More of My Expat Observations

[ladislav]

Friday, March 06, 2009
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.

***

If you have failed in your search for riches which is such a flaky and capricious thing to begin with, you are guaranteed not to fail in your search for cheapness.

There are places in the world that are so cheap that you are assured of becoming ‘rich’ there with even little of your Western money. So, if you did not make it in the West until you hit middle age, start looking for cheap places now!

***

Saudis have been getting bad rap in Western media for decades now. Either they are portrayed as religious fanatics bent on killing the infidel, or as arrogant, expensive shades- wearing profligates riding around in Land Rovers smiling with a sardonic and evil smile and throwing money around. They are always shown as either dour or haughty, which is complete falsehood.

An image of a dagger/bomb- wielding average Saudi with an angry expression on his face is a complete fabrication. If you base that on some terrorists from the lunatic fringe of their society, then every American should be portrayed as Jeffrey Dahmer and every Brit as Jack the Ripper.

If there is a nation that is somewhat similar to Saudis in behaviour, it is the Japanese. An average Saudi is a very soft spoken, immaculately polite and modest person. Always clean, with freshly pressed clothes and smelling just as fresh. Arrogance is against the Saudis’ religion. Saudis also exhibit very little racism as there are no visible divisions between blacks and whites. There are no black mosques and white mosques as the case would be in the Anglo world.

Saudis come from many ethnic backgrounds and reflect years of intermarriage with many races. Some Saudis even belong to Nordic and East Asians races and all are Saudis by law. There is no hyphenation. A Saudi is a Saudi. You can see lily-white kids and very black kids all playing together. A very African looking Saudi will say with pride- “ I am a hundred percent Arab!�

The Saudi nation has been a home to millions of foreigners for many decades, and it is very rare that you see angry Saudis attacking them for “taking jobs away� or telling them to “go back to their country� as would often be the case in the West. Or even in Africa. They have welcomed foreign workers, and also, pay Westerners higher salaries than they pay their own people. They bend over backwards to make sure that Westerners feel comfortable and stay there for a long time. The welcome includes free housing and utilities, free transportation to work and, sometimes, free food, free cars and gasoline, long vacations ( some as long as 3-4 months in a year) free school for children and even free clothing. No tax is collected from anybody.

Saudis are easy to get along with; easy to work with. Living among Saudis assures you privacy as well as absence of loud noises and loud music being played. People are quiet, shy, and very considerate of others. Your privacy is guaranteed.

What probably differentiates them from the Japanese is the fact that an average Saudi is not as serious-looking. They are generally in a happy, joking mood all the time, are smiley and accommodating. Saudis are especially so in the countryside.

There are still some intertribal frictions in the country left over from ages past, and there are occasional wacko terrorists who threaten everyone’s well being. Many Saudis, though, have died saving foreigners from terrorists in their country. Now, after enormous crackdowns and severe punishments, terrorism has been virtually eradicated and many Westerners who have left during the spate of attacks in 2003 have come back.

Contrary to the popular myth, properly religious Saudis do not consider Westerners to be “infidels� because they share the same God and the same monotheistic faith. Those who have said that about Westerners are very ignorant and ill-informed. They do however call Westerners Khawajas (from which the Spanish word Gabacho comes), which basically means something like “Gringos�, but it is not a pejorative.

Having said all that, Saudis have a very strict religion-based legal system and those who come to work in the KSA (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia) should follow it because Saudis themselves follow it. When in Rome, do as Romans do. They do not force people to convert to their religion, but simply insist that they behave in a modest and proper way in public and do not violate local laws.

Many Westerners, including Black Americans who have converted to the local faith have been able to marry local ladies. Ethnicity does not mean much in Saudi Arabia.

The demonization of Saudis in the Western media is unfair. Do not pay attention to it.


***
An Oil Rich Customer is Always Right.

A British professor at some Oman university failed a young female student for absenteeism, being consistently late and not to completing the class assignments. When the lazy student desperately pleaded with him to pass her, he adamantly refused to budge and remained true to his principles that a person should be responsible for his/her actions (or lack thereof) and should reap the just results thereof. No passing grade was given in spite of her entreaties.
The girl went back to the mountains and consulted the tribal elders. The mountain tribe swept down into the city and virtually “stormed� the university. The student was passed, the British professor got fired.

Dismissed! Out the bloody door!

What is the moral of the story?
Don’t be so anal when dealing with people in these oil rich lands. Learn to be flexible. Relax your principles a bit. Or face a shameful dismissal. Got it?

***

If you are a native of a land standing inside the airport of any nation on earth and observing the stream of people who are coming in you may come to some wrong conclusions.

For example, if you see many people from a certain country or region coming to yours because of a certain attraction be it geographical, religious, economic or culinary, you will probably exclaim- see, all these people from this region (or these regions) of the Earth are coming in because a) our country has the best ( insert the attraction) and b) just about everybody abroad is interested in this attraction, that is why “everybody’ is coming here. Any number of people that seems bigger than usual will be equated with ‘everybody’ and will fill the native with patriotic pride and even haughtiness. This also refers to immigration of poorer people into the country. See? Everybody wants to settle here!

In reality though, such provincial natives have no idea what other airports looks like and how many people are arriving there. Those who are bragging about how everybody wants to immigrate into their country also confuse immigration with “worldwide migration� which involves hundreds of millions of people. Some 200 million are now living an expat life, as emigrants, immigrants, temporary laborers and retirees. A huge part of the traffic is from poorer countries to richer ones, but there is also tourist traffic that is not necessarily economically based, as well as retiree traffic, from richer to poorer countries or shall I say, from more expensive to cheaper ones.

However, it still keeps the natives of many a place proud and, at times, arrogant as they mistake any stream of people migrating in with “everybody�. You will be able to witness such arrogant citizens who think that their country is God’s gift to man in so many places in the world just because they have seen so many foreigners coming in.

***

Animals do not seem to have nation states, do they? Yeah, they are territorial, in a way but do they conflate a strange combination of their quacking, their subspecies and then a certain land area that they occupy into a holy abstraction of a country or do they? They do not have nationalities in our sense. Do they organize into protecting a swamp, a field from invaders? In way, I guess but they do not seem imbued with the same sacred idea of nationhood that we do. They do not have a brain for it, and it is just as well. They travel without passports and visas and do not need to get extension, green cards, etc.

Do birds have nation states with borders in the skies? Do fish and mollusks have nation- states at the bottom of the ocean? How does it work with them?

