The Existence of the Space

N.B. This was originally posted in my Facebook page as a reflection on a project I'm currently involved with. The theme of such a project centers on the immigrant narrative where one leaves a place of origin, settles in a new one, adjusts accordingly, and finally undertakes the arduous process of trying to come back home and relive the sense of belonging and community that was once left behind. ====== The teleological (horizontal time) element of citizenship can be found intriguing, baffling, or even both. Does one start life as a “stateless” entity upon one’s conception in the womb, only granted political affinity based on jus soli or jus sanguinis upon birth? If citizenship and political belonging can be obtained either by birth or by naturalization, how does one pinpoint a definitive end to such a process? Does naturalization rightfully justify such an end in that it dictates the immigrant’s arrival at the peak of evolution towards nurturing political belonging? For a mig

N.B. This was originally posted in my Facebook page. If you've read previous blog posts, many of them are raw and sober thoughts occurring to me during my long-distance bus rides just like this one. ====== I already had my fill of traveling through freeways connecting cities and towns just within the past two weeks. Last week was that 45-minute distance between Ruston and Monroe in Louisiana. This week got me hooked into the 6-hour distance between Toronto and Montr é al (for the nth time!). Oh, I haven't counted inbound and outbound trips to airports in Monroe, Atlanta and Toronto as well. There are other people out there who traveled a great deal more than I did, but this is nothing new for me regardless. So there's that tendency to ignore the landscapes occupying those spaces between points of origin and destination. People usually sleep or mind their own business or work throughout the whole journey. The thought reminds me of the railway switcher guy telling (A