February 1, 2009 in Links
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what I am claiming to do is, probably, just to represent the typical visitor’s point of view. And, Paul Theroux is very good in suggesting that there is a dishonesty in claiming we don’t have judgments. We all make very unfair judgments about the places we go, and when a Chinese person comes to Iowa City, he or she makes unfair judgments about us, as we do about him, and that’s part of the process of how a dialogue begins and evolves. And I think I have one small advantage over some people, which is that when I am traveling around Asia, looking at how it took in western stuff, I am partly an Asian and partly Western, so I can claim a small acquaintance with both sides of the dialogue.
Deeper than that, though, I never really worry about the issue, because every writer is an outsider on the subject he is writing about. Even if he is writing about his mother or his hometown, he has to be, to some degree, a foreigner to speak to the reader, who is, almost by definition, a foreigner, too.
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tied down nowhere, we can pick and choose among locations…At a superficial level, this new internationalism means that I can meet, in the Hilton coffee shop, an Indonesian businessman who is as conversant as I am with Magic Johnson and Madonna. At a deeper level, it means that I need never feel estranged. If all the world is alien to us, all the world is home.
I have learned to love foreignness. In any place I visit, I have the privileges of an outsider: I am an object of interest, and even fascination; I am a person set apart, able to enjoy the benefits of the place without paying the taxes. And the places themselves seem glamorous to me-romantic-as seen through foreign eyes: distance on both sides lends enchantment…Perpetual foreigners in the transit lounge, we enjoy a kind of diplomatic immunity; and, living off room service in our hotel rooms, we are never obliged to grow up, or even…to be ourselves…
Home is the place of which one has memories but no expectations.
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Many people assume that religion is what keeps people moral, that a society without God would be hell on earth: rampant with immorality, full of evil, and teeming with depravity. But that doesn't seem to be the case for Scandinavians in those two countries…their overall rates of violent crime…are among the lowest on earth. Yet the majority of Danes and Swedes do not believe that God is "up there," keeping diligent tabs on their behavior, slating the good for heaven and the wicked for hell. Most Danes and Swedes don't believe that sin permeates the world, and that only Jesus, the Son of God, who died for their sins, can serve as a remedy. In fact, most Danes and Swedes don't even believe in the notion of "sin."
So the typical Dane or Swede doesn't believe all that much in God. And simultaneously, they don't commit much murder. But aren't they a dour, depressed lot, all the same?…the country that leads the globe…in terms of its residents' overall level of happiness is …Denmark.
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A degree in journalism doesn’t bring with it a license to bully, not sensitivity in reporting. May be its hard to digest that a lot of people in the blogworld have far more well-informed opinions made in a far better manner than a lot of “professional” journalists can even hope to achieve.
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The BlackBerry is a symbol of always being beckoned somewhere else. In comes an e-mail from a colleague, a client, an old flame, each asking for a little piece of our attention, which, if granted, only begets more demands on our time. We're pulled by work when we're at home and by home when we're at work, torn by the multiple things we could be getting done.
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February 14, 2009 at 5:59 pm
That drawing was hilarious!LOLz!
Now I’m going to check Aru’s each homework.