***

There are many places in the world where there is a big queue in front of a US Embassy with people lining up to get visas. Many an American will gloat and say- see? How come there are no such lines in our country with Americans lining up to get visas to go to their country? Well, the reason is basically that US Embassies in poorer (and even not so poor ) countries require a personal interview to let those people in. Americans, on the other hand, for example those going to Saudi Arabia to work or Kuwait (which number in tens of thousands) get their visas by mail through a visa agent or even upon arrival into the country. So, no personal interview is required from the host countries for most of the 6,000,000 US citizens living and working there. Hence, you do not see Americans standing in the rain to get visas to go to another nation state.

***

Those alpha males who think they will escape from Feminism and leftism in the West by moving to the Arab world are in for a big disappointment particularly if they work in the educational field. Huge numbers of teaching and administrative positions are now occupied by ill tempered middle aged Western females who are feminist and often socialist. Many have a chip on their shoulder and they will unleash the bile of their life’s past bitternesses upon your head if you happen to work for them. Many of them are extremely cruel, nasty and they can report you at the drop of a hat for the smallest infraction and even file abuse charges against you. Being fired by them for the smallest, most capricious pretense is a common occurrence

Where are the Arabs doing about all this? Do they allow this to go on in a traditional male environment? Yes, outside of Saudi Arabia, they do. At universities many an Arab rector and dean delight in having middle management positions staffed by middle aged Western women with an attitude. It lends certain modernity to their institutions and shows how much they appreciate diversity. It also attracts Arab male students many of whom enjoy having a female Western teacher- it’s is just so exotic and novel to them.

Many of these females end up having Arab admirers and even boyfriends with almost total impunity all the while Western men working there often do not get any female companionship to speak of.

The only country that does not allow this is, again, Saudi Arabia. There, you can be sure that your boss will be a man and there will be no Feminism at work. However, I the countries around Saudi Arabia, you may end up working for much more vicious feminazis that even back home.

Fortunately, there are also some kind females around who will be a pleasure to work with but do not expect to run away from the modern man hating female despots by moving to the Gulf (outside of Saudi). So, be careful.

[momopi]

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.

I think the above also applies to East Asia, where match-making is concerned:
http://www.sexybeijing.tv/new/video.asp?id=103

Recently, China's #1 female chess player Tang-Li published her match-making requirements, which caused minor controversy on the income requirement. She's 27, single, 174 cm height, 57.5 kg weight, financially well off, and looking for a husband. Her requirements are:

Male age 28-35
Body height >178cm (over 5'11")
Annual income in excess of 1 million RMB (about $146,000 USD)
Ideally, someone who understand the game of "go" chess, mature, & stable (meaning stable family life and work/income)

An annual income of $146k USD is about average in the US for doctors and engineers, but quite a large sum in China. The amount is controversial, but Tang-Li herself is financially well off, and culturally women prefer to be match with men who have same or better level of education, income, and height. It's easy for well to do men to "marry down", but difficult for a wealthy women to "marry up".







Before Tang Li, there was Zhu Chen, who was China's 2nd women's chess grandmaster. She meet Qatari Chessmaster Mohamad Al-Modiahki in a chess match in Malaysia in 1994. The couple married later and she converted to Islam & became Qatari citizen. Currently they have a daughter, Zhu Chen runs a company in China and represents Qatar in international chess competitions. Their marriage was controversial at the time due to the extreme differences in their background, but Zhu Chen stated that it was difficult to find a man matching her level.

[Winston]

Thanks Ladislav. I will add it to your Expatriate Observations and Lessons Ebook.

Momopi, I didn't know a girl in China could make a lot of money from chess.

[momopi]

Thanks Ladislav. I will add it to your Expatriate Observations and Lessons Ebook.

Momopi, I didn't know a girl in China could make a lot of money from chess.

Tang-Li also works as a model and does product endorsements. But she's not anywhere near Anna Kournikova, who cashed in over $3.5 million from her tennis prize money alone.

"Go" chess is not as popular in the US, but very popular in East Asia. During Tang Dynasty era the "Four Accompolishments" of a gentlemen are calligraphy, painting, music, and go. This culture was then exported to the educated class in Korea, Japan, Ryukyu (Okinawa), Vietnam, etc.

Recently, a Japanese comic book & anime series "Hikaru no Go" is reponsible for a surge of interest in the game among the younger generation across Eastern Asia. It remains to be seen if the impact is long-lasting.

Google "Arianne Caoili", she's a famous Pinay chess player who attained Master title. She's also a celebrity dancer on "Dancing with the Stars". Pretty girl.

[Winston]

Are you talking about "Go"? That's a totally different game and not usually called chess. Are those China girl champions you mentioned champions of Go and not the Western style chess?

I tried Go a few times. I couldn't get the hang of it. The strategy was kind of abstract and didn't fit my thinking. I am much more of a natural at chess. I heard that Go is supposed to be deeper and more complicated than chess though. Frankly. I don't find it as exciting.

[ladislav]

In the Arab culture race and ethnicity of a wife is not very important. In the Koran they teach that there is no difference between an Arab and a non-Arab. Hence, Arabs have been marrying people of all races since the dawn of Islam. In that respect at least, they are ahead of the West. Bringing home a non Arab wife is a normal thing. Arabs' wives become citizens of the country, even an oil rich Qatar, very quickly.

It unfortunately does not work as well if a non Arab man wants to marry an Arab woman. And it does not make you a citizen even if you manage to. Your kids inherit your citizenship, not hers. That is the law. And them being born in an Arab country means nothing. Every time, while I discover the marvels of the Arab world, I also discover more and more disadvantages that being a man brings. Wonders just never cease, do they?

[ladislav]

Upgrading Wretched First and Second Generation Immigrants, Socially Displaced Persons and Other Misfits:

There is a small percentage of world population which I would term socially displaced people. These people are strangers everywhere they go, are unneeded as friends and lovers and are lonely as all get out. In this article, I would like to show how we can improve their lot by making them multipatriate- i. e, residents of more than one country and how we can upgrade them to an Expat status which is an honourable title in many parts of the world. I will only talk about those misfits who are citizens of the Western world but who cannot enjoy its social benefits. These are usually 1st and 2nd generation immigrants, naturalized citizens, mostly males and mostly young.

Think Palestinians for one. A very unfortunate group- they have no citizenship, the land which they lived on was taken be people “returning� from a 2000 year old exile, and few nations around them want them. Those fortunate enough to get to the West are not particularly well treated by the local population there, either. Sure, in many a Western country they qualify for welfare and student aid and other social programs, and can progress professionally and financially. They can finally attain Western citizenship. However, many suffer from a social stigma that the Western society puts on them. They are accused of being terrorists, experience discrimination on the job market, and most often than not, rejection in the mainstream daily social life. People do not want to befriend them; girls do not want to date them. Becoming and being an immigrant is not a picnic, period, how much worse is it if you are of an unpopular ethnicity and origin?

