When I first read this post by greatbong, I thought those incidents experienced by him were isolated ones. After visiting almost all the major cities in Europe, my general perception was these things could happen in Europe. But never in USA. After living in Texas for two years, I firmly believed that racism doesn't exist in this country. If so, then in a very mild form. But my views have changed after the Patriot's Day this year. I leave it to the readers to judge whether this was also an isolated incident.
I had the priviledge of watching 113th Boston Marathon - the oldest annual marathon in the modern world - on April 20, 2009. This event was inspired from the Olympic Marathon in 1896, and started in 1897. The persons who finished first and second this year in the men's competition are African-Americans. Let's call them A and B, respectively. The guy who became third (let's call him C) is a white American. C was trailing by about 50 meters behind B near the finishing line.
I was watching the event on Boylston Street and was standing very near to the finishing line. There was this middle aged lady standing beside me with her two kids. When A and B passed us, she was silent. When C was about to pass us, she commented, "Here comes a true American." Then she started cheering C loudly with choice words like "beat the black guy". Needless to say, I was shocked. I couldn't imagine this happening in Boston, the great city where the independence movement and the abolitionist movement were started. Thereafter, she used to cheer for every white American who crossed the finishing line, but not for others. I was completely disgusted by then, and was about to leave the place. Then I saw this.
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| The Blade Runner |
I was already impressed by the wheelchair bound competitors in the beginning. But that was a different category. What's special about this guy is that he participated in the men's category. Consider the fact that he ran the whole 26 miles and 385 yards with both prosthetic legs. This defining moment of human spirit made my day.
I first saw Good Will Hunting in 1998 at Nandan, when I was a postgrad student in Calcutta. My first impression was; why this film could not get best film award at the Oscars instead of Titanic. In my opinion, Titanic was the biggest overhyped piece of melodrama (even bigger than Slumdog Millionaire) that have swept major Oscar awards. This opinion did't change till date, and will not change in the future. But my opinion about GWH changed radically after second and third viewings. Needless to say, I didn't have much idea about American higher education system back in 1998.
I had a more matured mindset during the second viewing of GWH in 2005. My primary objection to the film was the absurd idea of Will Hunting being a janitor in MIT. If he was a "Einstein" as the film depicted, there's no way he couldn't get formal higher education in this country. How could Damon and Affleck get Oscar for such an absurd screenplay?
After moving to Boston, I had a third viewing of the film. I pointed out two major discrepancies. First, the animosity of Irish-American Will towards the English aristocrat MIT academia. Being in MIT for several years now, I must say that there's hardly any class difference here. For several decades, MIT attracts researchers from several backgrounds irrespective of race, color, creed, sex, religion, nationality. The population in MIT, faculy student alike, is so heterogeneous that it's highly impossible for a class difference to exist. This gross generalization by Hollywood reflects their ignorance about the higher learning system in their own country.
My second objection was the depiction of an Indian with reference to Ramanujan. Any Indian will be shocked by the mildly racist comment, "Dots, not feathers", made by Prof. Lambeau (played by Skarsgard) to differentiate between native Indians and Asian-Indians. With so many Indian professors around (the Dean of Engineering being an Indian), how could a professor in MIT make such a comment to describe an Indian? The learned men in MIT at least know where India is and what Indians are. This is stereotyped Hollywood at its best, which frequently fails to recognize other cultures than American and doesn't want to understand what "rest of the world" means.
It was cash raining in Autobahn folks.
On May 19, 2007, a couple travelling on Autobahn A99 on a motorbike lost €6000 out of their rucksack. Apparently the money flew out from the top flap of the rucksack. They didn't notice that it had gone till later. But lots of motorists stopped and picked up the money and handed it over to the police within a few hours. €3000 was handed in immediately, and since then the police had received another €2500 from other travellers. The last I heard, the police were appealling for any others who picked up the money to hand it in. After that I lost track of the story and couldn't know what happened to the rest €500. But I didn't bother. Knowing that €5500 out of €6000 was recovered was enough for me.
Now many of you must be thinking that this could not happen in a real world. But not me. I had heard similar incidents first hand, though not on the proportion of €5500. A good friend of mine, who was a masters student in TU Munich, lost his wallet containing €80 and debit cards at Englischer Garten (the largest public park in Munich). One can understand how much frustrated he was being a student afterall. However, he got it back in the mail about 2 weeks later, with all €80 intact.
The point I'm trying to make is that act of honesty by one individual is quite common, but appreciable anyways. But that by a group of people from different backgrounds (Munich is a cosmopolitan city) is unique. The secret of this may be the climate of southern Bavaria, or the natural affluence of common people, I don't know for sure.
P.S. - Many of you wondering why this couple carrying €6000 on their rucksack. This is not uncommon because lots of people don't like to have credit cards (I didn't have one). They don't let consumerism consume themselves. Therefore, to buy a second hand car or similar costly items, one can carry such a large amount of money without bothering about footpads.
According to a recent survey, there are 243,000 singles living in Munich. That's 28.8% of 18-59 year olds living in the city, followed by Berlin (28.6%), Cologne (25.9%), Hamburg (25.4%) and Frankfurt (24.8%). In Germany as a whole, almost one-fifth of 18-59 year olds live without a partner. The survey randomly asked 2500 people whether they had a steady partner, not whether they lived on their own.
To be honest I'm not surprised with the result. Munich is among the most affluent cities in Europe, let alone Germany. My experiences in Munich led to the belief that the unfriendliness and general coldness had a lot to do with the social pecking order that has evolved since Munich became affluent. Being affluent in Munich appears to be terribly important to many people. Several of them spend an awful lot of time and energy attempting to establish associations with those who are "above" them in the social food chain. I presume this is why you find so many people who lease stylish cars and pay outrageous rent for trendy apartments (even when they can't afford it), so that they can show their "social seniors" that they belong in their "clique". Once part of that clique, you then become the envy of those you left behind in your previous social class. Those who have successfully entered the higher "clique", of course tend to look down upon those who are no longer in their equal "social class", and ironically spend an inordinate amount of their lives trying to enter social "cliques" that are again another step above them.
So, it doesn't surprise me that so many Müncheners are single, because a large percentage of them seem to be more interested in achieving social class than establishing lasting, wholesome relationships. If one of the partners in a relationship is at some point, perceived not to meet the social standards of the other, then it's not unusual to "leave them behind" in favor of a "clique" that represents a higher social position. Of course, those in that higher "clique" would never accept your partner if he/she does not wear the proper shoes, drive the right car, or hold the right business title. Unfriendliness? Of course. In this environment, who can you trust? If someone is friendly to you, then the prevailing attitude is that they must want something from you. Safest is to just turn away. Otherwise you could find yourself associating with someone of a lower social order, and that could be embarassing.
Why do non-Müncheners also become this way? After a few years there, you realize that being friendly scares people away. Better to be stand-offish than friendly. Having been away for some time, it's seems obvious to me that Munich is somewhat unique in this regard. I don't see this arrogance quite as pronounced in many other more cosmopolitan places such as Paris, Amsterdam, New York, Boston, where the attitude seems much less arrogant.
