My Dream

By: Adnaan

Presented  as an assignment in an executive training program in Maastricht School of management

Background:

It’s extremely hard experience that people may face in the period post-war, civil war and bad security conditions, whatever the case the expected conditions might be bad living standards, and people find themselves isolated from each other in the same community, as well as other communities. Along with the absence of the social justice and a dominant discrimination, community members usually do not appreciate the value of their diversity, they always used to adapt the dominant group and lose their own identities. That led community to be divided into small groups and to be close-minded about their cultures and believes. Trust is lost among most of different ethnic groups in my country -Iraq-.

Whenever I go outside my homeland especially to the stabled communities, I discover how other communities are living with less boundaries and limits, and how the local legislation support citizenship and eliminate any kind of discrimination. I visited many European countries and found many families composed of mixed members in term of race or religions or nationalities. Of course that came out after suffer and experience was extended for centuries. But what I am concerning about is, can we learn the lesson early before wasting most of our life and may be our next generation’s life just to get learnt.   

Before visiting many big cities like Paris and Istanbul it was so easy to me finding new friends from different countries who were there for tourism or business, facilitated by travelers networks and local forums which is popular online, I can easily join the discussions and the debate which is the best access to any community. The fact that I am missing in my community where I am always find myself belong –intently- to a specific group rather than the other based on gender, race, nationality, and religion, consequently that will be reflected on me negatively or positively sometimes.

My Dream

My dream is about finding a way to merge different groups of Iraqi community with each other and celebrate our diversity. I am thinking in organizing a weekly meeting in my city, I can use one of the social websites to invite to it, where a small group of people can meet weekly just to exchange cultures and/or languages. It will be a chance also for the travelers who are visiting the city to mix with local community members. The benefits for the local community members is to know about other cultures and practicing other languages, while the travelers can get more information about the culture of the local community and some other useful tips about the most interesting places and facts. Definitely, that will participate in finding a mutual understanding for the diversity and it will be also a space to return the lost trust between the community members from side and with other communities from other sides. I myself totally changed when I found myself surrounded by friends wherever I go outside my country in the time that I find myself strange in any city in my country unless I already know someone there.