Before the contemporary era, the world had never witnessed such an intense movement of people who live, or so many encounters between citizens of different countries. The reasons for such movements of peoples and individuals are multiple. The speed of communication increases the prestige of artists and scholars, of athletes and activists for peace and justice into the reach of men of all continents. The current speed and ease of travel today is inviting people from rich countries to practice mass tourism. The globalization of the economy, meanwhile, requires its elites to be present in all corners of the planet and workers to move wherever they can find work. The population of poor countries by all means try to see what they've seen heaven in industrialized countries in search of decent living conditions. Others are fleeing the violence plaguing their countries: wars, dictatorships, persecution, terrorism. For all these reasons that motivate the population movements had become, in recent years, the effects of global warming, drought and cyclones that this entails. According to the High Commissioner for Refugees, for every centimeter rise in ocean levels, there will be a million displaced in the world. The XXI century is presented as one in which many men and women should leave their country of origin and adopt provisional or permanent status abroad.
All countries differentiate between their citizens and those who are not, that is precisely foreigners. Not enjoy the same rights or have the same duties. Foreigners have a duty to comply with the laws of the country in which they live, but not participate in management. The laws, moreover, do not say everything in the framework defined, fit the thousands of events and daily actions that determine the flavor that will have life. The inhabitants of a country always treat their associates with more care and love of strangers. However, they do not cease to be men and women and others. I encourage the same ambitions and have the same problems, except that, to a greater extent than the first prey of helplessness and distress calls are thrown at us. This concerns us all, because the alien is not only the other, we ourselves were or will be, yesterday or tomorrow, at the mercy of an uncertain fate: each of us is a foreign power.
for how we perceive and the other, the different, we can measure our level of barbarity or civilization. The barbarians are those who believe that the others because they do not seem to belong to a lesser humanity and deserve to be treated with contempt or condescension. Being civilized means not having attended college or have read many books, or possess a great wisdom: We all know that certain individuals with these characteristics were capable of committing acts of utter barbarism perfect. Being civilized means being able to fully recognize the humanity of others, even if faces and habits different from ours, namely put in place and look at ourselves and from outside. Nobody is definitely barbaric or civilized and everyone is accountable. But we now receive this great honor, we have a responsibility to step into a little more civilization. Tzvetan Todorov
, Prince of Asturias Prize speech 2008 Social Science
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