Even before we talk about them being former Palestinians, it is important to note that “immigrant� is not a good term or a good word to begin with. It sounds bad. Immigrant ,basically, means trouble, poverty, being unwelcome (again, socially, not politically, as most Western countries have excellent democratic institutions that will enable those people to have equal rights under the law). But law is one thing, while how people feel about becoming your friend and associating with you is another thing. Once an immigrant particularly from a non Western nation, one will often forever be referred to as such long after he has become a citizen of those Western societies.

Things are especially bad if they belong to a group that is routinely vilified in movies or on the news :think of being a young Arab American man in the US, an Iranian, or a Russian. These groups are constantly shown in bad light in the media, and even though many people know that media does not tell the truth, still, negative messages are subliminally injected into people’s brains and negative associations are created. In the case such immigrants arrive young, they will be picked on and teased by other kids and many (again not all) will be severely traumatized by such experiences.


Take an Arab citizen of Israel. They do not belong there and do not particularly belong anywhere else. They can move to the West and prosper professionally, but they will probably never obtain any serious social status or be “popular� there. “Some�- the instrumental word is ‘some’, may do OK, but most will remain on the margins, socially speaking. So, being an Israeli Arab in Israel is bad, it is bad to be one in Arab countries- you are seen as a traitor, and it is not a good thing to be one in the USA as you may suffer from a double- anti-Semitism. Many girls in the US, UK, Canada, would not want to date an Arab.

So, if you are a young Israeli Arab man, you will, most probably, have a tough life in many places, including the West.

Young Russian ladies are a delicious morsel sought by many a love hungry Western man. If you are a young Russian woman in France, USA, Canada, Australia, you have got it made. Guys will be all over you. Now, what if you are a young Russian man? How will you do? Most Western women will probably run away from you thinking you Mafia, Communist, wife beater and alcoholic. Russian guys in the US do not do very well. Russian girls are not threats and they do very, very nicely. Being a Russian man anywhere in the West usually means- no girl!


I am happy for those who have not suffered from such social prejudices and I hope they continue their happy lives forever. But this article is not about them. It is about those guys who because of an ‘unpopular’ ethnic background have not been able to enjoy a normal social life that includes the simple rights to be able to make normal friends in the country where you live and to have a girl.

Here are some examples that I am quite familiar with: Pakistani Brits for one. These guys are neither fish nor fowl. Indians and Pakistanis call them� Brits� while ‘real’ Brits call them Indians and Pakistanis. You can also include Bosnian Serbs into the same category. In Bosnia, the other ethnic groups were killing them for being Serbs, but in Serbia they call them ‘Bosnians’. Indians in Uganda, who were kicked out by Idi Amin did not go back to India, but ended up in the UK. Ugandan Blacks called them ‘Indians’, the UK people called them Ugandans. Again, they become a neither-fish-nor-fowl kind of people when they move to the West. If you are a young man in a similar situation, the main effect that you will feel will be social- hard to make friends, hard to get a girl to date you.

There are other refugees to the West who cannot go back to the country of origin, sometimes because they were expelled for political views, sometimes because of wrong ancestry and their old country now being occupied by an ethnic group of another ancestry, sometimes because they are stuck in a country that became independent and they or their parents are not of the dominant race there ( such as Russians who are stuck in the Baltic countries, or Germans who got stuck in Poland once, or Greeks who got stuck in Turkey sometime back, etc. Once they become dating age men in the West, they do not usually do very well. Too poor, too recent, unpopular countries; therefore, not seen as good dating partners by local girls.

In addition to the above, there are the traditional visible minorities in the West who had been born and bread there, but who do not feel they belong to the mainstream culture and who feel that they are discriminated against. They can be children of immigrants, they can be indigenous people or they can be people who just look different. Asian Americans? Indian Americans? There are many such people, and the greatest misfits and the loneliest among them seem to be their young men. Women who are ‘different’ are often seen as exotic, and in many (again not all) cases, eventually, they meet a mainstream male who will take them under his protective wing. Or they end up marrying a successful guy from their own community. It seems that women have got it easier as a rule, especially those under 40, but even after 40, they still have better chances than men of fitting in. The above is my observation and I can be wrong. But that is what I have seen and this is what I am sharing with you. In immigrant communities men almost always seem to outnumber women,

Anyway, assuming that you are one of such people, are young ( or young at heart) male and unmarried, and you arrived (or had been born) in the West, you feel lonely and do not sense that you fit in no matter what you do, and you cannot go back to “ your country� , you have several choices:

1) Keep trying to fit in. Good luck, but, in most cases, it is like squaring the circle. You will never completely fit in.
2) Stay with your own race- a very primitive, defeatist, and not a good solution because in most immigrant communities, women are stuck up ( if you are not rich) and many do not like to be around you as they would rather either get a rich local and join the mainstream whatever that or get a richer immigrant man. In addition to that, enclosing yourself within your own group also contributes to the development of your own form of Apartheid, which I think we should all be against.
3) Concentrate on making money and getting a good education. Not a bad idea and it can somewhat improve your social life, but my feeling is, this solution has limitations, too, particularly if you are planning on staying on where you are.
4) Find a poorer country and go and live there. You will see your social status skyrocket. Upgrade yourself. Bump yourself up from an “Immigrant� or an unpopular ethnicity, to “Western Expat�. Upgrade yourself from a “Black guy� or “an Asian guy� to an “American�; from a “Vietnamese Refugee� to an ‘Australian� , from a “Maori� to a ‘ New Zealander’, from a “Paki� to ‘a guy from England’. You will be able to achieve that if you go to a so called Third World country. You will have friends up the ying yang and more girls that you cold shake a stick at. You will learn to use inter-etnic and inter-country differences to your advantage and not against you.

In case of #4, the only thing standing between you and a rick social life is a bit of money. The trick is making being able to make a living in hard currency, and in just, generally, having enough cash to carry the whole thing out. But if you are in the West now and are a citizen of the West,this absolutely can be done because the West is all about financial opportunities. Think had and take advantage of those so that later you can take advantage of social opportunities in the ‘lower worlds�.

Let me present you with some hypothetical case studies:

a) Juan is from a poor Puerto Rican family in New York. He does not feel he belongs in the mainstream US culture because of prejudices against his ethnicity, and he feels that living in Puerto Rico would be beyond his means. Yup, Puerto Rico is very expensive. In New York he would often get into fights and called all sorts of names. He had few friends and no girlfriends. There are more Puerto Rican guys than girls in the city and he could never successfully compete for one. He was also often denied friendships from non Puerto Rican guys, and dating opportunities from non Puerto Rican girls as many do not like Puerto Rican men in NY. He was born and raised there, but suffered from discrimination nonetheless. He then decided to become a computer programmer, studied hard, got his license, and started working online. He then moved to Honduras, where he immediately became an American Latino, very welcome, with oodles of friends, people inviting him to parties, girls seeking him out, thus solving his ostracism problem pretty much immediately upon moving there. He is planning on making his social home in Honduras for the rest of his life now (or until he finds another country that he likes) while taking advantage of the business opportunities in the USA at he same time.

b) Omar has been socially and politically displaced. He is a Palestinian man who immigrated to Detroit from the West bank. He loves and appreciates America, and is now a US citizen. He has found though, that again, there is social prejudice against him, and he has trouble dating American girls and making friends with other Americans because he is an Arab.

