Misc March 09

Some people say that Hitler was not German, but Austrian. That is not completely true. They forget that Hitler had become a naturalized German citizen sometime before WWII started. So, according to the German law, he was now a German. And it is the German law that decides who is German and who is not. Not you. Not me.

So, Hitler was not “originally” a German national, but he ‘became’ one. Any problem with that? The Nazi Germany let a naturalized citizen hold the highest office in the land while in America, the Constitution prohibits it.

I wonder what conclusion one can draw from that.

***

Native people in tropical regions appear lazy because of the traditional rhythm of planting and harvesting there being different from other colder areas. In the tropics one can plant and harvest many times so there is no hurry to do anything now. This tradition of not hurrying is transferred into other areas of one’s life. The same goes for subtropics and other regions where winters are short and mild and summers are long. People just have more time; also they do not need to work as hard because of land giving them so much.

In colder regions people have long winters and if you do not hurry, once it sets in and you have not prepared to weather it in a warm house somewhere with enough grain and meat stashed up, you will starve and die. So, you have less time and you hurry more.
The famous fable of an ant and a grasshopper can have a different twist if we stipulate that the grasshopper was a laid back and happy Malay or Southern Indian living in his land, while the ant was a Korean, a Japanese, or a Briton.

Of course, there are exceptions to the rule and other factors such as overpopulation ion some areas that makes life for “grasshoppers” not as comfortable or wars or things like that. In colder regions you have new generations of lazy people who are used to the luxuries and technologies bestowed upon them by their laborious ancestors and who are now lazy as all get out. You also have countries in the tropics where most of the population are descendants of recent immigrants from colder areas- such as Australia, Hong Kong, etc. But, by and large, if you look at the history of mankind, the North does seem to have more paranoid people who value time more.

***
Deciding to live in more that one country can be an effective cure against discrimination. Even living in only one other country sometimes seems to work- look at the Puritans. They were discriminated against in England so they went to America. Millions of other people who faced all kinds of discrimination at home, be it economic, religious, political or even racial (such as mixed kids in Vietnam and Japan) found that moving to the US significantly alleviated the discrimination and opened up new opportunities for them. Women from regions where they have few rights( such as Africa and even Japan), people who were hopelessly stuck in a social class from which there is no escape in their society, benefited greatly by moving to the West.
It is ironic now that there is as a small but steady stream of refugees from the West to other countries and these are running away from other problems and these are mostly men: there are male refugees who are escaping feminism and the severe lack of dating partners who go to Eastern Europe, South East Asia and Latin America, there are also Asian American men who are discovering that they are much more wanted in other countries than back in the Anglosphere, Black men who feel that they will be treated better in France than back in the USA, white men who are moving from new socialist South Africa and Zimbabwe to the Middle East where they are appreciated more and do not fall under new Black Empowerment quotas which makes them the least hire-able group of society. The male talent drain is not openly discussed or noted in the media but it is a growing trend which hundreds of thousands of people join every year. Some fail in new lands, many succeed. They are the underreported migrants but we will be hearing more and more about them some day.

***

One of the most unpleasant thing to be told as a foreigner in a faraway land and the one that leaves you the most upset is when they tell you that you take jobs away from the locals. It makes you feel helpless, unneeded, unwanted and unwelcome. Such things are often heard in the West, particularly the US, Canada, UK, etc. No matter what job you will take even the ones for which there are not enough candidates, there will always be someone grumbling, so consider yourself lucky if you never hear it.

One part of the world where you seldom hear such accusations is the Arab Gulf countries. If you tell the locals that you are there teaching or doing other things that are helping the country, they love hearing it and tell you that they want you to stay for a long time. Once in Oman, a local told me” Welcome to my country, welcome, I hope you stay here for the rest of your life”. These are good things to hear and they make you feel really good about yourself. The exception is Kuwait where some expats were told that they were robbing the country’s economy. But these things were almost never said to Westerners, but rather to other Arabs from poorer countries. However, by and large, as far as the welcome of the locals to a Western national who wants to work there and make good money at that, the Gulf countries can’t be beat.

***

Can you imagine being like one of the Astors who used to throw lavish parties for the elite in prestigious city areas like, say, Manhattan? But how much would a birthday party for say, twenty people cost in Manhattan? We are talking about thousands and thousands of dollars.

