Are You Made In China?

If we look up the definition of a patriot on Google, we can find the following:  A person who vigorously supports their country and is prepared to defend it against enemies or detractors. In other words, an individual that loves their country and defends it against the bad guys, or an individual which informs the surroundings about that country, tries to be active and it all truly comes from the heart.. or does it? 

Since I'm an Azerbaijani living abroad, as I've written before, I miss home. This causes me to inform my surroundings of where my home is - Azerbaijan. I began making informative videos, began reading into the history of Azerbaijan, began to be more glued to the culture that all I wanted and still want is to get more information. In addition, being so active in such a field, other Azerbaijani activists or patriots tend to connect with you, somehow. You either meet in meetings, forums, online by Facebook, through a friend, etc.

I began being more active on Facebook, just to see what other active patriots were doing. I began checking my news feed daily, reading the news more often but as I did those things, I began to realize that the word "patriotic" has lost it's meaning. We hear that word used to describe many youth living outside of their home, but is that word used to shine that individual or is it used to make that individual feel proud? In my opinion, not all we meet today that we call "patriotic" are one - some are fake. They're made in China.

In my opinion, a patriotic individual needs to be active - both socially and informatively, online and in reality. From doing different informative videos to joining a strike, from making a simple slide show to simply getting mad when they mispronounce the name of the country and you spend half an hour summarizing the history. That's a patriot. A patriot's eye shines when someone speaks of one's country, not when they say "Can we take an interview which will be published in the local newspaper?" "Oh, and let me add, your picture will be added also." - well isn't that nice, a popularity stunt. 

Let's be honest, who doesn't want to be popular? Rich and famous, living life like a luxury but is using the fake love for your country a cheap way of getting popular? Youth nowadays tend to go with the crowd, do as they have been told, but in reality, life doesn't have enough patience to deal with those kind of people. In reality, the truth comes out faster than the speed of light. (I'm exaggerating!)

What I noticed lately is how the youth tends to be so proud when their picture and interview has been published at some newspaper, they share it everywhere - Twitter, Facebook, Google, you name it - it's there. Unfortunately, if we compare the amount of energy used on sharing your interview to the amount of energy used to spread an informative video about Khojaly, for instance, the interview will have a huge head start. But, why?

Can we call ourselves egoistic or do I just have to understand that life's not full of chocolates, and that one man is for himself? I just would love to see some sincerity, which I'm beginning to see less and less of. If you're a patriot, be one - but please, respect the country. Don't use it to rise your status, use it to figure your status out.

That is all for today. If you're interviewed and have your photo used (woah!) give yourself a huge pat on the back, you're going to be a billionaire.


Just kidding, you're just made in China.