He saves up money, learns Spanish and moves to Colombia. Immediately he becomes aware of a 180 degree change in the social atmosphere around him. He is surrounded by warm, friendly people, meets a beautiful girl and gets married to her, opens a restaurant and lives a good life. He is no longer bitter, and assimilates himself into the society with no further problems. His status is high as he is now a rich expat, not a poor immigrant from a bad country. He has not moved out of the US completely as America provides him with excellent credit and investment opportunities- he owns a house and gets a small rent from it, has a big credit line and is able to utilize it in developing his restaurant business with his gorgeous young wife in Medelllin.

c) Yasif is a Pakistani Brit, and he also feels like a socially displaced person. He has a passion for beautiful blond women, but no good English girl wants to date a ‘bloody Paki�, a “miserable wog�. He does not fit in in Pakistan either, as he is completely British by culture.

No matter how much he tries to find a good English blond girl, there is always an invisible barrier that he runs into which is intensified by the fact that the English people stubbornly tell him that they are not racist while in fact they are. He was born in England, and has a British passport.

So, he yearns for social interaction and the company of beautiful blond women and wants to be around the people that accept and respect him. Upon advice of a well wisher, he gets a certificate in TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) and moves to Riga, Latvia. Immediately, he is “upgraded�- from a “Wog�, he becomes a “Brit�. Gorgeous blond girls line up to dance with him because he is from England. He eventually ends up having a girlfriend who looks more beautiful than Marilyn Monroe and Britney Spears put together. He has a EU nationality and can stay in Latvia forever. Problem solved. He goes to England several times a year on business and to visit his parents, but his social home is now in Latvia.

I could continue with more examples and among these would be:

d) A black American guy who moves to Ethiopia and becomes a star with local ladies.
e) A poor ethnic German, originally from Romania, who had immigrated to Canada but who is now living as a rich Canadian expat in the Philippines.
f) An ethnic Indonesian Chinese who moves to Thailand where his Chinese ancestry is no longer something you can get killed for, but is, actually, a big plus.
g) An ethnic Russian from Kazakhstan, went to the US, got his US passport, but now spends most of his time in Brazil. He is no longer teased about being a Commie, a Borat, or snubbed by American girls, as he is now a rich “Gringo� in Brazil. Every 18 year old mulatto girl wants him and the feeling is mutual.

If you are a young or not so young single man, a “neither fish nor fowl� person or if you feel that you have a low status where you are no matter what you try, there is a place where you belong. You will just have to find it. Once you find that place and have the financial wherewithal to move there and spend time there, you will be able to upgrade your status as soon as your airplane touches its soil.

Inspite of all the benefits of being ‘there; I would like to caution you that it would be unwise to ever give up your first world citizenship and totally move into that other welcoming place. Third world countries are unstable and unpredictable.

Also, if you are a naturalized Western national, you most probably gave an oath stating that you want to live in the US and Canada, NZ, Oz, permanently. So, it is imperative that you go back to the 1st world regularly, at least once a year and re-establish your “political� presence there, take care of all the business and financial/practical benefits there, while your heart firmly remains in your new found heaven where an un-belonging misfit like yourself, a minority, a socially displaced unwanted element is miraculously upgraded to a 1st world expat social position complete with honor, friends, and beautiful girls. What else would anyone need?

Plant your tree in the 1st world, rest in the shade in the developing worlds. An “otherworldly “ solution for an insidious problem.

[ladislav]

If you are a young man in his twenties or even thirties and are contemplating expatriating, you may learn of an interesting fact of life or a possibility thereof- your future wife may not even have been born yet. Yes, it can happen so that you may not get married until you are in your late forties or even early fifties because older men are sought after in many a country as husbands. So, if you are twenty four now, you may be forty-six by the time you are ready to marry your twenty-two year old fiancée. Or, if you are thirty now, you may be ready to marry your twenty- year old girlfriend by the time you are fifty. Time flies, you know.

***

Bringing in your girlfriend/wife to the West can take a couple of years and involve interviews, mountains of paperwork, medical test, police clearances and other such things that can put a damper on any relationship. Fortress Europe and fortress America make it so difficult for you to marry people from poorer countries that it can simply drive you wild. Some people prefer to just start families in the countries of the wife, not the husband.
How much harder it may be for those who have different sexual orientations! Thailand, for example, is quite a place for Western lovers of alternative lifestyles to find willing partners. However, while bringing a Thai lady to the West is a big headache, bringing a Thai man to the West by another man is a virtual impossibility. I have heard a story about an American man who tried to bring his gay partner to the US, but all visa avenues were closed to him. Obviously, a fiancée visa was out of the question and similarly, a marriage petition could not be arranged, either. So, the American man went off the deep end,: he bought the guy a ticket to Mexico, arranged for him to be transported to Tijuana and then, sent the poor Thai boy across the border with a bunch of illegal workers in a coyote’s van. Miraculously, the lover arrived in Los Angeles where they were tearfully reunited. Unfortunately, the Thai man did not like the diversity of Southern California and the fact that huge numbers of people did not speak English there. After some time, he decided to head back to Thailand and the union was dissolved.
In most cases though, same sex partners choose to live in places that are easier to get to, such as the third world place where the other lover is from. They simply have no choice. Some choose to train the men in some profession for which a work visa could be obtained, but the while thing is an enormous can of worms. Those with alternative persuasions are better off looking for their better half in countries for which there are not that many visa restrictions- Japan, Singapore, W.Europe.

***

If you belong to an unpopular nationality, you may have to lie about it. Nothing wrong with that. If people are bigoted against your kind, they deserve to hear untruths. An Iranian guy in the US chose to simply never tell anyone he was Iranian and it worked. He just told people he was Greek. He was in Texas and the “scheme� worked. People believed him.

An American in some place where Americans are not popular can become a Canadian. A German may choose to be a Dutchman, a Russian can become a Slovenian. One Danish guy that I knew went to work in Saudi Arabia but Muslims do not like Danes because of those silly cartoons that infuriated the entire Islamic world in 2005-06. So, he just tells them he is an American. It is actually better to be an American than a Dane in Saudi Arabia now. And unless you are facing a policeman or an actual immigration officer stops you, you should lie if your life, social or biological depends on it. Choose a country that has people with a similar look and accent, but that is neutral and you will be able to get away with it in the 99% of cases. That is again if it does not involve employment, immigration or actual police encounter. That is just survival, nothing else. It is not bad to tell lies if you are faced with evil, prejudiced people.

