Being a certified (?) ex-pat myself, having lived most of my adult life outside the US, I would say that the above complaint is partially due to "ex-pat disease"= "you can't go home again." That said though, how come Wojtek doesn't mention one of the most highly-organized, slickly run (never even heard of a train running late much less going where it shouldn't!), low in crime (the mafia is even well organized), safest countries around? No, not in Western Europe so it strikes a blow against biological determinism....Welcome to Japan. Hell, Singapore may even fit the anti-septic, Wonder bread utopia of Wojtek. I could really take up the argument of how the growth of Western capitalism has come at the expense of stunting development (in all respects) of the "Third World" but I would think that is pretty common knowledge around here. "Third Worldism"? Maybe, but I think that if pre-historical society was nothing but savagery and ignorant fear of the natural world we would have never made it as a species. I don't look for a return to some pre-historic pipe-dream utopia but I do think that it isn't to dificult to see that a lot of the nasty inconveniences you mention have to do with economic issues. I was completely unworried to go anywhere in Mexico City as long as I wasn't carrying much cash or anything of value, and indeed would have great conversations with all kinds of people. Also, within the "redneck" and "gangsta" peoples you condemn with a single brushstroke you there is a culture of creativity, spontaneity, down to earthness that warrants a lot of credit as a positive, cultural contribution. Why it isn't the dominant strain that you see on MTV has more to do with the people doing the marketing who pander to the safest, lowest common denominator. If you look for"people who are arrogant, in-your-face, loud, obnoxious, aggressive or violent" they can be found anywhere, in all strata.
Greg Lipman Proudly and juvenilely infatuated with everything countercultural