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[Jul. 29th, 2008|12:00 am]
Scott
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Okay, everyone here keeps asking me stuff like what I learned on my trip. I suspect they are hoping to hear me say something encouraging like "everyone really is the same after all" or somesuch. But I'm getting tired of answering the question for everyone, so I'm just going to post something here and then direct everyone to the BIG LIST OF THINGS I LEARNED FROM TRAVELLING AROUND THE WORLD:
- English is becoming (has become?) an international language. You can go almost anywhere and find English speakers. Cities all over the world are full of English schools, Teach Yourself English books, even "travel to America to learn English" programs. If a Chinese guy, a Frenchman, a Thai, and a Saudi meet in a cafe in Turkey, they'll inevitably be speaking English to one another. More than that, English has become the global language of capitalism. Cool, catchy slogans and trendy store names absolutely have to be in English, even if no one understands what they mean. It's like how wines have to have some French on the label somewhere to look official, even if they come from Australia.
- Religion is pretty much the same sort of racket anywhere you go. You can read all you want about Buddhist masters contemplating the mystic void or whatnot, but when you actually get to Buddhist countries, the vast majority of people spend most of their religious energies in front of big gold-plated statues of Buddhist gods, praying for money or romance or something. Or you can worry about single-minded Muslim fundamentalists, but when you get to a Muslim country you generally find people praying to Allah for - yeah, you guessed it, money or romance or something.
- You know all those picky rules that you hate because they're just arrogant government bureaucrats trying to control your life? There are lots of places that don't have those rules. They're called hellholes. I have developed a profound respect for everything from zoning ordinances to noise pollution laws to environmental regulations to licensing schemes for professionals to whatever law it is that says you can't block the sidewalk (there should be a statue to whichever politician came up with that one; it is far less obvious than you'd think).
- Most people around the world do not think of America as a shining beacon of freedom and democracy spreading the benefits of innovation and prosperity around the world. They also don't think of America as the Great Satan oppressing the global proletariat and building its wealth on the backs of the working poor. They think of America as hip-hop music, Hollywood movies, trendy clothing labels, and McDonalds fast food (I know, it's a wonder they haven't nuked us yet). The number of people wearing University of Michigan sweatshirts or I <3 NY baseball caps far outnumber the people who have any opinion on the Iraq war or the WTO.
- People are always complaining about the death of small family-owned businesses and the rise of big soulless corporations. And there is something to be said for those complaints. But there is also something to be said for corporate efficiency. It's no fun to eat at a restaurant where they don't have any milk that day because Mom had to stay in and take care of the kids instead of going shopping, or find your taxi full of squawking pigs and chickens because the livestock market is in the same direction as the sights you're going to and your driver thought he might as well save a trip.
- The world doesn't care about human life or human happiness nearly as much as it would be comfortable to think it does. It should be obvious reading news stories about stuff that happens in Congo or horrible places like that, but it doesn't hit home until you see entire cities full of people who are squalid and desperate and have no obvious way out. The human capacity for sympathy can be pretty powerful in the right circumstances, but it is also pretty easy to overwhelm it to the point where after your fiftieth starving child it's just impossible to keep caring at the level the situation deserves.
- Globalization looks a little different from the inside than it does from the outside. Here in America, it's all about "The Zungazunga people have made their beautiful and culturally unique straw houses for thousands of years, but now that MegaCorp has expanded into their area and undercut local builders, this house-making tradition is being replaced by ugly mass-produced concrete blocks." And then you go to Zungazungaland, and everyone's like "Ohmigod! Houses that don't leak all the time or blow down at the slightest breeze! This is the best thing ever!" Because modernization, as ugly as the results may turn out to be, is really about third-worlders starting to want the same things we want: decent housing, food that doesn't squirm, air-conditioning. And by and large, they're getting it.
- If you're going to be poor, being a poor rural farmer or herder is where it's at. The poor rural farmers and herders seemed much happier and all-around better-off than the technically slightly less poor city people. If this sounds like it's contradicting the above, well, maybe it does a little. I should expand on this in more detail, but it would take a lot of explaining.
- Whoever coined the dichotomy "developed country" vs. "developing country" knew what they were talking about. There aren't a whole lot of undeveloped countries anymore; everyone at least has their foot on the ladder (well, at least where I was; Africa might be a different story).
- When you're in another country, the differences you think you'll worry about: language, religion, system of government, cuisine; these impact you surprisingly little and are easily forgotten. On the other hand, you spend huge amounts of time worrying about things you've never thought about at all, like how to dispose of garbage when there are no trash cans or how to cross streets when there are no crosswalks or how there can be whole countries where people don't have toilet paper in public restrooms :0. |
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