Questions, questions. I should be finishing my negotiation essay.

Ethics class is just supposed to be a class right? But it got me thinking about some things. Recently, I discovered a new found hostility towards non-citizens as well as citizens who are well, not original. Being in Europe really made me feel like the Westerners had got it right. They know who to put in 1st priority and who to protect. And so what if it's unethical or unfair? Isn't it a government's job to protect its citizens? Shouldn't being a citizen of a country give you some rights over others?

But then again, the issue delves much deeper as do all complicated issues. What really constitutes being a citizen? Just a title? Or just the passport which proudly proclaims the country you hail from?

I will never know what it is like to be a minority of your own country. And perhaps this has always impeded my ability to empathize with anyone other than someone who is similar to me. Therefore, only when I got to know friends who were of the same colour as me, and happen to belong to a minority of their country, a country which is so vastly different from Asia, could I really start to even think of the other side of the picture. Catching glimpses of their lives and making many assumptions later, I still cannot fully, partially or even minimally understand what it must be like to be born or raised in an environment so different, even opposite, to what I've grown accustomed to. And as much as I hate to concede, I am very often stuck in the perplexity of it all. If these are friends whom I care dearly for, shouldn't the same principle be applied to everyone?

I can't help but wonder, if laws were not as they were, and control was not as it was, would reality be the same? I can't help but wonder, would we act in exactly the same way given those same circumstances? And I can't help but worry about my own prejudices and ingrained stereotypes, whether they stop me from being a nicer, kinder person. I dearly hope that there is well, hope. Because I would like to believe that even without laws and prohibitions, I would still respect a person's right to religion and am against any sort of racial discrimination. It took me quite some time to get pass the notion that laws need not be ethical or fair and societal norms can sometimes be dead wrong. But gosh, sometimes, it is just so hard to know whether the opinions you form are yours solely or planted from somewhere, someone, distantly near.