Dexter “Garapata” Fernández
(Philippines)

Exoplanets are out there as a big question mark hanging in the sky. Is life present all across the galaxies, or is it a rare event restricted to a handful of planets with limited albedo conditions? Life seems to be too powerful to be an unlikely outburst. Life thrives, adapts, changes, grows. It must be everywhere.
Hints of life friendly conditions are being discovered in distant, exoplanets. There is a sense of community with that distant life, as if that new life about to be discovered was a letter coming from a forgotten relative living in some lost island. Instinctively, we react to news of potential new life as if someone new was joining our joyful lot of living beings.
Then, how come that we do not behave as such close community among ourselves. Hate crimes (against specific races, sexual orientations, political ideas, religions) are rising in the world at a terrifying rate. Surely we are the exoplanet of another form of life. They might be looking at us in the future, if not already. What a let down, poor little green men.