07.23.10
Posted in Society, Travel at 3:54 by RjZ
The Life Ball in Wien, Austria, is Europe’s largest charity event and, from the looks of it, one hell of a party. I didn’t know it was happening until after I’d arrived and started seeing people painted gold and wearing little more than ivy leaves. The costume ball, this year ‘earth’ themed, is a charity event for AIDS treatment and research. In 2010, it is in association with the UN AIDS Conference and even former President Clinton was here to celebrate.
The beautiful people were out in force, looking to see and be seen, as they made their way toward the red carpet in front of thousands of on-lookers. Every costume, from fairies to centaurs, was carefully designed to avoid covering his or her washboard abs. Even if I had known, I would have had to work out for months just to feel comfortable looking half as good as the other guests, let alone dressing up in ram’s horns and a speedo.
As I wandered around the Viennese Rathaus Platz where the party was getting started, I noticed hand lettered signs stuck on bushes, or pinned to fences. The notes were scrawled on notebook paper, and written in at least French, German, and English. They said “HIV is not the cause of AIDS.” The revelers didn’t take notice of them. One soot painted pair of men whose costume consisted of torn swim bottoms and red AIDS ribbons picked up one of the notes to glance at it and then set it right back down. No angered crumpling, no sneered looks.
Since when, I thought, is HIV not the cause of AIDS? After dinner, I made my way back to my hotel room and the big event was being televised. Impassioned speakers thanked the guests for the money raised in search of a cure, and spoke of progress with retro-viral drugs—drugs which wouldn’t have had much effect if AIDS were not caused by a virus. Young groups of musicians from nations with high risk of AIDS such as Cambodia and South Africa, performed Beethoven’s Ode to Joy on mirimbas, gamelans and recorders even as rain showers began and drenched them.
While they were getting soaked, I discovered a new conspiracy. 9-11 was a government plot. Global Warming, a liberal elitist sham. The moon landing? Fake. HIV causes AIDS? No way. Who knew? I didn’t even realize there was a question and meanwhile, like the member of the herd that I am, I’d gone on believing that HIV is actually the cause of AIDS.
I’ve always been a skeptic, so I didn’t immediately believe the AIDS deniers. What could be their motivation? Anti-gay racists? The good news is, unlike Holocaust deniers who seem pretty clearly anti-semetic, AIDS deniers don’t have a clear agenda at all. Some of them believe that AIDS is a disease brought on, not by a virus, but by the sinfully delicious act of homosexuality (what’s so delicious about it, is as much a mystery to me, just as heterosexual sex is to many gays.) Others see it as a corporate plot by pharmaceutical manufacturers to sell expensive medication.
One thing is clear. The scientific establishment, with its thousands of researches on the government and drug company payrolls, is ignoring the views of a tiny minority of bonafide scientists, at least one or two of which actually studies in the field of biology. AIDS denialists can’t all be lumped together either. Some believe that HIV is a virus, although a harmless one, while others insist that that AIDS itself is only a disease of poor people and drug users weakened by their situations. (Of course, blacks are poor and gays use more drugs than everyone else!)
The rain and storm didn’t hold back the revelers from their party and hundreds of thousands of dollars were raised to feed the establishment’s hunger for money and AIDS research, even if they just can’t see through this scam that the whole HIV thing is just a blind alley. Seemed like a really great party to me.
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07.07.10
Posted in Society at 15:19 by RjZ
It’s been over half a century since World War II. It’s about time Germans were comfortable being patriotic. So it’s been actually quite nice to see Germans painting black-red-gold stripes on their cheeks. Their joy is infectious when they’re dancing through the streets blowing German equivalents of the South African vuvuzeulas, all in support of their national team at the 2010 World Cup.
So why am I secretly glad that Spain just beat them to the finals? When Germany routed Australia 4 – 0 on their first World Cup meet-up, the fans were just ecstatic! For hours after the game was over, young and old continued to celebrate, even people who only watch soccer once in four years. ‘Schland! ‘Schland! came the cheers and you couldn’t help but appreciate a reunified Germany, strongest economy in Europe, finally allowing itself to be proud! Go Germany!
Then, on the train back to my apartment in Frankfurt I sat across from a young, quiet, Turkish looking woman. Another couple, speaking a slavic language, continued their conversation as best they could, as a large group of young male soccer fans boarded. Frankfurt exceeds Germany’s national average of nearly 20% immigrants and this little train car was a good example. Police walked the train and gave the carousing rowdies a disapproving look, but wandered off, ignoring their bellowing chants and songs.
