Hate is for cowards!

 

Confronting people on the content and essence of their character is audacious.

It is an unwelcome and unpopular thing to do. I'm completely okay with that, I'm not here to be liked, to be popular, to fit the mould or conform to majority standards. I am here to deserve my place in the world. I am here to make a difference, to make my ancestors lighting the sky proud, to educate my daughter on the importance and supremacy of love and kindness above all else.

Am I a sweet and compliant person that is all about rainbows and pixie dust? No, not even close. But I love fiercely and I believe wholeheartedly in the right of all to be equal, to have the same opportunities, to have a place to rest their heads safely every night.

The truth is, on a daily basis, I see words and actions that defy belief. Here we are in 2015 and I STILL see characterisation of minorities and vulnerable people with disdain by those who are fortunate; STILL see vilification of entire racial or religious groups; STILL see people banding together in hatred for the most ignorant and abhorrent reasons.

We have people who are condemning people of the Muslim faith as archaic and patriarchal and yet, our very Anglo-Christian government denies the existence of scientifically proven climate change, we have an Anglo-Christian government telling us abortions are wrong and women ought not have the right over her own body, we have an Anglo-Christian government telling us abortions cause cancer and they are justified in cutting Medicare, raising educational costs and taxation because people will soon be living until they are 150.

There is a prevailing sense that the Anglo-Christian ideals are supreme, are preferable to other religions and anyone not willing to assimilate to that way of being and thinking is unpatriotic or an extremist.

We have, as a human race, a dark and horrifying history. All races and religions have perpetrated violence, including but not limited to:

• An estimated 3 million people of the Muslim faith murdered in the Christian crusades;
• An estimated 17 million deaths during the holocaust;
• An estimated 150 million deaths in world wars 1 and 2;
• Immeasurable deaths of Indigenous people during colonial expansion;
• Millions upon millions dead as a result of many genocides.

Native American Indians were forced from their land and sustained massacres devastating to their culture. African American people were enslaved and have abhorrent violence perpetrated against them, including murder. Indigenous Australians were dispossessed, massacred, enslaved and governmental policies of genocide were enacted to destroy the oldest living culture in the world.

We have persecuted and perpetuated violence and murder against our fellow man for the sake of religion, race, politics, land and economic factors. We hold remembrances, memorials, we write in history books and we attempt to portray ourselves as enlightened. But what have we really learnt? To my mind, nothing!

There are people that key into social media and think it is acceptable to make bigoted comments under the guise of being "entitled to an opinion." Yes, all are entitled to opinions but you have a duty to educate yourself before forming a view. A friend of a friend making a racist comment does not justify your racist views. A white supremacist lunatic quoting nonsensical facts to state that 'Muslims are taking over the world' does not justify your ignorance.

You are born fortunate enough to have access to an education that a great many people in the world do not have, you have a duty to use it. Learn, enlighten yourself, challenge yourself. Intelligence is not simply being able to do a mathematical equation, it is about critical analysis and thought process. Live in the grey and learn more about yourself and the world we live in.

Learn that the people who are desperate enough to board a boat with the promise of a land that will not persecute them for being simply who they are, are not 'illegal.' Claiming asylum is not illegal, it is a human right. These people are vulnerable, are in danger and do not have access to wifi to know what 'Centrelink' they can 'screw out of the government when they get here' - they simply want to live another day, another week, see their children reach adulthood, see their children eat a meal, live another day without fearing execution for who they love or what they believe. To deny a basic level of living to the vulnerable illustrates the very essence of your character, it illustrates your greed and selfishness, but most of all your sheer stupidity for failing to learn the truth.

Learn that there are people in the world that are struggling to feed their children, they are not bad parents but are living in famine. They are the product of a man made disaster. Famine is not natural, it is man made and it is political. We have the means to eradicate hunger, we have the means to eradicate a considerable amount of diseases, we have the means to educate every boy and girl in the world - so why don't we? I think you know the answer to that already, whether you are still in denial or not.

