It is very disappointing, to say the least, about what Russia is doing in Ukraine. I can hardly believe that in 2022 there’s still this naked invasion happening in front of everyone’s eyes. Yes, I am aware more or less of other invasions that happened in the 21st century. I can also hardly believe that in 2022, China is going backwards and closing its doors to the outside world which it had opened since 1970s. And with all the ice melting in Arctic and the wild fires worldwide it is indeed a sad world to live in, but life has to be continued and change has to be made, not for the next generations but right for this generation of ours.
I do not intend to comment on the international affairs as a 24/7 stay-at-home mom submerged in childish things. I could only interpret these based on my own limited personal experience and beliefs. So what does all these world affairs have to do with traveling, especially traveling with young kids? Coming from the travel and hospitality industry, I never view traveling as a profitable business to make, but an enriching experience to create. By visiting the places and living like locals, one may see that foreigners are not caricatured stereotypes or demonized enemies as in the propaganda, but human beings of flesh and soul each of whom belongs to a family. Economic and financial sanctions do not hurt the tyrannies or tycoons but ordinary individuals whose livelihood depend on the businesses sanctioned. When hearing the news that Notre Dame in Paris was on fire in 2019, my tears rolled down and dropped in the sand box of the playground where my kids were playing. I have been there, just for once, marveled at it from afar and walked in it for an afternoon. When you travel somewhere and put your body inside the environment, all your senses are open, to the sounds and sights, smells and tastes. All you read about the place come alive, all your imaginations about the place become corrected. It’s not just a name or a postcard picture any more, it’s a live being or a personal connection that suddenly makes sense to you, and means something to you. There’s no myth or legend, just the accumulation of daily life of thousands of individuals of a nation. And that’s why it’s so sad for me to see that China is closing its doors against the outside world, after having kept it open for half a century since 1970s. As a Chinese who lives overseas, this means not only that I cannot reunite with my families in China, but also that it would be harder for my children to understand this country by experiencing it, and vice versa. It will be harder for the Chinese people to understand other nations and cultures, and we all know about the consequences of self-centrality and complacency, or do we really? It’s also important to keep in mind that a country does not equate with its people, even though it’s made of its people, in every sense. The leaders or rulers of the country, whether elected or not, cannot represent each and all of its people, even though it does reflect the ideology of the majority or minority. Thus it’s essential to put aside all the prejudices that we might get from the media or rumors, and see each country not as a territory to be occupied, a strategy spot to be dominated, or a manufactory/supply factory, but a collection of thousands of people in flesh and soul, that do not look or behave so different from ourselves in the eyes of ants, as the ants in the eyes of the humans.
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