***

If you meet a young lady online, do not fall in love with her completely and commit yourself to her until you have met her in person. She may have some unpleasant characteristics/habits that you may not like, but it may be too late to extricate yourself without causing major grief and inconvenience. I have met some ladies who, upon meeting me in person, had very bad breath and some had a very ugly torso which I could not see on webcam- in other words, their figures were not what I wanted to have in a partner. One had excessive facial hair- almost like a beard, which I did not see in photos because the hair was too transparent. Yech! Some had bad habits which I would not care to describe – oh well, maybe I would describe just two- one lady liked to urinate in the shower bay- a big turn off for me. This other lady could not control her intestinal gas and would release it regularly while in my company. It made me want to puke.

So, do not pour out your emotions too much just because your hormones are acting up. Go and see her in person. Otherwise, you will end up wasting a lot of time (yours and hers) and a whole lot of money, plus you can hurt yourself and that person if you will find that she is not for you, but you have already made all these promises and even proposed to her. It can become a truly awkward and uncomfortable situation if you are not careful and hurry too much. So take your time and control your emotions. See her in person and spend some time together. For your sake and hers.

***

If you live in Saudi Arabia, prayer time is a very important aspect of daily life there. Stores and just about any kinds of businesses close for prayers. Some PDAs now, and some cell phones that you can buy there have prayer time shown on their dials and screens. Otherwise, you can get prayer times from local newspapers. Your daily activities have to be scheduled around, and, in between those prayers. The best time to go shopping is after the second morning prayer, which gives you roughly four hours and after the last prayer which also gives you some 2-4 hours to shop. If it is not possible to do your business in those hours, then, when the prayer takes place, you should just sit down and relax, or you can go to a nearby hotel and wait until it finishes.
A natural question would be- “How long does each prayer last? “ If you ask the locals about that, they will tell you “10 minutes to 20 minutes�. However, keep in mind that while the prayer itself is that long, the actual time the businesses close for is usually 35-50+ minutes. People need to close the stores, walk to the place of worship, do their ablutions (washing their faces, hands, and feet), do the prayer itself, then do a few other formalities and then, go back to the store. So, yup! 35-50 minutes is the norm. Be patient and wait those prayers out in some quiet place if you do not share the religion of the people there.
Hotels are exempt from closing, usually, but even inside of hotels some religious people will sometimes shut the doors of gift shops and leave for the duration of the religious service.

***

In poorer countries, as a rule, finding a decent love partner is harder for women than for men, in richer countries, finding love is harder for men than for women. There are more lonely miserable ladies or ladies with bad husbands in third world countries and more happily married men there, and there are more unhappy, lonely men or divorced and henpecked men in first world countries. Travel and you will see.

***

Success books are cool, I like reading them. They talk about making goals, visualizing and going for it. But there are some wacky ideas in them, too. For example, the idea that poverty is created in the mind and if we think we are prosperous we would become prosperous. Now, I have a question- with the present economic crisis gripping the world, do the people have to take responsibility for it as in “ we were too negative and thought poor thoughts� and now the world economy is collapsing�. I say bull! Quite he contrary, people were just way too positive. Also, let’s look at two countries located side by side- Iraq and Kuwait. Kuwait has a lot of oil and the people are totally spoiled by all the riches there. Right across the border is Iraq, and you know the shape that Iraq is in. Are you going to tell me that it is because Kuwaitis in some ways are more positive than Iraqis and they just attract better fortune? That the British who partitioned that part of the world to make sure Kuwait gets a big chunk of it have nothing to do with it? Give me a break!
Go to South of Sudan and watch kids with bloated bellies feeding of leaves from trees. These kids d not even know what positive and negative is, so are you going to tell me that the poverty is in their minds?

Plus a lot of these books were written by citizen of rich democratic countries that have many opportunities available for all and equal rights for everybody. What if you live in some screwed up dictatorship where you belong to some social group that has no legal rights, cannot qualify for government help, bank loans, are forbidden by law ask for benefits and are stuck in a limbo somewhere? Think Kosovo in 1999.

What if the country has no money to fund education and is run by a cruel junta that will shoot you if you protest? What if you happen to be in some besieged area with bullets flying all over you? What opportunities are there? You cannot even get a visa to go to another country and even if you do, that other country may just stick you into a refugee camp? They unfortunately cannot follow the advice in those books. And if they do, they can get shot.

So, those books are good for mainstream citizens of highly developed first world countries. Since the majority of the world does not belong to those, maybe it is time someone would start writing books about how an average, garden variety third-worlder can succeed or at least avoid acute suffering where he is at. That would be a best seller, for sure.

***

One of the strains on today’s fabric of society, I think is the fact that in many countries people are encouraged to wait to finish a four year college before they get married. Biologically speaking, late teens and early twenties is a very fruitful time to mate and have kids. However, somehow the modern college system in many countries does not promote college -time marriage and, thus, represses the young people’s normal procreation urges. This creates unhealthy tensions, explosions of testosterone in men with resulting violence and bad energy, and all kinds of wild behavior, drug use, promiscuity on behalf of some women, and a host of other social ills. Somehow, if you suggest that people should be married at 18 and study and help each other and even have kids while in college, that is seen as wacky idea by many. Or, it is seen as economically infeasible. I think, though, that if governments around the world such an early marriage and given people an incentive to get married and stay married, we would have a much healthier society overall.

[ladislav]

If you are in South East Asia as a tourist, and happen to pick up a bar girl and take her out on a date, you will quite often get smirks and, sometimes, looks of disgust from the locals. If the girl is not a bar girl, the scornful looks and haughty stares will be only 10% of what it would be if you were with a lady of the night. Even if the bar girl does not engage in prostitution, the locals will immediately identify her as one by many things unseen to you. They seem to have a knack for telling who is a bar girl and who is not. The look in the eyes, the body movements; the dress, the make up, even the change in the complexion are very obvious.

Plus, there is a certain something, an aura of sorts that they can pick up on right away, and it is a thing that I still cannot explain. What they can see is what a normal Westerner cannot. Not only that- many a South East Asian man can tell if a girl is a virgin or not through some sixth sense, and they say that one can see virginity or lack thereof if one looks into the pupils of the eyes. Plus, the way a woman behaves towards a man, any man is a dead give away even if she tries to act in a demure way. There is a body language that we may not be aware of, and even a certain smell. Some girls, who have been intimate with a man, may still “exude� male pheromones and reek of male sweat no matter how many showers they have taken. The smell is very fine but with a sharp nose, local guys can smell it.

