Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id DAA25038 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Fri, 19 Apr 2002 03:40:32 +0100 X-Originating-IP: [209.240.222.132] From: "Scott Chase" <ecphoric@hotmail.com> To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk Subject: RE: Bush's War on Terrorism Date: Thu, 18 Apr 2002 22:34:30 -0400 Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed Message-ID: <F124YEgFK69YRHwtzoB0000367b@hotmail.com> X-OriginalArrivalTime: 19 Apr 2002 02:34:30.0812 (UTC) FILETIME=[BBD725C0:01C1E74A] Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
>From: Steve Drew <srdrew_1@hotmail.com>
>Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
>To: <memetics@mmu.ac.uk>
>Subject: RE: Bush's War on Terrorism
>Date: Thu, 18 Apr 2002 21:13:13 +0100
>
>Hi Vincent
>
> > Date: Thu, 18 Apr 2002 15:14:06 +0100
> > From: Vincent Campbell <v.p.campbell@stir.ac.uk>
> > Subject: RE: Bush's War on Terrorism
> >
> > <I'm starting to feel like a travel agent. Check out Tunisia and
> > Morocco.
> >> Lots of American and European expats live in both.>
> >>
> > Surely that would make them less desirable to live in ? :-)
> >
> >>> Can't say I know of a muslim country that would be nice to live
> > in.>>
> >
> > I nearly missed this rather nasty little sentence. Beware sweeping
> > generalisations, whoever wrote this.
> >
> > Vincent
>
>It is not a sweeping generalisation, it is my personal judgement based upon
>my preferences of which you know very little about. I have nothing against
>anyone unless they take issue with me. From the information I have read I
>do
>not believe I know of a muslim country that would be nice to live in, but
>because I do not know (and that is why I used the word do not know) means I
>can be persuaded In the face of evidence to the contrary. As I say in an
>earlier post, I would be happy to visit the counties and meet the people,
>who I gather are generally hospitable and friendly, like most people in the
>world. I just love living where I am. The nastiness resides in your
>interpretation, not the sentence.
>
>
There's plenty of places in the U.S. that might be nice to visit but I don't
think I could live there. Big city livin' ain't my thang. I'd go need a
padded cell and straightjacket if I were forced to spend more than a month
in metropolitan NYC or LA. I've got lots of relatives in the Boston area.
It's a nice place to visit, but... Even though I live further south than
what I call the "Deep South", I don't think I could deal with living in
Appalachia either. I'm not fond of hustle bustle, but I'm not fond of
molasses and cornbread stagnation either. In summary, one could probably
point to plenty of places within the borders of their own countries they
wouldn't want to live, but visitation might be a different story.
When I visited England, my first day or so involved a combo of jet lag and
severe culture shock. They spoke English (I think that's what they call it),
but things seemed so very different than I was used to that I sort of went
blank for a day or so. Seeing punk-rockers on "The Tube" or whatever the
London subway is called pretty much shattered my little mind. They made
Billy Idol look like a young Republican poster child.
After a couple days I got used to it and even picked up a tad of a British
accent via osmosis.
The biggest obstacle in travelling to another country is culture shock,
experiencing things that are way different than you take for granted. France
was an experience in itself, because the French are...well...French ;-) I
was disappointed that Quasimodo wasn't at Notre Dame BTW. I almost got a
case of beer dropped on my head from an upper story apartment in the
Parisian Latin Quarter.
Any country is going to be hard to cope with given language barriers and
cultural differences. Islamic countries are probably even more so because of
some mutual hostility and misunderstanding, though I"ve heard good things
about Turkey from someone who travelled there and Egypt has its own
historical legacy that should be a strong magnet in itself. For US-ian
history we have St. Augustine here in Florida and some buildings with
historical value in regions like the American Revolution areas around
Boston. Egypt is about as historical as it gets, making colonial
Massachusetts look like a new housing development.
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