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02 September 2017

Reverse colonisation

Many many years ago, it was the Europeans who went across the globe and colonised most of Asia and Africa.  What began as trade soon turned into political gambling, ending up as supreme authority.  India is a typical example of this historical process.  Once the Europeans established themselves in a particular country, they began to 'harvest' its resources for their own betterment back in England.  The foreigners 'white people' thus came to be hated and abhorred for their treatment of the local people, their traditions and ways of life.  After years of struggle the locals managed to drive out the colonisers and regain political autonomy.  Some are still struggling to come to terms with this new found freedom.  Some have never recovered from years of oppression and enslavement.  It has grown so much into their DNA that they cannot think of themselves as independent capable individuals/nations.
Colonialism in 1945

The picture today is more or less the same. Only this time, Europe is at the receiving end.  People from across these very places which once used to be colonies of Europe are flocking to Europe for a better life.  Same reason, the Europeans left their shores.  Only that Europeans left their homeland to 'get more'.  People coming into Europe come with the hope of a life better than the one they have back at home... These 'coloured' people are hated for being in 'my country'.  So were the 'white people' once upon a time.  One rarely saw fair skinned foreigners in the 'dark world'.  Today the 'white world' is no more a homogeneous 'white' population.  More or less the same story, only the setting is different and the roles reversed.  Guess this is what 'getting a taste of one's own medicine' or 'history repeats itself' means.

The ongoing crisis of 'immigration' is nothing short of a reverse colonisation.  The story is no different in the Catholic church with regard to missionaries.

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