Learn that although there are extremist individuals of the Muslim faith, this is not indicative of the religion, anymore than the Ku Klux Klan is indicative of Christianity. Learn that all the clichés you may read or, even worse, write about yourself are not true. Each individual in this world is born into a set of circumstances that they have to grapple with. Each person has their own set of challenges to deal with and overcome whether you are born black, white, privileged or poor.

All people suffer in some way, but it is how we love through it and help each other through it that will ultimately define our presence on this planet.

When you go home and cook a dinner for your family, look at the plates, look at the food - appreciate it, for you are fortunate. There are countless people who will be eating less or nothing at all. Countless people who didn't eat all day, or yesterday either. There are people that are on the run, being persecuted, exhausted and yet, they cannot stop to eat for fear that their attackers will catch up to them.

When you hear someone talking about 'illegal immigrants,' take a moment to think about how you would handle being born in a country where you could be executed simply for loving who you love or being of the faith that you are or being the race that you are. Imagine that you made a promise to your parents who were murdered by the powers that be that you would do whatever it took to search for a better life. Imagine if that choice lead you to an opportunity to come to a country with drinking water, without abhorrent violence and ritual killings, to claim asylum and be protected. Imagine, if you learned that the choice to board that boat would have you labelled a criminal when you have always been law abiding, imagine if you had to fathom that the citizens of the country you thought would protect you as a fellow human being, consider you sub-human and don't want to protect you.

When you hear someone denigrating Indigenous Australians, take a moment to think about how you would feel if your home, religion, culture and entire identity was ripped from under you. Imagine witnessing massacres of your family. Imagine having your children stolen and never seeing them again. Imagine witnessing your children being murdered. Imagine then, being told to get over it. Imagine having to numb your pain somehow to get day to day and then being told you are scum for the means in which you numb your pain.

This is not about guilt, guilt does not solve any problems.

This is about understanding, knowledge, education, compassion and most of all - LOVE.

That is what will change the world. Love. Love always has been the answer but we are distracted by economics and politics.

Love is what is needed to fuel change.

I urge you when you see someone hungry, help them. Buy a sandwich and a juice, offer a kind word - it may be the only gentle voice they hear. I urge you to ferociously love this person by railing against the institutions that have lead to this person's hunger and demand that change be effected.

I urge you when you hear racial or religious intolerance to love the vulnerable who cannot speak for themselves. Love them fiercely by speaking against such intolerance. Don't accept these discussions, challenge them.

I urge you to be brave and open your own mind, learn about the issues, have conversations with people that have lived it and learn from them.

Don't be a party to hate being the prevailing emotion of humanity, be a part of the betterment of the world with love.

Peace!



We live in Australia....

There is a great deal to be thankful about living in Australia.

For one, you are generally born in a hospital equipped to handle any amount of medical emergencies which may arise and if not, the facilities are available to fly you at a moment's notice to a state of the art hospital equipped to handle particularly complex cases. In essence, babies born in Australia are quite luck as they are afforded the best chance possible at a healthy arrival. This care and treatment is also available to you regardless of your socio economic status. When the chips are down, our health care system and wonderful professionals, dig in and give you the best possible care.

So lucky from birth? You bet you are!

After birth there are programs aimed to provide Mums with support during the tumultuous months of new motherhood, in which, nurses and doctors track your child's progress and development to ensure that your child's health and welfare is the best it can be.

Then there is education. In Australia we have several schools in every suburb in metropolitan areas, several schools per town in rural Australia and even in the most remote communities in Australia, there are either schools or appropriate transport services to facilitate travel to schools. Every child, male and female, are afforded the opportunity to be educated and then choose what they wish to do with that education.

Our homes, generally speaking, have the basic necessities for survival regardless of socio economic status. We all have a toilet to ensure sanitary excretion of waste, we all have showers/baths to ensure hygiene, we all have running water to be able to drink that liquid we seem to take for granted.