But all you have to do is find another “Manhattan-like” area – a high rise- filled downtown of which there are now aplenty in so many developing countries. The Makati area in Manila is such a “Manhattan”. I have been able to host a birthday party in a large mall among skyscrapers and luxury hotels with all the food and drinks all of us ( there were twenty of us, all together) could handle. It cost me a bit over $400. Simply amazing! All you have to do is change the location and you become one of the Astors.


***

Learning the language of a country does not necessarily mean that you will not be cheated or swindled. Some people seem to think that if they will become fluent in the tongue of some country that is notorious for its corrupt and dishonest locals, they would be able to avoid being taken to the cleaners. Sometimes it helps, in cases when they gossip about you and plan to say, overcharge you, but sometimes it does not. In some cases, it will make you even more attractive to conmen (and con-women) who would otherwise not dare approach you because of their poor English skills, but who now feel emboldened to worm themselves into your confidence. They pretend that they are now your guides that are helping you to learn the language even better and to introduce you to more customs and opportunities of the country. So, do not relax your guard once you speak the lingo. Better learn from other expats and well meaning locals about what scams are the most popular, and watch out for those. Mastering the language is a praiseworthy undertaking but do not nurture illusions that it will make you much less vulnerable to scams.

***

A middle aged unmarried /divorced man in the Western world is a miserable has been who has pretty much no hope to have a normal love life unless he is a super duper millionaire, and famous to boot. For an average, 40+, 50+ year old Joe Gringo, love, as he (used to) know(s) it, is finished. That is something out of a distant past, a piece of bitter nostalgia that will never come back to him again.

However, a simple miracle of changing locations flips that reality right over. A 40+, 50+ year old foreigner in many places in Asia and Latin America is a highly sought after commodity that young women will be fighting over. Why? Well, because being mature is an asset; not a liability in those places. You have your head firmly on your shoulders, you have money ( hopefully) and you offer stability. You can be a leader and a guide, a real man that is so hard to find in those highly unstable, iffy nations. And yes, it means that you may be paying a small allowance to a young lady (or two or more), but she( or they of you wish) will be absolutely gorgeous, most probably virgins and they will be thanking God and their lucky stars that a man like that appeared in their lives. Taking one of them shopping and buying them $200 worth of clothes, groceries and toiletries will make you a super hero in their widely open eyes. No local guy would ever help them like that, so, enter you, a friendly, middle aged foreigner. Just like a dream come true.

So, stop reading singles ad for 40 year old women with three kids who want gorgeous young studs to fight over them, and who get that to happen, too. Get on that plane and have young women fight over YOU!

***

In a lot of South East Asian countries, getting married is a very easy thing. If yo have got money, that is. Why is that? Well, because women there have a different concept of love, culturally speaking, that is.
In the West many believe that you need to first be romantically in love with the person, and then you get married. In many places in SE Asia, they believe that you should marry first, and then you fall in love later, after you have been married for some time.

You may find that philosophy to be calculating and unnatural, but I have read that there have been studies that show that such, more often than not arranged marriages are the happiest ones. Usually such women marry men for money and they hope to fall in love later. The surprising thing is that this formula seems to work as long as the man is not too disgusting to be around, is kind and responsible and does not hurt the woman. Of course marrying a smelly 65 year old hippopotamus may not be the most pleasant thing in the world, but an otherwise semi attractive, not to repulsive man may eventually win the girls heart, especially when kids appear on the scene.

Marriage invariable involves a strong financial aspect which stays on long after the romantic attraction fades away. Yes, the financial aspect will last decades upon decades whereas romance will weaken after a few months to few years. Wise women know that, and there are many very practical, although not unkind women who understand the true nature of such unions, particularly, if they are to take place in unstable economies of the so called Third world.

So, in other words, she comes into the marriage for money and she stays for love. And the formula seems to work better than the” come for love, then seek money together” one. This is obvious in the relatively small number of divorces that come about in the case of “practical” Third world marriages. So, if you are in a market for a wife in South East Asia, and have ready cash, do not be afraid to try to offer the beautiful woman the” marry for stability first, fall in love later” option. More often than not, she will say “Yes” with a smile.