Belonging, the Conditions of Life, and the Limits of Appropriation
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| No one is born an intruder in the world. |
1 A child arrives before the account
Imagine a child arriving in a world where the trees bear fruit, the rivers run clean, and a place has been prepared at the table. The child has earned none of these things. There has been no interview, no assessment of future productivity, no examination of citizenship. Someone recognizes that a life has arrived and begins to care for it. Now imagine the same arrival where the trees are fenced, the water is controlled, and the table is laid for other people. The child enters the world, but the conditions of inhabiting it are already assigned. Before learning to walk, the child depends on a place decided by others.
