ORIGINALLY WRITTEN IN DECEMBER OF 2017:
REVISITED IN APRIL OF 2020 WHILE ON A Globewide imposed 'LOCKDOWN' IN PARIS France Te Karefa April 23rd 2020 17:50
The following is excerpted from my facebook page and was originally intended as a 'nudge' to my friends and more specifically to the young people in my family's 'now-generation' to push the boundaries of what I see as a socio-geographic comfort zone which has been imposed upon us and which we until very recently have accepted as the norm for us and our own.
The need, propensity and right to travel our planet should be consistent with all other human needs and rights and should be instilled in our children as such. More recently the trend of traveling out side of the prescribed zones has indeed shown a 'swerve' in awareness and more and more of us are moving around in spaces once thought to be exclusive. Money has never been a barrier to moving around on the planet. and I bear witness to the facts that men and women in my immediate family exemplified by moving through the zones ..
"It Ain't where you're from it's where you're At" Rakim Allah (Emcee/Rap Music pioneer)
Can you imagine what it would be like to live in a single Borrough, District County, Province or Zone or Arrondissement for your entire life? Never venturing to physically explore beyond its borders? Well many of us have achieved exactly that for many different reasons.
We shouldn't have to pay to travel on a planet we were born 'free' on . Yet it is undoubtedly so. Why should moving to another hemisphere on our grand Blue star be considered to be 'foreign travel' or going 'abroad' and seemingly exclusive to a small, percentage of those who can afford to venture?
The answer will vary by timezone. Some touchable breaking news is that the price of global get-about (airfare, lodging and dining) has decreased considerably, opening the gates for us to escape borrrRinG homeland insecurity into a way-more interesting PLANETary citizenry.
Wait What?
A large branch of my family reside in the Western hemisphere, I and another branch, occupy a kind of midzone in the Eastern hemisphere with the Atlantic, Ocean, Mediterranean Sea and Sahara Desert dividing us. In the early mid 2000's I would spend what I could muster from my security guard and audio-visual tech hustles, to make 'jumps' from D.C. and N.Y. to the EU and Africa and South America.
I later learned that what was instilled in me as a birthright, appeared to many of my contemporaries as some kind of cosmopolitan, status-borne privilege which could only be possible by some unknown criminal activity, government agency affiliation or a well-hidden stash of extra cash. By the persistently radical token of time, this typical and simple-to-weave notion would become (however gradually) untwisted.
In recent years I have seen seen more and more young visitors in this city during what can be called the 'off seasons' than ever before. They are cycle breakers and the first of a new generation of explorers who will blast through the illusion that Paris and many many wonderful cities beyond are not accessible to have-nots and have-nevers. That the experience where the temporary safety from harm that we call a 'vacation' is actually a glance at the liberated self, moving as it was born to move.
In the very near future, this generation (my daughter, my nieces and nephews) will jump the Atlantic like I crossed the Hudson into New Jersey or The Delaware River into DC Maryland and Virginia. Like I took The A Train from 72nd to 125th and the 1 line from Downtown to 225th street or to Allerton Avenue in The Bronx.
WorrRd? Why Not?
Most of the pre-generation now O.G.'s have traveled and explored a little something of our wide earth and yet, still not enough. We seem to be hitting the beaten paths and the familiar as-seen-on-TV-and-the-internets cities and the many other
Tejan Karefa Paris, France December 29 2017
REVISITED IN APRIL OF 2020 WHILE ON A Globewide imposed 'LOCKDOWN' IN PARIS France Te Karefa April 23rd 2020 17:50
The following is excerpted from my facebook page and was originally intended as a 'nudge' to my friends and more specifically to the young people in my family's 'now-generation' to push the boundaries of what I see as a socio-geographic comfort zone which has been imposed upon us and which we until very recently have accepted as the norm for us and our own.
The need, propensity and right to travel our planet should be consistent with all other human needs and rights and should be instilled in our children as such. More recently the trend of traveling out side of the prescribed zones has indeed shown a 'swerve' in awareness and more and more of us are moving around in spaces once thought to be exclusive. Money has never been a barrier to moving around on the planet. and I bear witness to the facts that men and women in my immediate family exemplified by moving through the zones ..
"It Ain't where you're from it's where you're At" Rakim Allah (Emcee/Rap Music pioneer)
Can you imagine what it would be like to live in a single Borrough, District County, Province or Zone or Arrondissement for your entire life? Never venturing to physically explore beyond its borders? Well many of us have achieved exactly that for many different reasons.
We shouldn't have to pay to travel on a planet we were born 'free' on . Yet it is undoubtedly so. Why should moving to another hemisphere on our grand Blue star be considered to be 'foreign travel' or going 'abroad' and seemingly exclusive to a small, percentage of those who can afford to venture?
The answer will vary by timezone. Some touchable breaking news is that the price of global get-about (airfare, lodging and dining) has decreased considerably, opening the gates for us to escape borrrRinG homeland insecurity into a way-more interesting PLANETary citizenry.
Wait What?
A large branch of my family reside in the Western hemisphere, I and another branch, occupy a kind of midzone in the Eastern hemisphere with the Atlantic, Ocean, Mediterranean Sea and Sahara Desert dividing us. In the early mid 2000's I would spend what I could muster from my security guard and audio-visual tech hustles, to make 'jumps' from D.C. and N.Y. to the EU and Africa and South America.
I later learned that what was instilled in me as a birthright, appeared to many of my contemporaries as some kind of cosmopolitan, status-borne privilege which could only be possible by some unknown criminal activity, government agency affiliation or a well-hidden stash of extra cash. By the persistently radical token of time, this typical and simple-to-weave notion would become (however gradually) untwisted.
In recent years I have seen seen more and more young visitors in this city during what can be called the 'off seasons' than ever before. They are cycle breakers and the first of a new generation of explorers who will blast through the illusion that Paris and many many wonderful cities beyond are not accessible to have-nots and have-nevers. That the experience where the temporary safety from harm that we call a 'vacation' is actually a glance at the liberated self, moving as it was born to move.
In the very near future, this generation (my daughter, my nieces and nephews) will jump the Atlantic like I crossed the Hudson into New Jersey or The Delaware River into DC Maryland and Virginia. Like I took The A Train from 72nd to 125th and the 1 line from Downtown to 225th street or to Allerton Avenue in The Bronx.
WorrRd? Why Not?
Most of the pre-generation now O.G.'s have traveled and explored a little something of our wide earth and yet, still not enough. We seem to be hitting the beaten paths and the familiar as-seen-on-TV-and-the-internets cities and the many other
insta-coveted retreats that we need not name here.
So : my 2018 exhortation (mainly to my younger family and friends) shall be,
So : my 2018 exhortation (mainly to my younger family and friends) shall be,
If
you have not yet done so?
Get yourself a passport like NOW, and before you get
caught up in, distracted and immobilized by life's inevitable and consistently local
chapters; virtual travel fantasies within Apple, Android and other... use it and plan to travel wheresoever you will - over your wonderful Earth.
Godspeed
Godspeed
Tejan Karefa Paris, France December 29 2017
