Nationalism ("This isn't our home anymore!")
The fact that I feel less at ease than a Spaniard in Belgium doesn’t surprise me at all. But if we take another country—neither Spain nor Belgium—which of us, the Spaniard or me, would feel less comfortable? Probably me... Since I feel less at home in Germany than in Belgium, it’s hard to imagine the Spaniard feeling less at ease than me in a country that isn’t mine, or more at ease than me in the country where I grew up! Even if Germans prefer the company of Belgians over Spaniards, I’m not the kind of Belgian they imagine—after all, in Belgium, I’m less comfortable than the Spaniard.
If you refuse to accept feeling less at ease than a foreigner in your own country, then you’ll have to accept it in a country that isn’t yours!
Poetry by Albert Vynckier
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Written on 2025-04-13 at 08:42
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