"The beauty of the world ... has two edges, one of laughter, one of anguish, cutting the heart asunder."
( Virginia Woolfe )
It is so worth the extra $2 to buy brand name cough syrup – so, so, worth it. I cannot attempt to describe how foul the generic is.
I’ve been slightly taken aback by much of the anti-populist critique or John Kerry. Some say he cannot represent America because he has a large vocabulary, windsurfs, speaks another language (that isn’t Spanish), has a “foreign” wife, and is rich. Is it truly elitist to love language, other cultures, and enjoying sports you can afford? It seems to me that real elitism is like the parable of the Pharisee and the tax-collector where the Pharisee prays “Lord, thank that I am not like ________.” Besides, I have a non-populist vocabulary, enjoy reading Charles Dickens and speak French. If the key to being American is being homogeneous, then where does this leave me?
[I feel as though I should note that this is not an attack on all Republicans, considering I come from a Republican family (for the most part) and don’t find myself looked down upon for my interests (excepting the French), however, I do see to come across this manner of thinking several times a day and I’m tired of hearing it.]
This is long, but, since I haven’t posted in such a long time, I hope everyone will have the time to read. (Kidding, only kidding.)
First of all, I must say that I was very glad to have the chance to be part of my cousin’s wedding. I grew up with her and she is my oldest friend. If I had been unable to make it, it would have been a lifelong regret. However, I don’t think I have ever lived in such constant stress – at least not from something I had no part in creating. (I actually had two big stress knots at the base of my neck for a week after I returned.)
There was a report on NPR a few days ago about a South African television program called “Great South Africans” that was recently canceled. Basically, the public was asked to vote for their hero and then the program would produce a short biography on each. The problem arose from the fact that many of the top scoring figures where leaders of apartheid. (For more see this Sun Time’s article and this American-living-in-SA blog entry.)
Unfortunately this was not really a shock considering some of the conversations I found myself in. There is a lack of justice for everyone and it seemed that every people group distrusts all of the others. Obviously, most of this stems from the fact that the minority ruled over the majority until very recently – I wish I could say more about this, but I was never able to escape from being white and affluent.
However, beyond the former oppression of Africans and Indians, it seems that at lot of the new policies created to share the wealth. There are laws such as, if you don’t kick someone off your land in forty-eight hours, they have a right to stay there and you loose the rights to your property. To make matters worse, people do not trust the police and are thus afraid - and it’s not just about property; one woman I spoke to told me that she hit a African woman (who was drunk) with her car and when she went to the police they only asked if her car was ok. To top it off, I know many of these affluent whites voted for African candidates because they sense the injustice to some extent, but have found that the African candidates are just as corrupt as the white ones and are now disillusioned.
I think the worse bit is the blaming. The British claim that the Dutch were the ones that screwed things up so badly and that most Africans are lazy and want free government aid. It makes you want to ask questions like: How? When? Why? Why? Why?
I’ve also never seen such poverty. Well, this isn’t exactly true since many Trinidadians are just as poor. I actually think it was the contrast of getting off a fancy airplane then seeing your first shanty town or driving in a nice car and noticing that all the people walking have brown skin and that none of them look like you.
It’s strange - I hate malls on principle, but it was in the malls that I felt the most at home. People would talk to me - no matter what their color - as if they had a right to speak to me. I liked that. It was like my life here, a hodgepodge of color and culture and views.
All of this has been negative so far, but I don’t think my experience was purely negative - heavy yes, negative no. The thing is that the people were really nice and I enjoyed being with them. I was really struck by how kind everyone was. So I thought I would end my thoughts with a few anecdotes:
First, we stayed at this really nice bed & breakfast which had only sliding-glass doors which we all kept walking into - some of us multiple times. Finally Pauline, the owner, threw her hands over her head and fetched masking tape and put huge “X’s” on all the doors at head level. (I assured her that we did have sliding-glass doors in American, only we didn’t clean them so well.)
Next, further proving that I’m a language junkie and have absolute no real accent excepting that of my own, I had a man who worked at the hiking store at the mall ask me which part of South Africa I was from, that he couldn’t place my accent. I have also picked up the habit of saying “hey” which is similar to the Canadian “eh” as in “So you want to see the elephants, hey?”
We also went to a nature reserve where we were so close to a baby zebra that I could have touched it - only it’s father (mother?) came running up to it clicking its hooves like a mustang which was more than enough encouragement for us to back off!
Our other educational endeavor was to the naturalist museum where they had lots of stuffed animals (like the Smithsonian in Washington, DC) which was not so exciting except that they had a stuffed Dodo. I don’t know where I picked this up, but I always assumed they were small birds like seagulls. Actually, seagulls aren’t so small, but, honestly, this bird was huge! Fifty pounds! Think about the prize turkey Scrooge buys for the Cratchit's! I was suddenly sad that there is no way to see one now, however, I’m holding out the hope that they will be restored to the new Earth.
Finally, we ate out at least once, though sometimes twice - a day. As in any new country in which you find yourself, all the Americans would have to read every word on the menu before we could decide what we wanted. (As a general rule, never eat at an American style restaurant if you are an American outside of American unless it is owned an operated by and American.) However, one night all of us Americans were home at the B&B for dinner so we decided to order take-out from a pizza place. After studying the menu for twenty minutes (fruit pizza, seafood pizza, biltong pizza), we all order macaroni & cheese.
Perhaps I have read too much Anne Lamott or Harvey Conn or Gandhi, or perhaps I have listened to too much NPR while not reading enough of WORLD, or perhaps I have lived too long in places such as Carrboro and Asheville and Europe, especially in my formative years, however, it does seem as though I have somehow slid over to the extreme left, at least according to selectsmart.com's Presidential Selector. Perhaps, knowing some of my readers, I should not admit this too freely, but here are my results just the same.
One more individual trying to figure it all out.
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