Thursday, May 11, 2006

Body Over Soul?

Was talking to a friend in Ja. on the phone last night, (well early this morning for me). During the course of the conversation the inevitable question of crime and living in foreign vs. living back home came up. I asked my friend what he thought about the economics of migrating. And he surprised me. Many of my friends think of me as an outsider/traitor for coming back to live in the UK. (Those who think I’m an outsider believe I am where I belong as I was born here – the 19 years in Ja. count for nought according to them).

He said that he doesn’t blame anyone who can, from packing up and coming to try their luck. I complained that I don’t like the social aspect of the UK – it’s cold and uninviting and largely uninspiring. And he said to me that that is unfortunately the pay off for being able to live comfortably (financially and socially).

I do concede, and so has Seymour on many occasions, that it is nice to be able to buy a house or two, to be able to purchase outright a nice car – to be able to travel and eat out whenever you wan, to be able to provide for your kids. It’s also fantastic to be able to hang out of a window, and to be able to walk around the city centre, or the neighbourhood at any hour of the night without fear of being attacked.

And yet, it isn’t really enough, the soul dies in ‘foreign’. Trouble is in Ja. the body is more likely to die. You can go on with a living body and a dying soul and try to revive the soul with frequent visits back to Ja. (which you can afford working in ‘foreign’). Unfortunately your soul can’t survive within a dead body which you are much more likely to be if you live in Ja.

Here’s to hoping the crime and economic situation can be ameliorated as soon as possible.

1 comment:

Chief Lymer said...

Me too. It really sounds like it is getting so arbitrary. Used to be a time when you had to vex someone big time in order to get killed eh?