The meaning of ‘Birth-right’, patriotism, nationality and home.

The above words at first look simple and easy to define. For some it is an easy concept, patriotism, nationality and home are all linked to your birthplace, simple.
It is not so simple, have a look at a few scenarios.

a) I was born in Ireland; I left with the famine, worked in America all my life. I helped build America to what it is today. I am proud of America and I am here to stay.
b) I was born in South-Africa. I am living in Ireland. I spent most of my life in South-Africa. I have accepted Irish citizenship and am paying taxes. All my investments are in Ireland.
c) I was born in America. I am still here but I have a longing for Africa. I can identify with the people and visit there as much as I can.
d) I was born in England. I have a British passport. I work in London. My family, friends and interests are in Iraq. I support the Iraqi regime and disagree with the British government.
e) I was born in China but have immigrated to Russia. I have my own business and enjoying every bit of it but still have my Chinese passport (dual citizenship). I might go back to China one day.

Let analyze the above examples.
a) Would you consider this person, with the American accent to beIrish or American? Surely this person has to be American. American accent, American ideas, American look, America home.
b ) Would you see this person as a South-African? Surely not, he/she is legally a citizen of Ireland. He/She has left South-Africa and is staying in Ireland and has no intention of going back.
c) Is this person American? She/he probably is, until they immigrate to Africa.
d) The passport and birth says British, but the patriotism not. So is he/she less or more British than a British passport holding person that was born in Mexico but completely supports England and stays in London?
e) Passport says Russian but heart has not left China yet? Can not safely be considered to be Russian, so this person must fall into the Chinese box.

From the above, real-life scenarios it is easy to deduct that birth, nationality and patriotism is not linked. So just because you are born at spot A, does not necessary make you an A national or patriot.
So be more wary of your neighbour that was born in the same hospital as you but goes to Spain 5 times a year than the Indian born person that has been for e.g.: in this country for 20years and support local sport and fly’s the national flag outside his house.

Let's take a country like Ireland as an example. What does it mean to be Irish?

a) If you take it on birth right then ok, but you will have a lot of Irish whose parents are Eastern European, African, American etc, in a few years from now.
b) So maybe then you are can call yourself Irish if you and your parents where born in Ireland. In a generation or 2 the roots of 2/3rds Irish will be outside of Ireland.
c)So maybe then you are Irish if your whole family roots can be traced back to Ireland..? Lets look at the first 'Irish' the Celts.

No-one knows where the original Celts really came from, the history is too old to trace back. We know though that they have occupied parts of Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Greece, Spain, Northern Italy, and France before entering Ireland, Wales and Scotland.

This leaves the people who feel they have a right to call themselves Irish because of their birth-right with a wee bit of a problem.

And the above example of Ireland is applicable to the vast majority of countries on this planet

Patriotism is in the heart, but to create harmony on this planet your patriotism should be where you permanently reside.
Nationality is where you are staying permanently as indicated in the passport that you are holding.
You only really have birth-right to the planet Earth.

That leaves us with the definition of ‘home’.

The word ‘home’ is a self test to everyone. If you ask yourself where home is and the answer is different to where you are permanently staying you will have to start reading this essay from the beginning again.
Home=happiness so either change your permanent residence into your home or move to where this home is otherwise you will never have the ability to be completely happy.

I did a survey recently on people who are staying in a different country to their birth country. Thank you to all who participated. The questions were:
1) In what country were you born?
2) In what country have you stayed the longest?
3) In what country do you permanently reside?
4) What country do you consider home?

Below are the results.

60.47% felt that their permanent residence is home.
18.60% felt that home is the place they were born.
11.63% either could not make up their mind, had no idea or considered no place home.
6.98% called a different country 'home' to the one they were born in or are staying in permanently.
2.33% felt that the country they have been living in the longest were home.

Harlequin

Ps.Also keep in mind that when Joe goes on holiday to his/her birthplace, they might not be going ‘home’. Their home might be right here.
Just because Joe was not born here does not mean that he can not be patriotic, or does it?.