The revellers continued for a few stops, swaying drunkenly as the train lurched from station to station, and finally, stretching one hand each straight into the air, palm down, they began shouting Zieg heil! Zieg heil! The young woman, tugged lightly at her hijab and barely looked up at me. The couple across the way exchanged a nervous glance and went silent.
OK, they were young, drunk, kids. I am sure any Germans on that train, both immigrant and native alike, were disgusted. Such embarrassing and naive references to Germany’s Nazi past is exactly what makes them so uncomfortable with patriotism, even if most of them were born well after the war ended. What’s more, the cross-border rivalry between Germany and the Netherlands would have made for one heck of a good time in the World Cup finals. But just thinking about those hooligans, I find myself a bit glad Spain managed to keep Germany from the final. A little self-esteem is well deserved, but too much pride is rarely a good thing. (A notion U.S. Americans shouldn’t forget as well.)
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06.08.10
Posted in Society, Travel at 23:01 by RjZ
I’m not raising any children so I don’t know what I am talking about.
It was chilly, but nice, for Moscow in March. My first time there, so there is no way I am going to miss the Kremlin complex. In an effort to protect the treasures of the land and perhaps to cling to their bureaucratic past, two Russian guards are taking their sweet time carefully inspecting every bag and every person before entry. I’ll find out later that backpacks, that is, bags with two straps, no matter how small, aren’t allowed, while bags with one strap, no matter how large, are, seemingly, permitted. I have to check my backpack/camera bag back at the garderobe, which, naturally, is mere 500 m back to the ticket office.
No matter, the line barely moved while I was gone. I’ve had a little exercise, but missed little. There is still plenty of time to watch the spring frost in the shadows of trees melting under the bright blue spring sky. There’s also the compare and contrast of tourists from around the world. This morning it’s mostly Dutch and Russians. There are some Italians and French, and a few Chinese, but I don’t notice any other Americans. The line is long and I am near the front; perhaps they simply woke up later this morning.
The Russians have brought their children to see the great wealth of their nation. Right in front of me is a young boy and young girl, probably seven and nine years old respectively. For a little while they play among the trees until their parents call them back to the line in anticipation of eventually entering the fortress. Now they are standing in line facing forward, talking quietly to one another. It’s almost bizarre. I don’t remember the last time I saw such well-behaved children.
My parents like to tell proud stories the family going out to dinner in a fine restaurant and other guests stopping on their way out to thank them. Apparently the romantic diners were terrified at the sight of two young boys in a fine restaurant and how surprised they were when the expected racket never materialized to ruin dinner. It’s not just a story, I have a faint memory of it actually happening. I also remember the bulging eyes my father would flash at me if I did act up. I almost her him him saying “we need to go to the bathroom!” “no, I don’t, thanks,” “Yes. You. Do.” eyes bulging. I got the picture.
Nowadays I find myself wishing I could thank parents for their well behaved children. My parents made it clear that, regardless of what is right, or wrong, or what I wanted, my behavior was embarrassing them. That was enough to get me to stop. Parents today more often seem to be so effective at patently ignoring their children they don’t have a chance to consider embarrassment. No matter how many times little Johnny kicks the seat, gets up to greet the entire restaurant with sticky hands, (isn’t he cute?) or stands on the chair whining about food, these amazing parents are unmoved.
Meanwhile, back in mother Russia children weren’t being dragged kicking and screaming through museums they were visiting this weekend. They weren’t grabbing chocolates off the shelves in candy stores. (Hundreds of sorts of chocolate in one store…I don’t know how I was able to resist.) I didn’t hear any begging or whining about being hungry or not wanting to eat. Perhaps they weren’t having as much fun. Maybe they aren’t free to discover their inner selves. Perhaps the poor children will grow up like I did, completely tortured by having to quietly entertain myself when the adults were talking. O, how surprised am I have been unable to suppress the memory, except I don’t remember any of it being that bad.
In many ways Russia is still backwards. People are very traditional, fur is incredibly popular and the banking system has barely discovered credit cards. Their government hasn’t even figured out your supposed to hide corruption. Maybe they’ll catch up in raising children too. If what I saw really was representative though, let’s hope not.
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05.14.10
Posted in Society, Travel at 4:11 by RjZ
In relating the taxing efforts of a do-all government in Germany I noted in an earlier post that graffiti had become more rampant. I considered that this might actually just a difference in my experience in Frankfurt, compared to my earlier experience in law-and-order strong Bavaria. Germans with whom I spoke seemed to confirm this, but I’ve just returned from a short trip to Regensburg and München, both in Bavaria, and I can confirm plenty of the horrible stuff.
