Oh America!

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Ferz:

[...For a first-time prejudiced voyager to the USA to find those familiar hate-inducing stimuli missing can be quite a dampener...]

after this bold disclaimer of sorts...only you can manage to get the dart-brigade to show up with poisoned arrows...(am shaking my head in amazement)...how do you manage to stir them?...amazing....even if you do a piece on penguins or global warming the maggots would stir...

bspnd,

t

Dulla Bhatti . . . Robin Hood . . . Happy Birthday to you on Lorhi . . . did you distribute sava ser shakar to girls getting married in honour of your handle or not?

As far as citadel of freedom/China and holyland/Arabia are concered, please be informed that we are waiting for The Economist to do it for us, first. And lately, they are!!

Can you imagine, Saudi hackers from inside the controlled networks in Saudia are now getting into vital US installations . . . the future is yours to grab, boss. May not be a bad time to pick up interests in the emerging free states of Arabia??

Quantam, Dullabhatti,

Brothers, please! Yes we all know the heartstirring places FV should go...and I dont get the impression she came looking for dirt...why dont you two write an essay about your America?

Some good observations but mostly the conclusions insinuated are shallow and sweeping generalizations. Not many in America walk around flaunting $100 bills. If someone does, someone will show surprise. It is 2003 and every corner has ATMs and accepts plastic. I travelled for 2 weeks in Canada and East Coast with originally ten $20 bills I got from my local ATM. I have not gone to the Bank in over 2 years can`t remember when I saw a $100 last time. I will make a statement of surprise too if I see $100 bill in an Indian`s hand who is visiting...because ones who visit me never open their pockets during stay.:-).

I am also surprised that you will spend so much money to visit here and one of your places of interest to visit will be where a hooker gave blow job to a British actor. Your mentioning it in your travelog makes it even worse. It is not hard to figure out you are in search of some dirt to throw to re-enforce your earlier convictions.

Yes America is a failed state where hookers give head to strangers on Main streets, Blacks are noticed in some neighourhoods, Guantemalan illegals look over their shoulders(along with Pakistani, Saudis), Every American goes to Las Vegas over weekend, everyone lives for the weekend only(unlike in other countries like India and Pakistan where people live 7 days), in every big city there is a street full of homeless, people are fake and just show smiles all the time etc etc....Now let us move to citadel of freedom China and the Holyland of Arabs and write about it. would you?

Farzana,

Your assessment about America is shallow and the extrapolation of trite behavior (that you may have observed) as mainstream American spirit is deeply flawed. I would liken it to a western tourist who watches Bollywood movies and eats Indian curry travels to India only to see a different picture. T

Farzana,

Your assessment about America is shallow and the extrapolation of trite behavior (that you may have observed) as mainstream American spirit is deeply flawed. I would liken it to a western tourist who watches Bollywood movies and eats Indian curry, travels to India only to see a different picture. The poor person sees flies instead of dancing Romeos and Juliets, gets harrased to exchange dollars at every corner. At least you didn`t get 3 doses of stomach flu in your trip. There`s more to India than these distractions. And there is certainly more to America than McDonalds, Las Vegas, Baywatch, and what an eighty-four year old woman discusses.

Want to really experience America? Go to Yosemite, Yellowstone, and Grand Canyon national parks. Visit the small town hall meetings. Attend a class at american Universities. And please please watch PBS (Public Broadcasting Stations: www.pbs.org) and listen to National Public Radio (available online at www.npr.org). Also, fire your travel agent he/she seems to be rather incompetent.

As for America and its wars. It has fought many. Some more grudgingly some at a haste. Some say war is always evil. Some say sitting around and ignoring evil is evil. I guess time will tell.

QuantumQuark

Wakil Sahib,

FV is holding to onto what can be held onto considering her length of stay, itinerary, etc. I think the struggle to understand any country, as America is a difficult prospect, and the writer`s engagement with it is valid. Specifically what FV has put her finger on is that contradictory and illusionary quality of many American myths and narratives; i.e. the American Dream, the fragmentation of the Left, the consumerist obsession vs. growing poverty, the reworking of identity, religion. On one hand you have Las Vegas and its recreation of Europe for the amusement(-and why Europe, I wonder) or reference point of the past/home/``ancient`` culture/high art juxtaposed with slot machines! Those kinds of juxtapositions can be liberating as well as decontextualising...since I havent been to Las Vegas, I can`t say, but I`m looking forward to figuring it out as well...
NYC is truly a place of constant cultural regeneration...I think everyone on Chowk would love it...

An interesting, stream-of-thought (or whitewater) essay - yep, it`s America, but then again, this is Pakistan, that is France and so on; you`ll find a similar mosaic of people, emotions, religion, problems etc. throughout the world. Culture, even the American one, is like pain; and Tolstoy said it best: pain is universal, but everyone`s pain is different.

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Ras #16

Or France; or, Germany; or, Italy.

Or Bulgaria; or Hungry.
Or Afghanistan! [they have always
treated Pakistanis worse than a
mangy dog].

Or Britain.
*
*
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*
Ras: Either you are being kind to many other parts of the world, or perhaps your travels may have been limited.

Or, Pakistan!

Farzana,
Americans in general are very nice people and America in most parts is a very beautiful country. I would rather visit the superficial America any day then some of the rude and overtly racist countries in the Middle East (Gulf).

Ras

Saminasha #5

You think she is not holding onto anything yet? She is holding on to plenty. I only wish she or you would tell me what!

Transferred to letter size pages it shows Nine pages, 3248 words, 14,911 characters with spaces; 18,141 without spaces, 49 paragraphs [40 here] and 312 lines [Verdana, size 12]; and you feel she still needs to hold onto something?

Farzoo...
i like this travelogue of yours...and i don`t find it condescending in the least bit. and you were in seattle...just a few hours away from me. Had I known, I would have joined you at the bumbershoot! It is a throwback in some respects. There are those pockets here in the Pacific Northwest where as much as a place grows and changes, flower power is there to stay! farm country is not one of those places!!!!
Speaking of melting pots...I am reminded of the radical feminist, writer and professor Angela Davis. I attended one of her speeches many years ago, and she brought up this idea of a melting pot that has been so much a part of `American` culture for so long. And her question was something to the effect that what was behind this term `melting pot` -- is it like everyone being mixed and melted in this huge pot, only to emerge as white anglo-saxon straight men???!!!
It isn`t so easy to get a grasp of what America is all about...especially for a first-time prejudiced voyager...I emigrated here with my family years ago, and I still am graspless!
Like some of your descriptions like the one about Los Angeles..isn`t that the truth? And as always, you write more from feeling...as I understand from your profile, that is what you do, but there are definitely things to ponder on here...and for a first-time voyager, i think you`ve captured the divide quite well.
chalo..enough bakbak!
lve. ana