London is a city divided by a common language

[seckle]

They have happy people there. They also have Lego. We should all move to Denmark (and make it as shit as everywhere else).

they like to get falling down drunk though. go to copenhagen on a friday night. its insanity. people so fucked that they sleep on the street till the street cleaners wake them up.

[the acid never lies]

i tend to agree about the hypocrisy of trying your hardest to immigrate.... finally immigrating, and then complaining and demonstrating as well. thats a bit rich.

Asylum seekers really don't get much of a say. I'd say they have plenty to complain about actually

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/ho ... 13909.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/oct/1 ... ion-health

[sanjion]

Deep south of the United States was home of the Ku Klux Klan, but also a predominantly white area. Not that many Blacks from the deep south, except those brought there to work as slaves in the first place. Not that many educated blacks in danger of poaching white jobs, in any case. Interesting.

What I'm finding interesting, and this maybe completely irrelevant is that I've lived in another country for six years now, and finally I know how it feels to be the ethnic minority, and to be excluded or stereotyped on the basis of my skin colour, ethnicity and language.

I'm a British caucasian living in Indonesia. A country where the majority of the population rarely travels outside their own country, and where their view and understanding of other cultures is taken from cinema screens, TV movies and news reports.

It's certainly a humbling experience. And yes, in the face of such adversity, it's pretty hard to remain positive. Especially when you're heckled in the street practically every day for six years.

[seckle]

Deep south of the United States was home of the Ku Klux Klan, but also a predominantly white area. Not that many Blacks from the deep south, except those brought there to work as slaves in the first place. Not that many educated blacks in danger of poaching white jobs, in any case. Interesting.

What I'm finding interesting, and this maybe completely irrelevant is that I've lived in another country for six years now, and finally I know how it feels to be the ethnic minority, and to be excluded or stereotyped on the basis of my skin colour, ethnicity and language.

I'm a British caucasian living in Indonesia. A country where the majority of the population rarely travels outside their own country, and where their view and understanding of other cultures is taken from cinema screens, TV movies and news reports.

It's certainly a humbling experience. And yes, in the face of such adversity, it's pretty hard to remain positive. Especially when you're heckled in the street practically every day for six years.

Crazy. I have friends that moved to Japan and have lived there nearly ten years now, and feel the xenophobia, but without the heckling. Must be hard to deal with. There's a movie called "A Year Living Dangerously" with Mel Gibson that you should see. Its about 1950's Jakarta.

[magma]

There's a movie...with Mel Gibson that you should see.

DOES NOT COMPUTE

[kay]

they like to get falling down drunk though. go to copenhagen on a friday night. its insanity. people so fucked that they sleep on the street till the street cleaners wake them up.

Ummm....that's not much different from what happens in the UK... Probably more fights in the UK too.

It's interesting how Indonesia is so different from Malaysia. Caucasians get treated completely differently in Malaysia, almost the complete opposite of what you describe in fact.

As for Japan, I don't think it's xenophobia as such. More a general disdain for cultureless uncouth western dogs who are clearly inferior More seriously though, there are a few basic fundamental cultural points that westerners and orientals view quite differently, and it's these points which usually cause a degree of stand-offishness. Typically, the western viewpoint is a bit more malleable, less structured and accepting, which is why the "unfriendliness" does not usually stem from the westerners. It's not easy to understand what the orientals are looking for though because it's the sort of thing that's learnt as you grow up, rather than put into words. I think it's probably best explained by recent studies that have shown that people originating from each of these cultures will look at and focus on different aspects of a given picture. Americans, for example, would focus on the tiger in a picture, while the Chinese would look at the picture as a whole.

[tr0tsky]

The Chinese will look at the tiger in the picture and wonder if they could either sell it to make medicine or eat it.

[sanjion]

There's a movie...with Mel Gibson that you should see.

DOES NOT COMPUTE

yeah.. Mel Gibson.. and "should see" in one sentence?

The thing is, Malaysia and Singapore are completely different.. the people there are generally more travelled, and more exposed to westerners. When I go to either of those places, noone gives me a second look.. it's really nice just to be anonymous again. But here you walk down the street and the uneducated majority shout at you "Mister.. Mister" or "Bule.. Bule" (Bule = White skinned foreigner, similar to Gaijin (Japan) or Gweilo (China))... now, most westerners mistake this as friendliness, which is why you hear all those stories and read those blogs about how Indonesians are the friendliest people on earth. They're not being friendly of course.. they're actually just amusing themselves. Half the time they laugh at you and greet you, not to be friendly but to show off to their friends... They still view westerners as somewhat of an oddity, which is ridiculous considering they were a dutch colony for so long.

But actually I've been told that this is due to a lack of education, and actually I shouldn't blame them for such behaviour. I actually saw an Indonesian Bajaj driver in the Sabang district pull over and hail two black guys walking down the street. "hahaha.. Negro, Negro.." Seriously. Can you imagine that happening in the UK?

[kay]

The Chinese will look at the tiger in the picture and wonder if they could either sell it to make medicine or eat it.

Wrong.

The Chinese will look at everything in the picture and wonder if they could either sell it to make medicine or eat it.

[sanjion]

The Chinese will look at the tiger in the picture and wonder if they could either sell it to make medicine or eat it.

Wrong.

The Chinese will look at everything in the picture and wonder if they could either sell it to make medicine or eat it.

hahahaahahaha...

[seckle]

The Chinese will look at the tiger in the picture and wonder if they could either sell it to make medicine or eat it.

Wrong.

The Chinese will look at everything in the picture and wonder if they could either sell it to make medicine or eat it.

i work with 3 korean women. there's this saying in korean that....."the chinese will eat everything with four legs, except tables and chairs."