This post is part of the Good Things, Bad Things series.
Before we arrived in the States we had already known that good coffee is hard to come by here. In Tel Aviv, where we used to live, I was able to count between 10 and 20 coffee shops along Eben Gabirol (Hebrew) street, in the block between King David and Arlozorov streets, which is roughly the block I was living in. Indeed, at some point the best known coffee brand in the US, Starbucks, tried to establish a place in this same block. It was closed shortly after the opening, because Israelis were not willing to pay for the overpriced, low-quality, coffee that Starbucks had to offer, with all the better competitors around it (Hebrew).
We managed to find good coffee at Jungle Jim's, a local store, that sells food imported from all over the world. There, we were also able to find some of D's best loved food from the United Kingdom, such as HP Sauce, Branston Pickle, and tea, and some Israeli food, though not the most important product.
I think that the coffee world is the micro-cosmos of the entire food and nutrition industry in the US. The market is roughly divided into American low-end, American high-end, and international parts.
The American low-end part is intended for the use of the lower class / poor people. There you can get big portions for small bucks, and usually the quality is poor, taste is "industrialized" and nutrition values are questionable at best. Good examples for brands that specialize in this market are McDonald's, with the controversies regarding its nutrition values. As part of a varied diet, a Big Mac, as any other product of the fast-food industry, is something that I like to eat every now and then. The problem begins when one's entire diet is based on these products, and this person doesn't eat other types of food, especially vegetables and fruits. We, as students, found that we have to eat too much fast-food because of the limited variety at the university, that favors fast-food chains over nutritious options. However, we have choice, and we started to use it more often than before and bring home-cooked food, which is more healthy. Other people are not as lucky as us, I'm afraid. Since fast-food is cheap by design, many poor people prefer (or are forced by lack of other option) to eat it. if they were trying to eat vegetables or fruits instead of fast-food, it would cost them much higher for the same amount. This may explain why Americans have high rates of obesity compared to other developed and not-so developed countries. Combined with the existing health care system here, ranked 37 in the world by WHO, this can explain the high overall mortality rate in the US. But, I digress.
The second type of food here is the high-end American products. This includes brands like Starbucks, who sell a cup of latte for about $3-$5, depending on its size and the branch location. In comparison, for $5 you can get a foot long sub at Subway. So, only the rich can afford this type of food, but I'm afraid that to my taste it's not that tasty. Here I think plays another part of the equation, which is branding and "fanciness". I think that most people buy Starbucks on their way to the office to show that they can afford it, that they are successful. I haven't polled too many Americans (basically because I don't know enough), but the ones I did ask say that they don't like the coffee, and many of them prefer the bland American coffee to Starbucks' latte. Yet, they buy it in Starbucks for the paper-cup with the green logo.
The last type of food here is the part that we personally prefer: the international food. For lack of customers (I assume), Israeli and Mediterranean food is not the thing here in Cincinnati, except maybe the Mirage. However, this area has a lot of great Indian places, among which we found Krishna to be both cheap and tasty.
There are, however, some exceptions that I would recommend having in Israel. I really love the combination of quick service with good quality (mostly) Mexican food of the Chipotle chain. I also like the atmosphere, pastries and soups at Panera Bread's branches. In the Italian front perhaps we would recommend the Maggiano's chain of posh Italian restaurants. On the other had, we have at least two better chains of Italian restaurants, namely: Joya and Pasta Mia.
In conclusion, food - like many other things in the US - is a matter of social standing more than anything else. In addition, it's highly franchised and commercialized. If you want good food, you either have to make your own, pay a lot, or get really lucky.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Monday, July 27, 2009
To Blog or not to Blog
To blog, or not to blog: that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by writing end them? To blog: to silence;
No more; and by a blog to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd. To blog, to silence;
To silence: perchance to drown out: ay, there's the rub;
For in that drowning out what screams may we scream
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause: there's the respect
That makes calamity of so long life;
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,
The pangs of despised love, the law's delay,
The insolence of office and the spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy sages,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after post,
The ever-index'd country from whose base
No data escapes, puzzles the will
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than write to others that we know not of?
