What it means to SUCK

I've read this stuf with interest because I have been having one of my "I hate this place" weeks. Now, it's only Tuesday so that doesn't mean a whole lot. The place, physically, is like any other place. No doubt. Some lovely scenery, some not so lovely scenery. Some adorable people, some wastes of skin. So far, then, not too different from any other place in the world.

I must say, though, that having lived most of my life in the Southern U.S., I find that the expression of politeness is abysmal. For example, the horrific habit of shouting "Achtung!" at the back of my head on crowded public transport by people of all ages and ethnicities. "Entschuldigung" (sp) would be much more appropriate in any culture but here. That would be "excuse me" not "attention". That seems so clearly a non-difficult adjustment.

I have had the opportunity to travel around Germany a bit and that is a universal habit. It places the speaker somewhere lower on the evolutionary scale of etiquette than he people around whom I was raised.

I am, admittedly, hopelessly middle-class in any country. What I can afford at the same earning in the U.S. and what I can afford in the way of creature comforts here is vastly different. As for the odors emanating from our teutonic hosts, the installation of air conditioning would solve most of that problem.

Finally, on matter of human rights in general, as a homosexual I can tell you that the honest expression of disdain for me in the U.S. is much more welcomed than the false assurance of equality given here. EU regulations notwithstanding, most laws are in name only and have absolutely no teeth. In evidence, I offer you your own power to google hate crimes statistics in the U.S. vs. the E.U. More gay people suffer violence at the hands of attackers here than at home.

Finally, I offer you this: I pay my German taxes and operate within the parameters of this country as any German would. I laughed when I got here because everyone frowned so much (accounting for the jowliness of relatively young women and men here). I am acquiring the same issue. I will return to where people smile at strangers, men open doors for ladies, and frindly greetings on the street between neighbors are the norm. I have friends here who have worked together for 20 years and still don't know each others' wives first names. It is an embarassment.

Southern Belle 04 août 2009, 11:45 - Signaler un abus