From Immigration to Terrorism to World Peace

I am currently in Sydney Australia with my girlfriend and slamming into the immigration laws. Being an old fart of 34, I am too old for a temporary work visa, available to anyone 18 to 30. I have a BS in Computer Engineering and a MA in Spiritual Psychology, not to mention 6 years massage therapist experience and 3 years management experience. The MA doesn't help with visa requirements at all. The Computer Engineering would have allowed me to obtain work rights if I was in the industry, but as my winding road of a life has taken me, I spent the last five years doing massage and management, which simply means my computer background is obsolete for visa purposes or simply the BS is just that BS. Bottom line, my work visa opportunities in Australia are confined to a student, employer sponsored, or spousal visa.

Let's start with the student... Even if I wanted to go back to school, I would have to come up with the extra money for the classes and be limited to part-time work of 20 hrs a week. I would however, have full time privileges during the holidays. Considering I will most likely head home to family over the holidays, full time work is not an option. I will end up spending the money I make at my part time work on the classes and still be holding a full load of school at the same time. Not a very viable option either.

This leads me to the employer sponsored visa option. Can you say catch twenty-two? Employers simply don't want to hire someone for work they can fill with any average Aussie bloke. This is completely understandable. Based on a resume and a few references on the other side of the world, the employer has no idea if this crazy American will hop on a plane next week to go home or not or even be able to perform to the level needed in the job. Why would they take a chance on that and spend the thousands of $$ to sponsor a foreigner? Umm, realistically they just won't. I actually had a recruiter hand back one of my resumes simply because I didn't have a work visa. He won't even consider spending time to find sponsorship for me. I can handle rejection, but five recruiters in a row did the exact same thing. I am healthy, willing and able to work yet can't because I don't have sponsorship.

Finally, the third option a spousal visa. I could pay the buck-toothed, ugh boot wearing, townie, ten grand to marry me, but I think I would get tired of britos by the barby everyday. Yes, I am here with my girlfriend, but do we want to rush a marriage just to get a visa after only 8 months? Talk about adding pressure to a relationship, as if the distance and culture shock isn't enough already. There is an option under the spousal visa called the de-facto that allows me to get a visa if I can prove we have been together for more than a year. Well, if I was able to live here for a year without working, sure no problem. But my savings aren’t opening that door very far.

Without a viable option before me, I kick back as big brother Australia comes to an end and ponder how ridiculous it is that I am unable to work in a country where millions of people watch these kids living in a house doing silly stunts all day. It seems the immigration is much easier if you are a hasty, uneducated kid than it is for someone with experience, education, maturity, and patience.

I can understand the reason for immigration laws being in place and greatly respect that, but I wonder what the world would be like if the separations of countries were to fall away. What if we could legally work in any country or travel to any country without limitation? The first thing that pops into my head is terrorism. Funny how that is at the forefront of my mind? Five to Ten years ago it would have only been used in a passing headline on the evening news. Now, not a day goes by that it doesn’t come up three or four times in various contexts.

It may be a bit far-fetched and possibly extreme, but I feel that there is a correlation between immigration laws and terrorism. Are not immigration laws results of separate governments? Are they not self-imposed boundaries? Am I the only one who thinks that it’s odd that I can work on one side of the planet without an issue, but can’t on the other side? Of course that doesn’t make me want to go crash planes into the Sydney Harbor Bridge or Opera House for that matter, but what if it wasn’t just my work privileges that were being restricted.

What if it was my freedom to travel, or my freedom to worship spirit, or my freedom to love, or any freedom a human being should be granted? Would that push me to lash out at the imposed boundaries and societies that create them? Perhaps.

What if these boundaries and laws created harsh living conditions and brought death and destruction at my doorstep? What if I was a child trying to survive in these wars of divided sides? Would that push me to rebel? I would say most definitely. I was one to rebel against my parents and my school, would I not be one to rebel against governments imposing boundaries and laws? Of course I would.

Is that not what a terrorist is doing? Are they not fighting for what they believe and so divided that they forget how we are all one race, one society of human beings? And who created that perception? You may argue they did, it was there choice. Of course it was, but was it not the conditions they were raised, or perhaps the environment they were taught that helped formulate the mind set of terrorism? Is it not the division, the separations, and the differences that are creating the boundaries? Is it not the very structure we hold on to for control, order and justice that creates separation?

So what should we do? I believe our world needs a restructuring. I believe our world is an obsolete model of imposed segregation inherited from fear-based beliefs held in the past. I believe we need to look at how technology is evolving and model our world after it… That’s right model a new world around the Internet.