I am not always opposed to graffiti. I’ve frequently smiled at the art of Banksy and others and enjoyed many a mural that has decorated an otherwise dreary urban wall. Tagging, on the other hand, the annoying, egotistical ‘Kilroy was here’ scrawl that appears the same from language to language, country to country is just plain vandalism. The youthful self-importance of “Xteam” or “daboyz” repeated dozens of times on the inside of a Frankfurt metro is bad enough, but to see these same silly tags in the medieval old town of Regensburg, the whole town center is a recognized Unesco World Heritage site, is just outrageous.
Graffiti isn’t a new experience of course, and it’s always come with mixed emotions from the viewers, but I simply have a hard time seeing tagging as anything beyond ugly vandalism. I’ve seen ancient graffiti at historical sites from England to Egypt. Age alone isn’t enough to impress me. A name and date scrawled on a monument, no matter how artfully represented, ought to be seen as an embarrassingly self-centered disfiguring of property, likely compensating for a masculine lack somewhere else. I no more care that a hip-hop gangsta wannabe or a noble from 18th century England had the indecency to leave his mark. Both are like a dog, peeing on every bush and fire hydrant-except the dog’s mark isn’t nearly so obtrusive.
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04.15.10
Posted in Society at 12:01 by RjZ
I am still not buying an iPad (yet) but some of things I’ve been reading and hearing about are just wrong. Take Eric Sherman at Bnet who thinks that the iPad is an example of Apple ignoring it’s brand. In addition to a few weak points about an e-book reader interface element that is not up to Apple’s design par and a poor book cover for iPad, his main point is that Apple is forgetting the creative designers and developers that have really made Apple.
The iPod and now the iPad, he claims, is no longer for content creators but for consumers. He sees that as proof that Apple is leaving behind their core market. He’s right in a way, web development and graphic design really are better completed on an actual computer, and not a media consumption device that the iPad or iPod is. However, just as I’ve described how the iPad is bad for the used book market, it’s nothing but a bonanza for content creators. Here’s why.
Unlike desktop and laptop computers, Apple has created an ecosystem for software distribution that virtually eliminates piracy. There is just no straightforward way for the consumer to have access to all that software without paying the price the developer wishes for it. Same for books (unless they have a book scanner, but that’s not practical). It’s almost the same for movies, as the tools for ripping your own DVDs are limited and not wide spread and converting movies from pirated sources to the iPad is inconvenient at best. From the Apple ecosystem’s point of view, they’ve even done the same for music, but as the digital music files are small, it turns out that pirating these appears to be still easy enough.
That’s a huge departure from open systems out there. Imagine, your a developer of content; you know, one of those very creative people Mr. Sherman thinks Apple left behind. You can create software for an open platform, such as Android and it’s just like developing for the PC. You put it out there through a variety of distribution models and then people download it, and some cracker breaks your copy protection and suddenly it might as well be shareware, whether you like it not. Some people will be honest and pay, others will not. You have to raise your price to cover the difference. Meanwhile, if you create a clever piece of content for the iPad/iPhone, you must submit it to the Apple store and pay their commission because, alas, that is the only way for users to gain access to your creation; but when they tell their friends about it, they can’t also send them a copy to play with. Off they go to the Apple store themselves to buy their own copy. This isn’t just for software. Ars Technica is describing comics as a killer application for the iPad. Web comics and e-zines may finally have a great place to live, in full color, and with animation, able to be read where you want to read them, in coffee shops and waiting rooms without a plug nearby.
The iPad is only the initial expense for consumers to enjoy media. Everything else, users have to pay for. If I buy one, I lose my access to used books, music and DVDs. I am no longer able to pick up a used magazine in the seat back pocket in front of me on the plane. All of those second hand purchases and scavenging (what, you’ve never read a paper after someone else did?) doesn’t help content creators one bit. They only get paid for the first use. Far from forgetting it’s core of content creators, Apple’s developers have never had it so good.
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04.07.10
Posted in Society at 9:57 by RjZ
I’ve been surprised by the vociferous remarks from various tech wags and forum commenters about how terrible the iPad from Apple is. It’s just a big iPod touch, they say. Why would anyone buy this? It’s not as good as a netbook. Really, if you don’t want one, don’t buy one, it’s just not that important, is it?
