Not known for sitting at home on the couch, the human race is forever, and has been since forever, on the go. It's just the way it is.
Water, heat to single cell. Single cell to swimming thing. Swimming thing leaves the water for land. Evolution. Movement.
Skip forward a tad and here we are in 2006; nothing has changed.
They tell me that the muslims are fleeing Europe in order to create a launch pad for their next goal, the United States of America. As a consequence the Europeans are headed for North America, following a tradition that started, well, a long time ago. In the meantime the Mexicans and wide variety of other Hispanics are lined up to enter the USA. They tell me its around 20 million souls so far. Should one be surprised? I think not. For the msot part the citizens of the USA remain at home, other than those who are part of the administration's war machine; some 200,000 of them are stationed in the heart of Arabia, Iraq. No one thought to keep them at home and put them to use guarding the Mexico-US border. Then again 'no one thought' to do a lot things, this being jsut an isolated example.
The Chinese and and other Pacific Rim inhabitants seem to have their eyes set on Canada. And eventually of course the Mexicans will seek a better place north of the USA and will trickle into Canada; their is strong evidence that this process is already well under way. Mass migration for whatever the reason is perhaps once of the most common activities on the earth, second only to procreation. It is foolish to think that it will ever stop, change, slow down or disappear. We are migrants physically, mentally and spiritually. Movement is, as I was once told, life.
Does it really matter if 50 million Mexicans eventually live in the USA? Or 30 million Asians make their home in Canada? Or 500 million Muslims settle in Europe? The fact that over time we have established our distinct societies may be comfoting to the patriot, but in the big picture the colour of your skin, the language you speak or the place of your birth are really quite irrelevant. Not in a bad way; it simply does not matter, because it will be different tomorrow. The landscape will change on this planet moment by moment as its people wander from quadrant to quadrant for no other reason than movement itself.
What intrugues me is who will fill the voids. Who will live in Africa, the two easts and South America in the future? Are we all going to land up sipping Lattes on Robson Street in Vancouver? What a party that will be.