Thus implications do make cowards of us all;
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pitch and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry,
And lose the name of action
Naturally, this post is based on Shakespeare's Hamlet. Quote - with alterations - thanks to Wikipedia. I couldn't rise quite to the level of the original, but sometimes you have to try.
Monday, July 20, 2009
So They Put A Man On The Moon - Now What?
One of the buzz stories now is the 40th anniversary of the landing on the moon, which was the culmination of almost a decade of enormous efforts. In my humble opinion this is probably the most ambitious and important combination of scientific and engineering efforts. However, since the last landing on the moon, Humanity has not been able to achieve it again. It's a shame that we - a group of more than 6 billion people - cannot join our forces in space exploration. The biggest achievement we have had came as a result of the cold war, rather than a result of cooperation. If necessity is the mother of all invention, war is its illegitimate dad.
Since the beginning of the 1970s space exploration has deteriorated gradually. First, only repeated landings on the moon with subsequent Apollo launches were made. Then, most missions became unmanned, and nowadays the only space flights are to Low Earth Orbits. Hardly 1/1000 of the distance to the moon. Even the International Space Station, Humanity's biggest cooperation to this date, is a small habitat of barely 6 astronauts (after increasing its size lately), who have to be relieved from their station every few month lest their bones decompose to the point of no return. If that's what we can achieve when all of Humanity cooperate, perhaps a war is in order.
But seriously, since the cold war has ended, in the late 1980s, and American companies have turned to manufacture their products in foreign lands, mostly in Asia, America as a nation has become more and more dependent on other nations. In the last decade things have deteriorated even further and now Asian companies also design many of the "American" products. The Harvard Business Review writes that American companies have lost their ability to manufacture and design many of the small and simple things they used to be able to manufacture in the past. They even lost their ability to manufacture cutting-edge technology stuff, like the Kindle or the Boeing 787's carbon-fiber components. The last nuclear reactor to start development (i.e. be designed) was in the 1970s. If this is the case, how can we expect America to lead the world technologically?
In my humble opinion, space exploration is not an option: it's a mandatory thing. It's something that we need to give to prosperity. This planet is already overcrowded, and it's getting worse. Climate changes will kill millions in the coming decades, yet we do nothing. For example, rocketry for instance, which is the only way we have to escape Earth's gravity at the moment, has not changed much since the Chinese invented the gun powder. At some time in the future a meteor will strike Earth and make it inhabitable for centuries, yet we do nothing. We need to save our lives and that can be done only by exploring other options. I am afraid the only hope is that the Chinese will start a new race against the USA, because this is our only chance to another big effort that may drive all of Humanity forward. Let it be soon, in our lifetime.
Since the beginning of the 1970s space exploration has deteriorated gradually. First, only repeated landings on the moon with subsequent Apollo launches were made. Then, most missions became unmanned, and nowadays the only space flights are to Low Earth Orbits. Hardly 1/1000 of the distance to the moon. Even the International Space Station, Humanity's biggest cooperation to this date, is a small habitat of barely 6 astronauts (after increasing its size lately), who have to be relieved from their station every few month lest their bones decompose to the point of no return. If that's what we can achieve when all of Humanity cooperate, perhaps a war is in order.
But seriously, since the cold war has ended, in the late 1980s, and American companies have turned to manufacture their products in foreign lands, mostly in Asia, America as a nation has become more and more dependent on other nations. In the last decade things have deteriorated even further and now Asian companies also design many of the "American" products. The Harvard Business Review writes that American companies have lost their ability to manufacture and design many of the small and simple things they used to be able to manufacture in the past. They even lost their ability to manufacture cutting-edge technology stuff, like the Kindle or the Boeing 787's carbon-fiber components. The last nuclear reactor to start development (i.e. be designed) was in the 1970s. If this is the case, how can we expect America to lead the world technologically?