I don’t want an iPad. What I really do want is an Apple version of a netbook. I want a thin, light, very small, but very inexpensive laptop, that runs the same applications as my full size laptop, even if slower and with a cramped keyboard. That’s not what the iPad is; it really is a big iPod Touch, but that’s all it has to be.
Compared to a netbook, the iPad does many of the same things, but it’s instant-on, and super easy to interact with. Having one of these things just lying around the house as an instant web interface, book and magazine reader, reference too, and quick game toy…none of that is like a netbook and it’s pretty cool.
Compared to a Kindle or other e-book reader, it not only allows you to take thousands of books with you where ever you go, but it’ll also play movies on a tolerably large screen, allow you to write e-mail in a few minutes without waiting for a boot-up time. The books and magazines will have color photography, graphics, and more. Perhaps the screen will be more tiresome to read, but it will be much more exciting and versatile then the dull e-ink.
The people who bought an iPad either already see these advantages, or they’ll notice soon and the annoying all-Apple-all-the-time excitement will only grow. I don’t want an iPad because it’s rather expensive (although not so much compared to a Kindle, which requires a subscription, and not really that much compared to an iPod Touch which doesn’t seem to garner so much ire) and I don’t really need one enough to justify it.
What’s really wrong with the iPad is that it may result in the real success of e-books. Imagine how great it would be if all of your text books, reference books, literature, magazines…everything, were right there in your brief case or purse. Your entire library on one device that even gets backed up to your home computer. It’s the iPod of books and media and that’d be fantastic. You could search it! Imagine never missing out on a quote from a book you read. Imagine how easy it is to bring several books with you for extended travel! (I could sure use this right about now.)
What have I got against e-books then? The problem for me, is that I buy both books and music second hand. The whole copyright and stealing thing? I am circumventing it each time I buy used media. Neither the artist, nor the record label ever sees a penny from a used CD. The only people who benefited are the original owner who sold it and the reseller who sells it again. I might as well have stolen it on a file-sharing site for all the benefit the musicians see.
All the same is true for used books. No new benefit for publishers and authors, but I get to enjoy books for a fraction of the cost of new ones. I need only remain slightly behind the times and not read the latest releases, but that’s hardly a sacrifice. For those, I can usually get them at that old-school edifice: the library. In trade I get to frequent one of the most charming shops in any interesting town: the used book store.
I can then digitize the used music and carry it with me on my iPhone. Can I do this with my used books? How about my existing library of reference and more? While this is officially possible, it’s well outside the reach of normal folks. E-books destroy the used book market. There is no need to get rid of your old books. They take up an insignificant amount of room and you can now refer to them easily for that one quote or passage you enjoyed so much. If you’re young enough to have no books yet, and your university starts using iPads for all of your texts, this may not be so painful, but you’ll still be cut out of cheap used book sales. I could never have afforded university books if I had to buy all of them new. Even if you wanted to save space and get rid of a few, e-books don’t show any wear and tear, there’s no reason, market demands not withstanding, to lower the price of your used e-books.
Sure I’d enjoy an iPad, or a Kindle. I can live without reading while the airplane takes off and lands and I have to keep my electronic devices powered off, but the shame is that the fun and convenience of these new devices will cost in ways that the “I love the smell of a book” purists haven’t even yet considered. Media sellers are rubbing their hands together in greed. Used book stores, and their loyal customers, on the other hand, not so much.
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03.31.10
Posted in Society, Travel at 0:57 by RjZ
Surprisingly, my current job means I have a lot of down time. I am traveling a crazy amount and living part time in another country, but I have few friends there or any regular activities. I also spend a lot of time waiting: waiting for trains, busses, planes, and colleagues. Down time that you didn’t plan on can be less relaxing and more boring than I’d hoped.
I am gone for a month at a time, and I find myself a bit starved for entertainment. On the first trip, I read four books and listened to two audio books. I read another four this time, even though I was busier than before. I tortured myself through German television, and I downloaded some movies which I ended up watching twice. Yet I still find myself bored. Except, there is plenty I could be doing; writing more interesting blog postings for example, and I am not doing them.
I think the problem is that I, like most everyone in modern society, am a victim of over-stimulation. I’ve always been a procrastinator and multi-tasker, but recent studies are claiming that actually, multi-taskers aren’t nearly as effective as they think they are. Other studies are showing that all the structured play children engage in, from soccer practice to music lessons, without any time to roam around unsupervised and act like idiots gives them little opportunity to develop what is known as “executive control.” Many think this contributes to attention deficit disorder (ADD) and general unruliness of modern kids–and adults. I had plenty of unstructured play as a kid, but I suspect that executive control isn’t a skill learned once and for all; it requires some practice.