After having lived in that part of the world and having met quite a few females, you, too, will be able to develop the sense for that sort of thing. In my case, by now I can be some 95% accurate in telling if a girl is a bar girl or not and some 80% accurate in telling if she is a virgin. It is a combination of many minute telltale signs that I still cannot put a finger on.

Once I persuaded a very decent girl who was working in a bar to quit and return to school. She needed only a small amount of money- some $50, to be able to attend school. I set a date to meet her in a department store, and immediately noticed the spiteful and disgusted looks of the people around us. There was something they could feel, sense, see or smell about her that told them she had come from a bar. Later, when we met after some time, a couple of months, to be exact, and she had been out of the bar, the bad aura had now seemed to be gone; she was walking “normal� and talking “normal� and dressed OK, and no one was even giving us a second look. I guess, just as the girls accumulate that bad “halo� over their heads, so they can lose it and have a good aura hang over them again when they get back into society and stay among regular people again for some time.

The longer they had been in the bar, the longer it takes to get rid of the negative ‘image-over’, and get back to their old pre-bar selves. A truly interesting socio-psychological phenomenon that is worth being studied further.

[Winston]

Asians can also tell between groups of Chinese, Japanese and Koreans by little minute things that you can't describe in words, without hearing them talk. Kind of like how whites can look at a group of Americans or Germans or Dutch and tell them apart. They have different type of faces and expression. If you're around them for years, you can distinguish them too.

[ladislav]

Asians can also tell between groups of Chinese, Japanese and Koreans by little minute things that you can't describe in words, without hearing them talk. Kind of like how whites can look at a group of Americans or Germans or Dutch and tell them apart. They have different type of faces and expression. If you're around them for years, you can distinguish them too.

Yup, I can tell Asians apart in most cases, even South Asians- a Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Sri Lankan look different 80% of the time.

And I can tell Russians from Ukrainians even if local born a mile away. The movements are just different plus the body is very different.

But you told me you could not. Again, because you still had not learned how.

Telling Arabs apart is also easy for me.

And it goes deeper and deeper. You eventually learn to distinguish people from different parts of a country. Now I can pretty much tell people from different parts of China, Philippines and Thailand. Some people can even tell people from different areas of the city. Amazing.
When I was in Kenya, the people around me were one big black sea to me, but the locals immediately knew which one was which tribe. I still had no developed a knack for that, I could only tell West and East Africans apart.

[ladislav]

***

I stopped going to brothels after this experience: there was one that had a bar in the front to buy drinks and a karaoke machine. There was also this very cute girl who looked so sad and she was sitting among other hookers, obviously new, and I invited her for a drink and to sing. At random, I chose a song and it turned out to be “Sunrise Sunset�. The lyrics in it were about how a father is seeing his son and daughter grow up and now they are now ready to be married off. He is both sad that his children are about to leave home and start their new lives, as well as proud at the same time. He sings “Sunrise, sunset, quickly go the years�… “is this the little girl I carried, is this the little boy I loved…?�. I started singing the song, and then, a horrible truth stung me. If my father saw me in the whorehouse, or my mother, they would probably exclaim in terrible surprise and disappointment- ‘Is this the little boy I loved?� And if the parents of that girl huddling in shame in a brothel, in the strange, heartless, big city, driven by poverty to selling herself to sweaty tourists saw her, they would also exclaim in abomination: “is this the little girl I carried?� in shock.

Just thinking about the circumstances that make some people become customers and some- service providers in this controversial industry; following the chain of causes and effect as well as knowing that somewhere there are parents who wonder where we, their kids are now, made me very upset. I paid for the drinks and left without tempting myself with other services.

I have never visited a brothel after that day again.

***

A Little known favour of Hollywood to White Men.

A lot has been said about how Hollywood vilifies Arabs and makes Asian men look effeminate. However, if you are white, you should be grateful for the advertisement Hollywood has made for you around the non white world. In Asia, in particular, people grow up on US TV shows that slowly, repeatedly drive these subliminal messages into the minds of Asian people ( and particularly women) there:

White people = Americans
Americans = White people
White men= American men
American men=White men
White men= American men= rich, handsome, heroic, noble, courageous, gentlemanly.
American men=White men =good husbands, boyfriends, sexy, kind, caring, loving, treating women like princesses.
American men= White men= successful, and provide security.
American men=White men= Western men are a boon for a poor Asian girl whom they save from poverty and take to the Land of Milk and Honey- America. Or settle in her land and buy a big house and they have cute mixed kids that go to International Schools and the girl does not have to work now.
American men= White men= saviours of the underdog, always smiling, always so friendly and open. Faithful, warm, perfect human beings.


A young Asian girl (or anyone else, for that matter) who grew up on “Dallas� or “Orange County� or “Days of our Lives�, beamed by satellite into her poor home in Indonesia, Philippines, Cambodia, Burma, etc, has the above illusion so firmly carved in her mind and is so completely brainwashed and programmed to see white men as described above, will react accordingly when she sees you arrive.

Yup, here comes you, an Aussie, a Brit, a New Zealander, or even a poor Bosnian , Albanian, Lithuanian, who happens to be in that part of the world, and yes, you will receive very warm smiles coming your way. The associations in their minds will be triggered, which, in turn, will trigger wonderment, abundant joy of seeing a super human, a huge smile, a hug and, very soon, a possible declaration of love. A Slovak, a South African Boer, and a wretched Moldovan is an “American man� to tens of millions of people there, and he possesses the Godlike characteristics enumerated in my descriptions above.

All white people, upon arriving in those lands, automatically become “Americans!�

In the Philippines, in particular, the love and admiration for Americans ( read white people) runs deep not only because US movies and TV shows are very popular there, but also, because Americans liberated the Philippines from the Japanese aggression in World War II. Many a valiant Marine and other GI Joe lay his life for the freedom of that country. Because of that, when an American appears in that country, especially if he goes to rural areas, he is cheered with “ Hi ,Joe!� (GI Joe) and afforded great honour and welcome. However, the joyful greeting reserved for Americans is also bestowed upon Germans, Lebanese Arabs and Poles and whoever else looks like Americans. When the locals see, say, a Polish guy travelling there, crowds come out from their village homes chanting� Amerikano! Amerikano!� while waving and smiling. Meeting a hero, a liberator, a rich and gallant man, a “Tom Cruise� is a very rare occasion. Girls give you those “come hither� looks, blow you kisses, and people invite you to parties because your mere presence is a great honour to them. The older generation will see you as John Wayne and remember the times when you defended them against the evil aggressor.

But you are a German from Stuttgart whose grandfather had died on a beach at Normandy, killed by an American bullet. No matter. Ja Ja, mein herr, you are an American now! Deal with it. Resistance is futile.