In my humble opinion, space exploration is not an option: it's a mandatory thing. It's something that we need to give to prosperity. This planet is already overcrowded, and it's getting worse. Climate changes will kill millions in the coming decades, yet we do nothing. For example, rocketry for instance, which is the only way we have to escape Earth's gravity at the moment, has not changed much since the Chinese invented the gun powder. At some time in the future a meteor will strike Earth and make it inhabitable for centuries, yet we do nothing. We need to save our lives and that can be done only by exploring other options. I am afraid the only hope is that the Chinese will start a new race against the USA, because this is our only chance to another big effort that may drive all of Humanity forward. Let it be soon, in our lifetime.
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Good Things, Bad Things: Academy
This post is part of the Good Things, Bad Things list.
When we had just considered coming to the USA we were thinking about a good academic institution, which will help launch our careers in a new direction. We ended up in Cincinnati, mainly due to the fact that this is the only place where we could secure a good financial position. The academic level of the University of Cincinnati, albeit being rated in most fields amongst the top 100 in the US or 200 in the world, is certainly not even close to the academic level in the leading institutions. When I compare UC to the Technion, the level of studies that I had in my bachelors degree is much higher than the level of studies in the department here.
<---- A section here was harmonized ---->
One can simply argue that our findings should be limited to the specific university we're attending at the moment and that in other places the level is much higher. I agree with the logic, but we spoke with a girl we know that studies at a very good university, one of the Ivy League universities, and she said that the level of her studies is not so high as well. On the other hand, one of the professors at my department simply said that I expect too much, because I compare the Technion to UC, whereas I should compare the Technion to MIT. That's a very flattering way of putting it, but according to world universities rankings, the Technion is much closer to UC than it is to MIT. In fact, in most rankings American universities take 8 of the best 10 universities world wide. I wonder if they really are that good, or maybe the rankings are given by mostly American scholars, who get caught in the same trap most Americans are caught in: not realizing that there is a world outside the US, and that this world is just as smart and successful as they can be.
Another problem is that rating a university is almost an impossible task. Firstly, a university has many colleges and programs, and averaging the college of business with the college of arts is as relevant as averaging the size of elephants with the color of grass. Furthermore, even if you focus on the ranking of a particular college, department or program, there are still differences in the way each university is divided, and in many cases there are programs, e.g. aerospace engineering, which can be a separate department or a part of a department. Lastly, rankings - by definition - attribute a number to something. When it comes to a vague, and mostly non-numeric field as academic excellence, it is almost impossible to rate. So, several numerical factors are weighted to yield a ranking. However, who says that these are the right factors? For example, I saw in one ranking that the number of students is a factor. What does the number of students tell about the level of studies? If anything, it should be a curve with an optimum, while most universities are ranked by their ability to attract as many students as possible. And who decides on the weights of each factor? This is a completely subjective thing.
So, if rankings are useless we are back to the feeling of the student that takes the program. Currently, our feeling is that we should have been taking better programs.
Related links to university rankings:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academic_Ranking_of_World_Universities
http://www.arwu.org/rank2008/EN2008.htm
http://www.arwu.org/rank2008/Top500_EN(by%20rank).pdf
http://www.webometrics.info/top6000.asp
When we had just considered coming to the USA we were thinking about a good academic institution, which will help launch our careers in a new direction. We ended up in Cincinnati, mainly due to the fact that this is the only place where we could secure a good financial position. The academic level of the University of Cincinnati, albeit being rated in most fields amongst the top 100 in the US or 200 in the world, is certainly not even close to the academic level in the leading institutions. When I compare UC to the Technion, the level of studies that I had in my bachelors degree is much higher than the level of studies in the department here.