I run. Well, let’s be honest, I try to run, because I can’t bring my bike with me, and I imagine I would like to do something impressive like running really far sometime. In fact, though, I hate running and don’t do it nearly enough. I make the excuse that it’s because I was in one country last week and another this one. When I (finally get around to) run, I find the activity meditative. I thought about bringing a music player with me, but the ear plugs kept falling out of my sweaty ears (gross) so I decided it wasn’t worth it. Then I realized that this could be the point. Running can be pretty boring. There’s no TV, no music (in my case), not much scenery, and it’s likely you’ve seen it already (and if you haven’t, why are you running past it? Stop and take a look!) You are alone with the rhythm of your breath and your feet hitting the trail. You can concentrate on your form, or the painful stitch in your side, or you can just zone out and let your mind empty out, filled again by your breathing (or gasping, in my case, but filled with breathing was more poetic.)
Paul Theroux writes in an essay in Fresh Air Fiend that the isolation of travel was key to him becoming an author. Being alone and an outsider and having no phone, television, electricity, or facebook, flickr, or e-mail, gave him time to think. Running may not be exercise for my legs and lungs alone. It may be the much needed exercise for my brain. It takes some serious effort, to switch off. To grow accustomed to not being entertained. To let your brain do its job and think, all by itself. To see what comes out after being filled with air alone.
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03.30.10
Posted in Society, Travel at 10:20 by RjZ
In the last three weeks I’ve been in six countries on two continents. Just to prove how far from glamorous this travel schedule has been, one of my observations is about tile.
Manufactured ceramic tile is, clearly, a global business. Bathrooms, hotels, airports, and businesses use the exact same tile that U.S. Americans can buy from their local hardware store to decorate their homes. This stuff for example can be seen gracing a business bathroom in South Africa and the lobby of a hotel in Germany.
For my work, I visit places that make tile. I don’t happen to know where the example above is made (I’d guess China) but they are doing a much better business than their competitors. I visit those places because making tile is a process that involves combustion which pollutes. The company I work for makes instruments to help reduce that pollution. Which is why I’d guess that tile is made in China.
Wealthy countries have exported not only the manufacture of tile (and steel, and other smelly things) but also the pollution that it generates. If we bought our tile from local facilities we’d save on transport costs (small, compared to the price of the manufacturing plant) and we might be able to manage the pollution they generate through regulations (the same regulations that drove steel manufacturing away from Western Europe and the United States, but this sword cuts both ways doesn’t it.)
Globalization effects tile, but also where and how pollution is generated. Tile, then, becomes one of the reasons that it is so difficult to make progress on international global warming policies. And it’s why I think the tile is made in China where they have embraced the downside of pollution as a necessary stepping stone on the path to growth. The west, meaning Europe and the U.S., did the same, it’s just that most of us aren’t old enough to remember.
For me, the unforeseen consequence, is that from Russia to South Africa, lobbies and bathrooms truly are starting to look the same. I can’t imagine that twenty years ago, fake Italian tile was the fashion almost literally at both ends of the world. And for me it’s even more boring than all the hours spent in the plane.
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03.23.10
Posted in Society at 6:37 by RjZ
The whole world is upside down, as far as U.S. Americans are concerned, because congress either made made the first step toward bringing U.S. Americans out of the third world, or began the slide down the deep tunnel towards socialism, by passing the health care overhaul bill. The proposed health care changes will bring the U.S. quite a bit closer to a system that has been working in Europe for some time now; without even many of the freedom shrinking consequences conservatives are warning about. Meanwhile, in Germany, people are beginning to wonder how they can continue to pay for the very health care system approximately half of Americans so envy.
I noticed it right away. I hadn’t been back to Germany more than one time since living there years ago. After spending a month in Frankfurt area, I was surprised by something I rarely noticed when I lived in Germany nearly a decade ago—graffiti. It isn’t only in Frankfurt and it isn’t only in rougher parts of town. It’s not quite out of hand, but you can see it everywhere. Subways and building walls, sidewalks and old town architecture, you name it, someone’s tagged it. It will never cease to amaze me how tagging, regardless of the language, looks nearly identical; is there a school for this?
