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Who are we? What are we first? Are we religionists and ideologues first and
nationalists second? Or are we first and foremost citizens of our countries? The
one thing we are, and yet do not think of ourselves as being, is citizens of the
planet, of the cosmos.
Identity may be the direst issue of our century, particularly because we are
caught between immense migrations of people from one part of the globe to
another, seeking better lives, and the relentless drive of corporations to
transcend national boundaries and, in effect, become a new kind of nation. This
in turn ignites the question of whether the interests of shareholders in
corporations should be allowed to transcend the interests of shareholders in
cultures.
The millions who have migrated are compelled to decide whether to assimilate
in their chosen surroundings or to try to replicate their native cultures. It’s
not an either/or decision. They can and do assimilate while preserving their
language and traditions. But those who refuse to accommodate come into conflict
with their fearful neighbors.
Meanwhile corporations impose their own values or lack of them. To most of
the world corporatization has meant westernization. But the emergence of China
and India as economic giants challenges any presumption that this will always be
the case.
A third force is also shaping humanity’s poignant struggle to inhabit
comfortable identities. Nations like Peru and Bolivia have voted for leaders who
have sworn to upend the hispanicization of South America imposed by the
conquistadors, and at the same time an immense worry sweeps across the North
American continent that it is being hispanicized by immigration.
Confounding and often bloodying these questions-who we are, who we want to
be, and what we don’t want to be-are the religious zealots who insist there is
no room on the face of the earth for people who do not share their belief
systems.
The environment, even the harsh Arctic and the unremitting Sahara, is
considerably more welcoming to newcomers than people are.
The seas are rising, populations are bulging, the gap between rich and poor
is growing, and under these circumstances the task of knowing who we are and
where we belong bedevils us.
And yet, for all the ideologies clashing in the dark of our doubts and fear,
there is a common language, a common culture even: it is simply our love of
life, our urge to sing and dance and paint and write. This is the true United
Nations of the soul, and if we paid more attention to it, and less attention to
politicians’ blather, we would in all likelihood resolve the issues without
killing each other.
It is to this possibility, this fragile hope, that the current issue of
Arabesques Literary and Cultural Review, with its poets, storytellers, essayists
and bibliographers, is devoted. Here you will find us, voyagers of the mind,
writing and singing to each other, understanding each other, even when nations
do not.
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