Where is home? Here, there, and everywhere?

I am in the back of a taxi in New York with my Japanese friend, Chiaki. We chat casually with the Pakistani cab driver from Islamabad.

He asks me that loaded question I find increasingly difficult to answer: "Where are you from?"

After a few glasses of Sake, I take a more original approach:

"Well I was born in Yorkshire. My parents are Swiss. I'm now at home in Spain. My heart beats to the rhythm of a Brazilian drum and in a previous life I was probably Chinese."

My Japanese friend sniggers and we head out into the night to meet other equally confused cosmopolitan city dwellers. This is the future of a new world which is becoming increasingly jumbled in terms of nationality, identity and race.

Our planet has never been more culturally mixed or accepting of the other. At the same time there have never been more territorial disputes or regional separatist movements. More...

See also:

• India: no country for young girls...
• Aussie PM Kevin Rudd's ancestor was an underwear thief!!!
• Sri Lanka: Life after 25 years...