Graffiti in the Bremen old city center
Crime hasn’t been skyrocketing. But the fact is, there are only a limited amount of resources available, even in wealthy Germany. Back when graffiti wouldn’t last more than a week before being painted over, health care costs were lower in both the U.S. and Germany.
There is a fundamental difference between the German philosophy, as stated in their constitution and that of the United States. In Germany, the constitution forbids putting a value on a human life. That is, when faced with a decision such as, if we pass this law, this person would die, but it would save us 100,000 €, the German government must always choose to spend the money. In other words, health care is a right, not a privilege.
It is this very problem that both countries face in the future. If health care really is a right, like the pursuit of happiness, and holding property, may we ever draw the line? When it costs $10 million for brain surgery, with a 1 in a million chance of survival for an 83 year old woman, does she still have a right to it? Does she still have that right if receiving that surgery deprives thousands of others from basic healthcare or so limits government services that we are afraid to step in our cars or eat food we didn’t grow? We continue to improve of the quality of life and quality of care. Much can be done to keep costs in control, but MRIs cost more than bandages, and tomorrows technology may cost more still. Things haven’t gotten that bad in Europe, and they won’t for awhile, but graffiti is already on the rise, what’s next?
Welcome, U.S.A., to the first world of universal health care. Now it’s time to learn a bit more from our European counterparts who are a few steps ahead of us on this path. The U.S. Constitution does not guarantee health care as a right. Let’s make sure we understand the consequences before make that mistake.
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03.22.10
Posted in Society, Travel at 7:56 by RjZ
“Sure, Germans are cold and stand-offish, but once you make a friend with a German, it’s a deep relationship that lasts forever.”
I love stereotypes; honestly, they save time and they’re true enough that if you don’t get hung up on forcing people into them even when they don’t actually fit, they can be very handy. Indeed, building relationships, personal or business, stereotypes can be a critical perspective into understanding how others may think differently than you expect at first.
“Americans are very friendly, but it’s all very surface, none of the people I met there during my exchange year are still my friends.”
Much of my blog, essentially, is about stereotypes. If I make a generalization about the Thai, the Chinese, the Germans, or the Americans, am I not stereotyping? I got to thinking about this whole stereotyping thing thanks to recent travels and it’s raised some confusing questions. For example, is that whole friend thing really just about definitions of “friend?” If one language reserves the word for deep, long lasting relationships, and the other uses the translation more freely, then couldn’t this explain why one groups thinks the other is frivolous without realizing that Americans may just qualify for clarity (as I have been forced to do here) when they mean, you know, real friend?
“Italians are just warmer. Generally people from warmer climates are just more full of life. You can’t seriously tell me you haven’t noticed that!”
Each of these examples, reasonably true to some extent, is also patently absurd. Really? Americans don’t make friends that last a long time? Germans, statistically, are less mobile than Americans, but in spite of the distance, I am still friends with the guy I used to deliver newspapers with in the seventh grade. I lived in Germany and Holland for almost a decade and made almost no lasting friendships. Well, there you go, “almost none.” In other words, make a friend in these cold climate cultures and they last forever, see? I guess I must have proven the point after all. Except there really is no real correlation. How many deep, long lasting friendships is any one person likely to have? More likely is that some of the friends we make result in long lasting relationships and some don’t and it has little to do with where you or the friend are from, so long as you connect.
Anyone who has even been to an Italian family dinner can tell you how warm and friendly they can be. It’s hot in Thailand where their friendliness has grown into a country-wide stereotype: “the land of smiles.” Of course, Russians are famous for deep relationships founded on a bottle of vodka but I hear it’s pretty cold there. Doesn’t it seem ridiculous to assume that these surface characteristics mean dinner with a Finnish family is as cold as Helsinki winter? Indeed, very cold climate countries have traditions of letting anyone who comes by late at night in for lodging lest they freeze in the cold. Of course, maybe they’re mean to you if you use this privilege.
Certainly, social mores and cultural biases result in groups of people withholding personal information about their families while for others it’s a condition of conversation. Of course, some groups, on the surface, appear one way or another from the viewpoint of someone outside of their culture; but what’s getting me is that it seems crazy to assume that cold climates make for cold people who can’t make friends, but that these same people, when they finally make a friend, are better at it than any body else. The whole story seems contradictory to me, which is exactly what happens if you bother to analyze stereotypes any further than the shorthand for which they are actually useful.
I’d love to hear what you think? Are Germans really colder? Can’t American’s make deep friendships. Ever met an Italian who was cool and reserved? Or a boistrous Thai? What do the exceptions mean for the stereotypes anyway?
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