We did 4 day trip to NYC again like last year this time with Vili as his birthday present (we were there also last year with Otto and in both times the trigger was rock bottom prices from Stockman's Hullut Päivät ;o)...Very nice trip again ! I sort of love NYC - everybody can be an insider and an outsider at the same time ?? Just walking around all day is an ever chaning experience.
Anyway.... It's propably me getting older ;o) but again (besides enjoying just simply walking around the city observing the life and the people) the trip raised lots of thoughts about how different worlds we are living in different parts of world. Eg to me the way that society seems to really be divided to people who are doing really (what to Europeans seem to be) totally irrelevant/meaningless jobs, earning 5USD (?) per hour and having absolutely no possibility to participate to official mainstream life (??) of overwhelming consuming (?) and to officially promoted world with happy people buying their everyday "Gourmet Pannini with NY Pastrami and medium size Latte" from a deli (worth of 8-10 bucks) ... capable buying their own way to happiness ? Well, on the other hand eg the Skandinavian system (where if you don't have a job available which to you are being trained for you are "entitled" to stay unemployed and still get paid sufficiently to live ~OK) might seem equally ackward as the US system to me.
Another thing is the amazing waste of energy which can be seen overwhelmingly everywhere. Eg cars everywhere are pretty much ~all consuming I guess about 2-3 times more than typically the models used in Europe would consume.... For no reason really.
Also I personally hate tipping "culture" in it's US format - it's really mandatory and not realated to any special will to reward good service. The tipping "culture" in US is nothing but additional "tax" where the employers/business owners instead of paying fair salaries to their employees (and putting the correct price to the eg menu) they saddle their customers with those expenses.
Another thing is the size of everything - why the ---k has everything to be so big ? Really I'm a relatively big guy (189cm - 92kg) but the portions are in general always beyond anything I could rationally even think of eating - why oh why ? Humanly reasonable sized portions with even maybe slightly lower price would make everybody much better in the long run ? ;o)
Well, as I said I admit I'm a slave to my own culture and perceptions - things in EU seem to equally strange in here to US citizens ?
Samuel Adams rocks anyway !!! ;o)
2 comments:
Interesting. I can share quite a few of these observations. Consumption is the essence of life here. Scary, huh? It's easy to fall into the trap with the endless stream of commercials on tv and radio, catalogues, women's magazines, peer pressure, internet shopping, product placement, you name it. Consuming energy and using natural resources for our petty whims... Help! And poverty is visible in a way unknown for Scandinavia. What a paradox. How to turn a blind eye? Greetings from the land of plenty, Eija
Totta virkot, Eija ! Life is full of... ;o)
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