I am but one person, and I am not in the upper reaches of spending - I am in the lower middle quartile, or thereabouts. While there are many below me who may not spend much, I know they are spending some - because I know people who consider themselves quite poor - and they are forever on vacation. I was thinking - maybe they are like the British - all on benefit, or like the indomitable French - who just will not shut up and go away quietly. For that matter - like any European.
I had a student come back and visit me. She brought me a rock from Switzerland. I collect rocks from every country I have gone to - a total of 9, and I request students who return to their home country or go on vacation, to bring me back a smallish rock from that place. I have over 47 rocks and I should be getting a couple more in the next few weeks.
So this student returned from spending nearly five weeks in Switzerland visiting her husband. he works there and has for (I may be off a bit) about four years (which is odd because she never lived there so I am not 100% certain about the four years but it is several or more). She told me if I wanted to go to Switzerland, I could stay with her husband. A very friendly and open woman who has my complete respect, as does her husband who I have never met - but the fact she would make that offer, shows something. I do not often find a student who has family in Nebraska telling me I could stay with them if I ever went to Nebraska - not that I would ask such a thing, but it is a very giving person and shows a great deal about her character.
She has lived in the US for several years and is here legally, trying now to get her husband over here legally (using the legal route of standing in line and waiting). Her husband has a skill, an education, and is standing in line to be a legal citizen. Why am I so suspicious. Could it be because millions with no skills, just expectations and demands, sneak across into this country, break the laws, get paid tax free, put very little back into the system they take much from, and feel they do not need to stand in line. Maybe I am so used to these other sorts.
What she told me about her nearly five weeks in Switzerland, with excursions into France, Germany, and Austria. She told me about her experiences, those of her husband living there everyday, and those of a Russian girl on vacation in Switzerland, who attends university in the United States. Racism and discrimination all the time everywhere, by many of the people.
If I make a comment in a class about how rude and arrogant the french are, how they refuse to speak English if a person who speaks English tries to ask for help from them ... students giggle as if it is just Americanisms, or ethnocentric attitudes on display. It isn't - I have spent as much time in France as anyone who travels to or from that place, spending a day or two at a time in any given town or city. Doesn't matter.
It was not cross burning, lynching, throw stones at you in the streets racism - although that does exist, it is unlikely to be more than 2-3% of the entire European population. What is more dangerous and more insidious is the not so explicit racism - the condescending hatred that oozes over. I will call the former student Maria (I like the name) - Maria's husband, prior to her arrival, was out with some friends and a scuffle broke out between his friends and another group of foreigners (I believe they were Bengalis). Maria's husband got in between the two groups to try to quite them down, settle the issue, and keep the peace. The Bengali's called the police and when the police arrived they immediately scooped up the friends of Maria's husband and her husband and hauled them off to jail. They did not arrest the Bengalis. Why? That is the fun part and I am paraphrasing what she told me:
Both parties in the fight were foreigners so we arrest whichever one called. If the person hit had been Swiss, the foreigner would have been arrested. You cannot hit a naturalized Swiss citizen. However - you can hit a foreigner - if a Swiss citizen had hit a foreigner, that would not be prosecuted.
Maria spoke to the Russian girl, to get her experiences in Switzerland and around Europe - very discriminatory toward her, even though she is as white as the Swiss, the fact she is a foreigner is cause enough to be discriminated against - the way people spoke to her, treated her, helped her or not. It was clear to Maria and the Russian girl, not to mention Maria's husband - they were not wanted.
Maria has lived in the US for several years and has traveled to a couple states and several cities. The Russian girl has traveled more extensively in the US and attends a US university. Comparing treatment in Europe to treatment here - the Russian said she was treated like anyone else, never felt discrimination, never treated badly. Maria has never felt like an outsider, never been shamed or afraid or intimidated. She has always felt she has been treated well.
Americans complain and criticize - we are forever hearing from people like Al "Tawana Brawley" Sharpton and Jesse "Hire blacks or we picket your business" Jackson, tell us how racist America is. It isn't relative to every country in Europe. And Asia is no better, in fact, in many ways, it is much worse. Racism and discrimination often end in death in several countries in Asia, but we just pretend not to notice while we are busy changing, changing to be more accommodating - which I assume must mean, ignoring the gaping huge flaws in these cultures we are trying to be friendly with.
America is, compared to the world community - free of racism, discrimination, and hate. The only reason we still belabor the issue is because we hold ourselves to standards no other people dare stand under, for fear it would illustrate their failings. Yet often we have the media from around the world highlighting just how racist we are ... now how is that possible?
Because our media tell us how racist we are, and people like Jackson and Sharpton run around repeating it over and over how racist Americans are, our media publish it, the world gobbles it up, the print vast tomes about how racist we are, smile about how open and tolerant their societies are, and views us as peculiarly racist.
Ironic it is. We are the least racist, most open nation in the history of the world, and we have show this over and over again. We have led the fight to free man across the globe irregardless of their color. The Euros don't ... they look at economics and profit margins, and then color - before they act. We have the history - Rwanda is one example, Congo another, Sudan another, Somalia another, Ivory Coast another ... the examples are legion.
By repeating the crap in our media, they do a great disservice to real racism, whether here in the US or anywhere around the globe. For if we are indeed racist, when a racist act occurs, it should not be a shock or surprise, and in fact, we should act as if it was the norm - rather than how we do respond. As a whole we are not, individually - there will always be people who hate. Europe as a whole is racist, elitist, and ethnocentric in their world view - on a micro level, they can be very nice - sometimes.
Which is why I will go out and buy more 'stuff' - spend money and help the economy, save the US from utter collpase and failure. We all have an obligation to ... to save the country from becoming like Europe.
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