Monday, November 19, 2007

Worldwide vulgarity

Good-bye to the Gonzales family.
Good-bye to Gorba, the terrible dog.
Good-bye to the good and friendly horse.
Good-bye to the relaxed life.

The Fuso Szulc now in the nice town of La Paz.
Finding a place at the “Casa Blanca”-trailer park.
This in contrast to last times when staying in La Paz.
The La Paz RV Park was frequented before but they have this dog they lock into a cage and who barks with desperation, aggressivity and sadness day and night.

The “Casa Blanca”-trailer park is next to the main road coming into La Paz and is therefore a noisy place to spend the night.
There are less than 10 RV’s booked at the park this time of year and as always the Fuso Szulc attracted much attention.

An American man came up and was very much impressed.
He asked: “Where are you from?”.
After he heard the reply he said:
“Holland? You are from Holland? I’ll be damned. Today I already met people from Holland. They are like flies on the meat. They are everywhere!”.
What a dumb guy.
And what to say?
To aggressively respond to the comparison of people from Holland with flies on the meat?
“You are an American I suppose? Damned, they are everywhere like cockroaches in the toilet”.
For sure the guy would be upset.
But being peaceful these days the man was quickly abandoned with his specific humour.

A similar situation had occurred that afternoon.
There was a regional art and craft exhibition in La Paz.
In the open air in a small park in the very centre of the town.
A good opportunity to see what the people of Baja California are making.
In the company of dear friends Alma, Margarita, Lluvia, Tonatzin, Yuriria, Iwan and Carlos the different displays were admired.

Then we saw an American couple coming to the exhibition.
The man was dressed in shorts and had taken off his T-shirt.
It was about 6.00 PM, the sun almost down and becoming cooler.
It was Sunday and everybody was dressed up nicely.
Nevertheless he walked around there half nude.
He had a body not in very good shape.
Too much beer and hamburgers it said.
On one of his biceps he had a small tattoo and on his belly a huge one.
Burned into his flesh from the right side to the left.
Obviously, this man attracted the discrete attention of the mostly Mexicans visiting the fair.
However, they are not the kind of people to interfere.
To go up to the guy and say he is breaking a dress code.
To ask him to dress decently.
They wouldn’t do that although they actually do have an opinion.
Therefore, the Mexican friends, Alma, Margarita, Lluvia, Tonatzin, Yuriria, Iwan and Carlos, were asked what was their opinion about this man walking around half naked.
“He has no respect for the country, the culture, the traditions and the people he is visiting”.
“It is disgusting”.
“In his own country, walking in a park at a fair in that way, he would be arrested and fined”.

But like the “flies on the meat”-guy, this half naked man was not approached in a correcting way.
They were both left alone in their own way of thinking and acting.
Probably they have no clue about what their behaviour is having as an effect.

In this case we speak of 2 Americans manifesting themselves in Mexico.
And we must realize that they are not representing all the other Americans.
We do not generalize: one vulgar person does not make all his compatriots vulgar as well.

It is a worldwide phenomenon.
When people leave their own social environment and spend some time in a new social situation to which they have no bonds, easily people let go of their usual restrictive behaviour.
With alcohol consumption as a liberator behaviour is presented those people would never have when at home.
This doesn’t happen with all people.
A selected group gets excessive.

Living for many years in the tourist village of Cadaques at the Mediterranean Sea in Spain this phenomenon was often witnessed there.
European tourists visited Cadaques and some of them would truly misbehave.
Demonstrations of vulgarity of the worst kind.
But the local population would say nothing.
Because the tourists were bringing in money.





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