There is a place for everyone

Well, it is now Monday 22nd June. Maybe World Refugee Day was just another day in the year. For me, it was a special day for two reasons. One was the experience of going to the Bangkok Refugee Centre and seeing the performances by the Congolese, the Somalis, the Sri Lankans and the Chinese. The other was learning the news that my Thai priest boss was just named a Bishop for a diocese that includes refugee camps for those who have come into Thailand fleeing the oppression of Myanmar.

If I could share something of my Thai priest boss, I know him to be a good and dedicated priest. He is a kind man and humble. These are not the chararterisitics that are presently highlighted within the local scene. Here, within in a culture that features patronage and that values prestige and status, he suddenly becomes the centre for much adulation by his peers and employees. Such adulation does not speak of him or his new role of leadership and service in the Church. It does however speak of his culture and how much it places the value on one's standing and position rather than who one is as a person, or this is how I see it from the outside. I know this is not him but he accepts it for what it is worth and goes on in his humble way. He does impress me.

I now want to tie this experience to the message of World Refugee Day. We, no matter who we are or where we come from, live in a world that so values what we have, what we do; that values how strong and powerful we are above simply who we are. Maybe if we took a lesson from my Thai priest boss and just valued each other for who we are as people, then our world would be a better place and have fewer refugees. In a world where we value each other for who we are, the powerful and strong, the dominators and the control freaks could not easily get their way at the expense of others, the little people, the gentle people. Our world hopefully would be fairer and more peaceful. In it, we could acknowledge that there is a truly a place for everyone no matter who we are. Would that not be a more preferable world that ruled by the obscure values of power, control, greed, status and prestige?