As I was travelling in those parts, I found out that there were Poles, Albanians, Bulgarians, Romanians, all hailed as heroes because of American TV shows , the American war heroes and the wildly exaggerated stereotypes of the US super-human-ness. And, of course, the gorgeous females who fell in love with these handsome “Americans� were probably the most important reason for their travel to those places to begin with.

There is a Philippine saying- “Basta puti- Kano�-“if you are white, you are an American�. Hello, Hans, Ivan and Ahmed, welcome to your honorary US citizenship, courtesy of the tens, no, hundreds of smiling locals who are dying to befriend you. No use trying to explain to them you are not an American- all white people are Americans, all countries where white people live are part of America. End of the story, case closed. Enjoy your new nationality and all the benefits that come with it.

But of course, the Philippines is not the only place where American = White men are preferred. In Korea, in Taiwan, they like to hire white men to teach English even if they are not Americans. Who cares, they look like Americans. Good enough! In Some Middle Eastern countries, White South Africans are becoming a very popular substitute for expensive American medical professionals. In a hospital in a big Gulf city, the rich Arab patients are happy to see a Western man – an “American� doctor or radiologist who will treat them, but he is just an Afrikaner from Joeburg.

Who cares? If he looks like one, if he quacks like one- speaks English, that is, he must be one. Simple. No use to argue. He is a white man = he is an American man.

So, if you want to know the joy and benefit of being an American, if you want to be seen as something above human, an almost a demigod, there are plenty of locations around the world, so brainwashed by Hollywood that they will bestow a Donald Trump- like status to you, even if you are a poor Serbian who could never get a visa to even enter the EU never mind US citizenship.

In the tragic opposite twist of this mass madness, Black Americans who have been in the US since 1600s , Hispanic guys from the South West, Apaches, Inuits, and Asian guys from San Francisco, will discover to their horror that they are now not Americans at all, while some Hungarian tourist is.

Oh, isn’t life a mother….er!

Sometimes, stereotypes can be used in your favour and people’s deluded views can be a foundation of your great status and abundant social life because of a bizarre and an insane, Hollywood –induced, mega-mass case of mistaken identity.

[ladislav]

***

Democracy and free press may not be that good for the economy. In the United Arab Emirates the media is tightly controlled, and any negative stuff is ruthlessly censored. In this economy, the UAE newspapers show that things could never been better. And it helps the economy, believe you me.

In the times of bad economy, nothing will motivate you to go shopping than picking up a local newspaper and seeing that everything is OK, jobs are aplenty and that growth has not been stunted as in other countries. So, you go out there and spend and spend and keep that economy going, or at least help it recover.

No, if you were in England or other such places, you would be bombarded by all exaggerated, pessimistic messages about the impending collapse, layoffs and a depression which is right around the corner. The bad news coming from TV, the radio and your printed media are not a good motivator to get the consumers to start buying things. After hearing the news, you would most probably hold on to your money, stay at home, and not spend anything thereby delaying any economic rebound your country is yearning for so much.

There is something to be said about regulated press, after all, I guess.

***

Saving the Girls from the Maw of the Dragon.

Just look at who the Devil has dragged in:

In girly bars in South East Asia, you will often find people who were obviously never meant to be there to begin with and who deserve to be rescued. I have met such people as a daughter of a Protestant Pastor, a Business Administration student who could not get enough money to pay for her tuition as well as quite a big number of very shy, obviously virgin girls who were scared to death of guys, and who stubbornly refused to “go with customers�, which means leaving the bar with men to have an interlude at their hotel.

The girly bar industry is designed to turn even most well-meaning women into prostitutes because of how it operates. While they are not physically coerced to submit to the customers’ carnal desires, the bars intentionally keep the pay low and charge the girls for make up and “costumes�- which often consist of bikinis and high heel boots as well as fake school uniforms and other sexy stuff. Girls get paid for dancing and for sitting with customers for drinks which may not be enough at the end of the day. When customers want to take the girls out, they pay the bar a ‘fine’ and the bar make a big profit off of that. So, these entertainment places only make significant moneys if girls get taken out. Therefore, it is in their interest to slowly impel the girl to start “going with men� which basically means selling herself.

In all fairness, it does not mean that many women do not enjoy it. There are quite a few of them, especially those who already have kids and lived with an abusive or irresponsible husband who enjoy going out with rich foreign guys who buy them food and drink and then both people enjoy a night of passionate lovemaking crowned with a big tip. Easy money for quite a few young women.

I say, nothing wrong with that if they like it, but when you see a girl shaking with shyness and fear and looking around scared and then telling you some strange things many of which can be true, you think twice before trying to induce her to go with you. Actually, if you have any heart and integrity at all, you will most probably want to help.

Some girls are also held in debt bondage- they are loaned money and their documents are confiscated by the bar and they cannot leave without paying the debt. The debt is sometimes less than a hundred dollars but to a 19 year old, that can mean a lot of money.

Some girls are also enticed into “cyber sex slavery� – performing all kinds of erotic things on cam and held there with the same debt bondage. Among them, I have met very good, innocent people who obviously should not be doing what they are doing.

Anyway, those people who were sucked into the “business� by the unfortunate circumstance and who are suffering there deserve to be saved. So, now, every time I see an unfortunate young creature like that and I have some spare cash, I immediately take her out, pay any debts she may have and help her re-establish herself or return home. Sometimes, I have delivered the girls to the abodes of unsuspecting relatives who were shocked as they had no idea what was going on. I have helped several to go to school. The daughter of a pastor is now attending a “Cell phone Technician� course, the Business Administration student is about to graduate from her BA program and has completed her practicum at a government office already, another webcam girl is now in a very sophisticated photography program and studying for her GED at the same time. One virgin girl who stubbornly refused to perform sexy acts on cam is now a waitress at Wendy’s.

Some people who do not want to be in the bar or on webcam are so poor, they are really pitiful to behold. Only a truly heartless person would not feel compassion for those. One girl left a webcam den with only clothes on her back and absolutely nothing to her name. A hundred dollar bought her a cell phone, some underwear, clothes and shoes

However, be careful of scammers who pretend to be “innocent�. Many are hard core prostitutes who have perfected the art of bilking you out of your money with all kinds of sob stories devised to evoke your pity and make you part with hard earned cash, after which they go right back to the bar and b.s. to yet another customer about how much they want to get out of the place. So, be careful if you decide to help. By now, I have developed a knack to recognize truth from falsehood in 90% of such cases although, initially, I was taken to the cleaners by believing all kinds of tearful stories which turned out to be totally made up. I am wiser now and have developed my own ways of questioning the girls, watching their facial expressions and making the final decision whether I wanted to help them out or not.