We have supermarkets where we can walk in and they will have shelves of food and shelves of drinking water, even though we have access to tap water at home. We have an abundance of food, food that by the billions of tons is wasted every year.

If we need to get somewhere, we have public or private transportation.

We have a system of social welfare that is intended to ensure a base level of living for all citizens of this nation whereby, they have access to financial resources to ensure they are able to be homed and eat.

I am not trying to paint Australia as faultless, there are many things wrong with our nation of which I am extremely vocal but I think it is necessary to point out this glaring inequality between what we take for granted in Australia and what is beyond the wildest imaginations of those not as fortunate to have been born here.

I am speaking of those who are born to mothers who have been raped and abandoned in a third world country without the resources to work and provide for her already large family; I am talking about the child who is left to fend for themselves because they were born to a mother who was sick and died; I am talking about a man who is born in a country where his very identity as a gay man is punishable by death so he fears so for his life that he desperately boards a boat with the promise of a nation of caring people ready to provide him asylum; I am talking about the 9 year old girl who has no concept of education because her only thoughts are to walk 10 kilometres to a rancid water hole to get water for her family and carry it back only to subsequently fall ill.

We as members of the human race are failing one another. There are a great many things wrong with our nation and I will discuss these issues later but the more pressing issue is what is wrong with the world.

The world is broken, segregated, cruel and lacking humanity.

What will it take for people to rise above complacency and seek a better world? When will governments make the betterment of humanity a larger priority than the persecution of the vulnerable? Why should the vulnerable be persecuted simply because of where they were born?

We need to realise that all mothers, regardless of race, religion or nationality, love their children just as much as the next mother. Because mothers of other circumstances raise their children differently or have to get their children to walk kilometres for water when you can't get your child to make their bed does not mean that mother loves their child less - it means that they need OUR help to ensure a better future for all.

In Australia, we responded with unity to a lone fanatic who sought to incite terror in Sydney with a siege that saw the deaths of two people. This even was frightening, and citizens recoiled at the horror as it unfolded on the news programs. We were relieved for the escape of the hostages and devastated at the death of two innocent people. This event had citizens converging upon Martin Place to pay their respects and there are plans to make a memorial which is an incredibly beautiful symbol of respect and love for those who lost their lives. They have touched the hearts of citizens and will not be forgotten.

In a remote village called Baga, as many as 2,000 have been slaughtered by a fanatical group called Boko Haram. There has been disgustingly minimal reports about this horror that innocent Nigerians are being subjected to and certainly no intervention or assistance by those of us from the fortunate western world to those victims or victim's families.

You see, we are desensitised to violence and abhorrent incidents until they happen here, IN THE LUCKY COUNTRY. We need to be outraged at the violence occurring EVERYWHERE, against ALL innocents regardless of their skin colour, regardless of their religious beliefs and regardless of their nationality.

I would like our governments to strive for humanity, strive to improve the lives of all innocent people world wide, enrich our communities with people that are grateful to be afforded the opportunity to lay their heads down at night without the fear of violence through the night, teach the people within our nation that they have a responsibility to contribute to society not just by paying taxes but by the very essence of who they are. The bogan mentality and "Straya" business is not an identity I am proud of and one we should be distancing ourselves from.

We are a nation of 30 million that is persecuting 700 vulnerable people, subjecting them to squalid conditions while they are fearful of rape, violence and reprisal by their supposed caretakers while they are processed.

If you would like to start some positive change, email me and we will work together to effect change positively. We will not allow continued complacency, we will insist governmental action, we will urge charities to flow the funds raised to the people in need rather than salaries. We will ourselves source funds and ensure they reach the people in need. Let us as everyday Australians show the world that we are not the people our government seems to think we are. We care, we want to help and we will use the benefits of living in this nation for the good of humanity, not just our own individual gain.

Email me, let's talk:  nataliecromb@gmail.com