<---- A section here was harmonized ---->
One can simply argue that our findings should be limited to the specific university we're attending at the moment and that in other places the level is much higher. I agree with the logic, but we spoke with a girl we know that studies at a very good university, one of the Ivy League universities, and she said that the level of her studies is not so high as well. On the other hand, one of the professors at my department simply said that I expect too much, because I compare the Technion to UC, whereas I should compare the Technion to MIT. That's a very flattering way of putting it, but according to world universities rankings, the Technion is much closer to UC than it is to MIT. In fact, in most rankings American universities take 8 of the best 10 universities world wide. I wonder if they really are that good, or maybe the rankings are given by mostly American scholars, who get caught in the same trap most Americans are caught in: not realizing that there is a world outside the US, and that this world is just as smart and successful as they can be.
Another problem is that rating a university is almost an impossible task. Firstly, a university has many colleges and programs, and averaging the college of business with the college of arts is as relevant as averaging the size of elephants with the color of grass. Furthermore, even if you focus on the ranking of a particular college, department or program, there are still differences in the way each university is divided, and in many cases there are programs, e.g. aerospace engineering, which can be a separate department or a part of a department. Lastly, rankings - by definition - attribute a number to something. When it comes to a vague, and mostly non-numeric field as academic excellence, it is almost impossible to rate. So, several numerical factors are weighted to yield a ranking. However, who says that these are the right factors? For example, I saw in one ranking that the number of students is a factor. What does the number of students tell about the level of studies? If anything, it should be a curve with an optimum, while most universities are ranked by their ability to attract as many students as possible. And who decides on the weights of each factor? This is a completely subjective thing.
So, if rankings are useless we are back to the feeling of the student that takes the program. Currently, our feeling is that we should have been taking better programs.
Related links to university rankings:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academic_Ranking_of_World_Universities
http://www.arwu.org/rank2008/EN2008.htm
http://www.arwu.org/rank2008/Top500_EN(by%20rank).pdf
http://www.webometrics.info/top6000.asp
Friday, July 17, 2009
From Bowling to Fear in 120 Minutes
We have just finished watching the movie "Bowling to Columbine" on DVD. This is not my first time watching it, and although this movie has many flaws in the way Michael Moore presents and comments on the facts, there is one question being raised and going unanswered throughout the movie: why do Americans end up killing each other in such great numbers, whereas other nations manage not to do so despite being not less violent or possessing more guns than Americans?
My gut feeling is that the answer lies in the way American society is built. This ultimate individualism, which turns people to competitors in the race for - rather than contributors to the achievement of - personal happiness. Therefore they fear each other, and prevent themselves from making new acquaintances. Therefore they hate, segregate and avoid socializing with those deemed different. Therefore they don't try to get to know the other person, certainly not to help them when they are weak. In their eyes life is a zero-sum competitive game, so if the other gains I have to lose. And so the vicious circle continues.
I have mentioned before that Israelis tend to imitate Americans, and this is also something we do well in Israel - hate, segregate, and compete instead of helping each other. We're still a society, but our social values are less profound than they used to be. I hope we don't start killing each other at the same rate Americans do. But it seems to me that the sign is already on the wall.
My gut feeling is that the answer lies in the way American society is built. This ultimate individualism, which turns people to competitors in the race for - rather than contributors to the achievement of - personal happiness. Therefore they fear each other, and prevent themselves from making new acquaintances. Therefore they hate, segregate and avoid socializing with those deemed different. Therefore they don't try to get to know the other person, certainly not to help them when they are weak. In their eyes life is a zero-sum competitive game, so if the other gains I have to lose. And so the vicious circle continues.
I have mentioned before that Israelis tend to imitate Americans, and this is also something we do well in Israel - hate, segregate, and compete instead of helping each other. We're still a society, but our social values are less profound than they used to be. I hope we don't start killing each other at the same rate Americans do. But it seems to me that the sign is already on the wall.
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Good Things, Bad Things: Technology
This post is part of the "Good Things, Bad Things" list I am trying to compile to describe our life here in Cincinnati before the first anniversary of our relocation.
