and separatism is. I was part of the Rainbow Nation generation that shunned racist attitudes, and embraced the diversity of a rich multi cultural nation. I come from a country that has 11 official languages, of which I can only really speak English properly, and moderate amounts of Afrikaans and Zulu. There is no more diverse a place than South Africa.
PORTUGUESE INFLUENCE
The very province that I grew up was called Natal (now known as Kwa-Zulu Natal – the region of the Zulu Nation), because it was named by the Portuguese on Christmas day – ‘Natal’ is the Portuguese word for ‘Christmas’. The the town I grew up in, there are as many Portuguese restaurants as their are Italian or Chinese. In fact, my first part time job when I was a student was working in a Portuguese restaurant owned by a family friend.
Indeed, the Portuguese have left an indelible mark of influence on various parts of Southern Africa, including our neighbouring country of Mozambique, which was once colonised by the Portuguese. In fact, there are many people from Mozambique, and indeed, South Africa, who now live in Portugal. For this very reason, I always find it so rude and hypocritical when Portuguese people exhibit xenophobic attitudes, which manifest in various ways, most often an intolerance or unwillingness to communicate in any other language except Portuguese. I can’t tell you how many times I have heard xenophobic toned phrases such as “You are in Portugal, learn to speak Portuguese”, or “If you don’t like it, go back to your own country” or “You are in Portugal, you must be like the Portuguese”, amongst many other xenophobic toned missives. I am who I am and I am not changing who I am for anybody, no matter where I live.
COLONIALISM
The Portuguese are more than happy to take the money of foreigners, but if we don’t speak their language or bow to their whims, they often treat us like second rate citizens based on the fact that you are foreign. The Portuguese people are very quick to forget the facts of their own history, that the riches (now diminished) of their nation was made upon the colonisation and exploitation of foreign lands, and and lets not forget state sanction attack, theft and looting of foreign ships, lands and people, also know as pirating, colonisation and slavery. The Portuguese invaded and took over territories in South America (modern day Brazil), West Africa (modern day Angola) and Southern Africa (modern day Mozambique). Their language and Catholic religion was forced upon indigenous populations, who were pushed off their lands, enslaved and forced into speaking Portuguese and becoming Catholic, or they were persecuted, if not executed. The Portuguese forced themselves on foreign lands and people, and the indelible mark of this conquest and invasion has never disappeared. For example, in Brazil, the national language is still Portuguese, as opposed to the native language of the indigenous tribes that the Portuguese genocided in order to colonise the gold rich region of Brazil.
HYPOCRISY & IRONY
When you take the history of the Portuguese into account, the hypocrisy of their xenophobia becomes all too obvious. And yet… And yet I have never experienced more xenophobia / racism anywhere I have ever travelled, as I have here in Portugal. In fact, they seem to be stuck in the same sort of paradigm as Apartheid era South Africa, which is tragic, because I honestly thought the world had moved on from such stifling attitudes. If I walk down the street and I wear a funny looking outfit… then it is because I am foreign. If I walk down the street and I do something out of the ordinary like push a pink pet stroller full of kittens, then I am strange because I am foreign. If I question the ridiculous Covid measures such as lockdown and mandatory mask wearing, then I am problematic because I am foreign. I am a foreigner, and that is supposedly the problem. It is always chalked up to that, and to be honest, it gets very frustrating dealing with such small mindedness and ignorance. Another thing that is uber frustrating is how Portuguese speaking people assume that we are stupid just because we may not be fluent in their language, and that they can pull any scam on us because we must be stupid enough to fall for it, as we don’t speak Portuguese.
What about the fact that I am a human being, as are we all? Surely that counts for something?
FOREIGNERS
The bottom line is, we are all foreigners somewhere. We were born with feet, not to stand still, but to move around. At some stage some people will cross the boundary line from one country into another, and go from being a ‘National’ to being a ‘Foreigner’. In fact, there is an entire multi-billion dollar industry called “The Travel Industry”, that exists to facilitate the human desire to explore the world. Some people just pass through foreign lands, others meet lovers, life long partners, husband and wives, get jobs etc, and end up staying in lands that they were not born in, as was the case with myself. I met my Dutch husband of 20 years, whilst I was in London, and never went back to South Africa. Life happens. That is just the way of our reality. That was the reality for many Portuguese people who also crossed the seas to conquer foreign lands.
OPEN HEART, OPEN MIND
In the end, it does not matter where I come from. I do not identify with an inculcated external locus of identity such as nationality. I am a human being, and I view all other people as human beings. I do not judge people for their skin colour, nationality, their cultural outlooks, their economic circumstances. I do however judge people by their behaviour and how they treat others irrespective of who they are or where they come from. I operate at the highest levels of integrity, and work with incredible people across the world in my various humanitarian projects, which have been ongoing for over a decade. I have learned from these amazing people, exactly what kind of person I want to be, and from toxic, ignorant, small minded people, I have learned exactly what I do not want to be.
I have chosen always to be an ethical and kind person. I am ever so blessed to have an amazing husband, and an even more amazing family of kitty children which go all over with us including the local beaches, a fact that amazes almost everyone we encounter. I have such strong grounding forces of love in my life, that I have been able to transcend the hatred, anger and resentment that is rotting the souls of many people, and that they project onto others in an attempt to self soothe. I am ever so grateful for the love bubble that I live in.
I come from a wealthy, high profile family, with no less than three Prime Ministers in my lineage, and, with a brother being the Captain of the South African Water Polo team. Despite my privileged upbringing, which was at times subject to snobbish exclusionary attitudes of the elite set within which I involuntarily found myself, my aim always is never do anything to deliberately cause anybody loss or harm. I do however always speak my truth, and in my capacities as an Independent Investigative Journalist, and in my pursuit of a free, fair, peaceful, just sustainable, non-toxic world, I expose con artists and corrupt people, practices and businesses who may fall upon my path of discovery, particularly if they knowingly and unapologetically cause loss and / or harm to others. At no point do I ever set out to harm anybody deliberately, but I will speak out against those who cause harm, and nationality, background, skin colour has nothing to do with it. This is something that comes from a soul level. Humanitarianism is colourless, borderless and universal.
The bottom line is, I do not believe that it is appropriate to be marginalised or discriminated just because I or anybody else, living or visiting Portugal, is not Portuguese. That racist / xenophobic / separatist dogma is the very root of contempt that rots and destroys the beautiful state of soul connection within humanity. In my humble view, people who engage in racist / xenophobic / separatist behaviours, should be punished by law. In fact, according to Article 15 of the Portuguese Constitution, it states that foreigners who reside in Portugal have the same rights as Portuguese nationals. At no point is it right for any Portuguese national to treat any foreigner with contempt for being foreign.
It is spiritually and emotionally immature to diminish anybody’s worth, or treat people as lesser, just because they are not the same as you. Diversity in all it’s forms, should be embraced and nurtured, for in nature, it is diversity and evolution and adaptation, which prevents extinction.
FACT: If we were all exactly the same, we would not survive biologically as a species beyond a generation or two.
Perhaps it is time that we all stop being negative, nasty and ugly to our fellow human beings, for how has that ever benefitted anybody in the long run. A simple shift in focus is needed, where we choose to see the similarities in people, instead of judging people as lesser, bad or wrong, for being different in some way… Because, at the end of the day, the true beauty of humanity is that we all want the same things… we all want to be free, and we all want to be loved. It is time we unite on our common ground, and never forget the simple inalienable truth, which is simply this:
LOVE CONQUERS ALL!
Peace Love Unity Respect
Mel Ve
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