Global Schizophrenia

So for my second post, I think it's pretty fair to introduce you to a couple of my friends. These ones I'll introduce you to happen to come from all over the world (I can hear you say "Ooooh!").

Here we go....

Pailin Isabella Meena Fields, 21, is the daughter of half-English, half-Indian contractor and columnist Damien Fields and Thai flight attendant Chermarn (nee Chugathorn). She was born and raised in Sydney, moved to Bangkok at 12 and moved again to Manila at 16. She's a bit of an over-achiever winning many awards for her academics and writing. She takes a bit of an interest in cultures of the world (due maybe to the fact that she's a Sydneysider). She also worked as a model in Thailand and the Philippines.

Her big dream is to change society through her writing.

Sunita Bhagravi Shilpa, 58, is a lawyer from Kolkata, India who moved to Australia with her husband and three children. She is a very powerful lawyer in court but also a typical Indian mother. She grew up in a very traditional Indian home and would like to pass on her culture's traditions to her children. Unfortunately, her biggest fear is that the children mentioned above do not appreciate these customs having grown up in a Western country.

Eugenie-Adrienne Lombard, 27, is an actress from London, England. She is a French national, having French parents and being born in Paris. She also writes poetry and teaches French in her spare time.

What's common about these three women? Well, this. You may think it's crazy but actually they are all one person --- me.

I really don't know what else to call it but global schizophrenia! My weird uh... hobby of collecting alter egos from all over the world. All of these personae have their own back stories with mixed parantages (seen with Pailin) and spouses (Pailin and Sunita) and all sorts of things a non-fictional person has.

And to answer your question, yes! Apparently, I found the time to create all these!

I don't know. Maybe it's my love for writing that got me into this. In writing, you create worlds just by your thoughts and words. But of course, you have to know your world before you can expound on it. I guess my writer world's just a little multi-culti, that's all!

But why this, you ask? I'm 21 and upper-middle class. Isn't my writer world supposed to consist of the mall, boys and parties? Shouldn't I be more engrossed in who's on the cover of Cosmo? And for another, shouldn't I focus more on what's going on in my neck of the woods? Why should I listen to say, some Brazilian exalt samba? Does it have any practical meaning in my life?

We live in a world where , despite advances in cultural diversity, everyone is still a little racist. Admit it. We've all had a laugh at black/Latino/Filipino/Tongan/insert nationality here jokes (or if you're Filipino, Bisaya/Kapampangan/whatever jokes). Ok. Whatever. But it still shows us how people are unwilling to see another race, nationality or province/state as just like their own. We exclude their stories from ours just because they live on the other side of a border. But if we realise it, they're like us. They laugh. Just like us. They cry. Just like us. And yes, they even think chocolate rocks. Just like us. If we actually took time to appreciate each other's culture for what they are (That's good and bad), we'd see kindred spirits, not aliens we must drive away. And that's when nations have peace.

So really, the greatest foreign policy is global schizophrenia!!!

PS: If you are from any of the nations/cultures of my personae and you find it offensive, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean any harm. You have a lovely country.