Another thing to keep in mind is that if the girls are in a place like that long enough, they may reach a “point of no return� after which they will very often go back to the bar or the webcam because they have established a certain addiction to the place. Quite a few, who I bought tickets for so that they could go home, were back in the bar or on cam in a few months. Somehow, they just begin to identify themselves with that lifestyle and form an addiction to it. Those people are hard to help.
Also, since many have no education and do not even know how to study, they will find that bars or webcam dens pay more than being a laundry girl for $45 a month.

All in all, my estimate is that some 10-15% of all nightlife girls can truly be rescued from the maw of the dragon that feeds on young virgins, and if you have the heart and the money to help those people, be careful and selective.

But once you have tasted the joy of seeing another human being re-establish herself in society with a diploma, or a good, honourable job because you were there for them in a place where they had not been destined to be because you came to their rescue, you will feel the kind of happiness that only a Boddhisattva can feel.

***

Telling Arabs Apart

If you live in the Arab world long enough, you will see that Arabs do not present a homogenous racial group as some enemies of their culture like to perceive them. Also, you will be able to tell different Arab ethnicities from each other quite accurately. Saudis have a certain Saudi look although, Qataris look very similar and so do Emiratis. But even if the faces look similar, by clothes and movements, you will be able to tell those apart if you live long enough in the region. Kuwaitis have a big Persian admixture and seem to have a certain half Iranian look and facial expressions. So do Bahrainis. Omanis are more round-faced with a big African and Indian ethnic presence. Egyptians have a certain Egyptian looks with a big Nubian and Greek mixture, as well as a certain accent that you can hear a mile away. They also possess a certain very fast way of moving, looking around and a certain manner of smiling at you. Syrians look like Muslim groups from the South of Russia- very light Semitic/ Armenid features and red hair and blue eyes, as well as a slight Mongolian presence which accounts for high cheek bones and straight black hair in many others, while with Egyptians, the hair is usually curlier and there is no Mongolian presence at all. Some Syrian people actually look like those chariot riders from the bas- reliefs on the Babylonian and Nineveh buildings- the ones with long beards and those strange hats riding the lions. When I first saw those works of art, I thought the people in these were some mythical, exaggerated creatures, but now I see that they actually showed real folks from that area.
I have not met many Iraqis yet to be able to form a certain picture of how they look, but from those that I have seen on TV, they do seem to have a certain Iraqi looks, too. They kind of look like Georgians- think Stalin. Not all, again, but that kind of aquiline look is very common there.
The Lebanese and Jordanians are almost the same except that the former are much lighter because of a high European mixture although red hair and blue eyes is still more common in Syria than there.
Palestinians look almost the same as Jordanians which is kind of hard to describe but it is almost like a dark Italian or dark Greek look.

The Sudanese are half black or fully black, and North Africans look like Sicilians for the most part. Or like a darker variety of Mediterranean French.

In addition to the actual “racial� features of the Arabs, if you stay in the Middle East long enough, you will be able to tell ‘poor’ Arabs from ‘rich’ Arabs. Those Arabians who have lived several generations in oil rich countries where balanced food is plentiful and affordable will have different faces from those who had grown up struggling with lack of food and vitamins, living off cheap, high calorie dishes that provide little nutrition. The poor ones will have harsh peasant faces, limbs and body parts a bit out of proportion, as well as shifty looks of a person who needs to struggle for survival over generations. The rich Arabs from Kuwait, Qatar and Saudi, while sometimes overweight, will have well proportionate bodies and a confident way of carrying themselves in public and in private.

A lot of these things are hard to describe in words as you need to live in the Arab world to see what I mean if you are interested in that sort of thing, that is.

***

The term smog means smoke + fog. How about a mixture of sand dust and fog? Shall I call it “fust?�

***
“New Racial Slurs for the Age of Diversity?�

In our age, races and ethnicities have been mixing and acting in strange ways. Therefore, new racial terms have bee invented. “Oreo�, for one, Black outside, white on the inside- blacks who act white, “Banana�-yellow on the outside, white on the inside- Asian Americans. A person of European heritage who acts black is a Wigger. “White + N----r�. I think that as we mix more and more, we will be needing more of such strange amalgams to satisfy our insane need to label people.

Would a white person trying to act black be called a “Waffir�- White Kaffir in Southern Africa? And should a racial word “Woon� be used in certain parts of the South?

Would a Caucasian person who tries to study yoga be called a “Wingley�, and the one into Kung Fu be called a “Wink�? Would a karate expert be now mocked as a “Wap?� Would someone into Vietnamese culture be derogatively called a �Wook�, and someone into Philippines language and music be pejoratively described as a “Wip?�

Should a Black person who tries to act white be also called a “Bracker�-“ black cracker� or a Blonkey- “black honkey?� Or a “Blightey�- a black whitey. Now, what if that person were into the Asian cultures described above- would you mock him as “Bingley�, “Bink�, “Blap�, “Blook�, and “Blip� respectively? How about Black persons who are very French and English by culture. Are they to be scoffed as “Brogs� and “Bimeys?�. How about a “Blusskie� and a “Blommie�- those black people who went to live in Russia?

What about very Westernized Chinese people- are they to be called “Cheilos� – “Chinese Gweilos� now? Or “Yeylows�- “Yellow Gweilos�. How about “Chitey�- a “Chinese whitey�? What about all these Japanese guys who like to act Black? Are they now “Jiggers�? And, the ones who act white are now “Yenkeys� or “Jonkies� ( Yellow or Japanese Honkeys) . How about a “Chonkey�- “Chinese Honkey?� “How about a “Flonkey�- “Filipino Honkey�, and a “Flighty�- “Filipino Whitey�?. And Chinese wrappers are “Chiggers?� And a Thai who acts white should be called “Tharang� -a Thai Farang, and the ones who act black be called “ Thiggers?� It never stops.

If you have nothing to do, you can sit there all day and create all these new racial hybrid terms for the new millennium – after all, the world is moving towards total integration, so we are going to be needing those to classify all these people around us that are becoming more and more varied in colour and culture.

[wuming]

Ladislav, I read all your posts and writings (hundreds of pages now) closely and with great interest and appreciation - thank you for sharing a lifetime of experience, with remarkable frankness. Have you considered collecting and organizing your writing into a book? Your stories and observations deserve a wide(r) audience.

[ladislav]

Ladislav, I read all your posts and writings (hundreds of pages now) closely and with great interest and appreciation - thank you for sharing a lifetime of experience, with remarkable frankness. Have you considered collecting and organizing your writing into a book? Your stories and observations deserve a wide(r) audience.

Well, I guess I could but it would be too wild and un -pc. Plus they are never ending and must always be updated. I am not actively looking for a publisher because I would not know who would like that kind of stuff- it is too weird, lol. Plus I have already had some 50,000 hits on another website.

What I am more interested in is how I could bring more readers to my site.