Does it have borders? Does it have judgments about what sites are allowed and what aren’t? Does it discriminate or segregate? No, it is all just blips of data streaming together. Are there wars on the Internet? Is there terrorism on the Internet? It may be utilized by terrorism, but the human imposes that, living in the border filled world… not the Internet itself.

Well. I do believe I have segued a bit too far from my original subject. So… while I sit here searching for a way to make some money without my an Australian work visa, perhaps I will delve into this terrorist/immigration correlation and find way to create peace on earth… yeah right…

Are we really helping the kids?

I have an hour before I head back to Cai Cay and wanted to throw out a few thoughts about what we´re doing with the kids. Over the last week I have been tossing around the question; am I really helping the kids?
It wasn´t until Thursday that I finally came to an answer that I agree with. At first the school and what we were doing seemed very unorganized. As I said before four of us patch together a class plan for the day which is translated through 3 languages before being presented to the children. If that doesn´t feed chaos, how about throwing in the 30 to 40 kids of different ages and different skill levels to teach in two rooms that are only divided by an open archway, creating even more distratction. Needless to say maybe they repeat, How are you or find the dog in the map of the city or can count to 10 in english or spanish for that matter with the younger kids. Is that really what they need?
As I walk down the cobblestone street dodging the cow pies and avoiding the squirely dogs, passing the similing villagers with loads of corn or potatoes on their backs larger and heavier than I am, I wonder is the bits of english or the reading and writing of any language helping these children. Do they even need help?
Jimme the guy from Holland whom I have been volunteering with dubbed us Volunteer Tourists... since we take photos of the children of the landscape of the village and have an out. We will be there for two weeks and we are gone. Just tourists passing through a village buried in poverty. We come in and feed our egos by helping out and resolving whatever guilt we have for living a life of excess with our cars, televisions, computers, and whatever luxury you can imagine. But does it really help? Are we making a difference? Would it be better if we werent there?
Here´s what I came to on Thursday... it´s not the language, it´s not the education although those things will make it easier for the children to step out of that village and opens how much choice they have in their lives. Our little school with 2 hrs to help them each day isn´t enough. It barely scratches the surface of educating the children properly. But it does give them something more and it does offer the world something more. You see, I can look back on each day and my mind is filled with smiles, laughter, and good times. The kids have fun with us... for example the last 3 days I took charge of the children washing their hands before coming into the school. ( they get really dirty in the dusty village and it ruins the books, and supplies if they get dirt on everything..)... so they wash in a large bucket and I towel dry their hands. To make this fun, I have been grabbing their hands with the towel and shaking them dry, sometimes with sound effects and sometimes with a dab on the nose or a wipe on the mouth. They laugh and laugh and one little boy has now made that his greating to me. He puts his hands out in front like in prayer fingers pointing out and slides his hands together with a shooting sound and a smile. I do it in return and we connect. A few of the other boys call me juan encino or something like that from a movie smackdown? I´m not really clear what they are saying but they claim I'm a movie star or something because they have seen an american movie in which I resemble one of the characters..again we connect. A final example or moment was when the kids were working on mother´s day presents... Mario the boy I mentioned who lives in the shed with the guinea pigs was having trouble. I was pulled to sit down with him and help him and the boys at his table. What came out of that time together was that his mom had died. I showed him my angel tattoo on my leg of my mom who had also died and we connected as did many other kids...
So before I babble on for pages... the key to what we are doing is in the moments that we share. The glimpses of connection... the space between the knowledge and teaching when all time stops and we see each other for people for human beings having a physical experience together. We aren´t there to teach english, we aren´t there to teach reading, writing, etc... that is an excuse to open our hearts to different cultures. To see beyond the boundaries of money, education, language, location and know we are changing the world... for every moment we connect with one and other we create a peace and understanding. If these moments were had by each person in the world every day.... I believe we would start to see a difference in our personal lives which would radiate into the world around us for we are all connected by far greater bonds they we chose to acknowledge in our day to day lives...
And finally the ability for me to share this in this blog I hope will inspire everyone who reads this to step through their day with a little more awareness, a little more gratitude and a little more acceptance of those around us... the choice of a better world is in our hands... and while I´m on the subject... check out this amazing organization I stumbled unto yesterday... this guy Yuri... is embodying what I¨m less than gracefully trying to illustrate in my writing... www.aldeayanapay.org
is his website that speaks about his amazing social projects... enjoy...
I´ll be adding more next weekend when I return form another week in Cai Cay...