My Response to 'This is the Best Country in the World'

Sorry, I don't get some of you travelers, you stay in a foreign hostel only to pronounce your pride in your place of birth, or tell me that it is the best country in the world. This over-patriotic tendency is actually what puts me off when traveling. Especially for someone who spent most of her traveling years in South America, where people are notorious for hanging their flags outside their homes even if it is not really independence day. And having to understand why locals tell me their country is the best land of earth and dream of not living anywhere else.

Don't get me wrong, I guess it is just part of human nature to be proud of your patch, that even your sense of tribalism is reflected when you root for your football team. That my yellers and cry babies here would argue that even animals are territorial. Oh yes, I see it coming! But please, to say that 'this is the best country in the world' would mean traveling to 190+ countries and eliminating the other choices.

Your ignorance is not my fault

I can probably forgive those people I have met in Latin America who are living in the same place all their lives and haven't really traveled to other countries to know so much or to know which continent a country is a part of. Or to know that it is not the best country in the world, given the other choices. But then again, you don't need to read a thick geography book to know things, sometimes a quick glance at google maps will do the trick. It turned out, there is no excuse for ignorance.

I'm not going to claim that I already know everything because one reason I travel is to cure my own ignorance and to prove that I am wrong or others are wrong about other countries.

For example, if you come from one of the great countries in Scandinavia or you're from Australia, why wouldn't you be proud? People have almost nothing to say against you, that all you need is a flag tattoo on your forehead and go shake everyone's hands. It would still be flattering or ok to deal with people even if they categorize you, especially if your patch is heavily praised by the media and you are traveling with a backpack full of special privileges.

But what if you are not from these countries, can you say that you are not proud? I believe that there should be a line between being proud of your country because you have amazing nature, beautiful places and rich natural resources, and not because your government sucks, people are misbehaving and other social problems. Most people will always focus on the worst part anyway, and it would be easier for them to put you in a group because it is also easier to generalize than go through all the trouble of uniquely identifying you.

So for me, answering the dreaded question 'Where are you from?", marks the start or the end of the conversation. It is the start of conversation because travelers will bombard me with all these how they have traveled in my country and all that. The end of the conversation because sometimes, I am tired of wasting my time and energy having to defend this limiting view they have or having to prove to them that I'm not a proud part of the tribe. Especially, if they will shower me with all of their negative views that will just make me feel unproud even more.

Nevertheless, dealing with these people will not stop me from traveling. Because I have to practice anyway, and it is not really their words but how I react to it. I am not going to say that I have totally broken free from the tribe, it actually takes years for your mind to leave the comfort zone of belonging and conditioning. It is a choice.

Someone is just not born disliking other groups, it is the result of the environment and other factors in it that sculpted his/her mind. This is something you don't want to hear,

All cultures are basically corrupt.

It just happened that when you are born, you already have that dumb luck of having a piece of land that 'became yours', and now you can proudly go around the world and tell it is yours.

Don' forget to read this part before you yell at me, I am not preaching to open the floodgates and erase national borders. I do believe that it is just human nature to have preferences, like how I like certain groups and not the others. And it should not make me a bad person because it is just too hypocritical for me to say that I'm a lover of all men from all over the world. Actually, I just don't like people in general, and it has nothing to do with nationality. There are just good and bad people from all over the world, and their environment just worsened or shaped their behavior and thinking. Sometimes, you just have to see through people to have peace of mind.

I had actually wasted some time being disappointed by arguing with the elderly travelers, it turned out that just because they are years older than me doesn't mean they are less dumb. Sometimes, I couldn't even believe how come they don't know all the reasons I have stated above. Some people are just trapped in the past and still have this old-school belief. There's not much I can do about this, and there's no way I can change them. Like I said, to break free from the shell is one's choice.

And maybe just like people because they are good and dislike them if they are bad, but you don't really have to go through all the violence shit just to express your dislike. You are free to write or express it but just don't expect people to agree with you all the time.

In the end, it does not hurt to be kind to whom you consider 'others'. Why not forget about parochialism and the patriotism and just treat other human beings as human beings, and be proud that you are still a citizen of the world?

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Ok, that's my big rant for today! That's what you get for following your sweet little thing @diabolika 😈 here.