A good thing about life here is the abundance of gadgets and technology. But it is not uniformly distributed around the US, between companies, or among people. For example, we are connected to the internet using a fiber optic cable and we have a bandwidth of 30Mbps download. That's something that most Americans can't get because the infrastructure just doesn't get to their houses. Some of them also don't want to be connected to the internet all the time, and prefer the old fashioned dial up.
However, if you are a technology enthusiast, like we are, you can get almost anything you want, for a price that is. I have a new Kindle2, which can download books using the cellular network provided for "free" by Amazon ("free" means it's part of the book's cost and there is no extra charge for it).
When we first moved here we decided that since we didn't have a lot of money we should not get a TV and rely on internet connection and online entertainment options. As most of these websites don't work outside of the United States, Israelis rarely experience them. However, we have found out that we can follow almost every show that plays, a day or two after it was aired, at any of the websites of TV channels: ABC, NBC, TBS, CNN, and I guess several more - all have sites that allow you to watch TV. There is also Hulu, which aggregates several of these networks for our convenience. From Israel we can watch channel 10 (except for the football games, which was very annoying), but their relying on Windows Media technologies is very annoying compared to the superior Flash technology that all American channels use nowadays.
And then you have Netflix, which for a very small fee a month ($9) streams unlimited videos and TV shows which were distributed on DVDs, or sends the DVDs (one at a time) home.
So, basically, we don't need any TV now. In the future we may get a computer to act as a media player and stream all the videos that we want to a computer monitor (30 inch maybe?).
The main problem nowadays is cellular connection. When we first arrived here this was one of the first thing we did, thinking that we will have to communicate in some way or another with one another and with others. So we went to the only company that was generous enough to give us a plan without credit history: Verizon. It was a huge disappointment. It seems that the company messes up the user interface of it's phones, in the name of uniformity and "ease of use". I couldn't deal with my pay-as-you-go phone, which was really horrible, and switched to T-Mobile as soon as I could. There I could keep my old Sony-Ericsson, because they have a GSM network, but they don't have a 3rd generation network in Cincinnati area. How pathetic is that? And what good does it do anyone that they have Google phones if they don't have the 3rd generation infrastructure to support them? In general it seems that none of the American networks supports 3G very well outside the main cities along the coast. And that is my main complaint about American technology: you can get it, but it is limited to the rich areas and rich people living in them. Try to get internet connection or 3G in Kansas or North Dakota. You'll be happy to have limited cellular connection and dial up internet there...
A good thing about life here is the abundance of gadgets and technology. But it is not uniformly distributed around the US, between companies, or among people. For example, we are connected to the internet using a fiber optic cable and we have a bandwidth of 30Mbps download. That's something that most Americans can't get because the infrastructure just doesn't get to their houses. Some of them also don't want to be connected to the internet all the time, and prefer the old fashioned dial up.
However, if you are a technology enthusiast, like we are, you can get almost anything you want, for a price that is. I have a new Kindle2, which can download books using the cellular network provided for "free" by Amazon ("free" means it's part of the book's cost and there is no extra charge for it).
When we first moved here we decided that since we didn't have a lot of money we should not get a TV and rely on internet connection and online entertainment options. As most of these websites don't work outside of the United States, Israelis rarely experience them. However, we have found out that we can follow almost every show that plays, a day or two after it was aired, at any of the websites of TV channels: ABC, NBC, TBS, CNN, and I guess several more - all have sites that allow you to watch TV. There is also Hulu, which aggregates several of these networks for our convenience. From Israel we can watch channel 10 (except for the football games, which was very annoying), but their relying on Windows Media technologies is very annoying compared to the superior Flash technology that all American channels use nowadays.
And then you have Netflix, which for a very small fee a month ($9) streams unlimited videos and TV shows which were distributed on DVDs, or sends the DVDs (one at a time) home.
So, basically, we don't need any TV now. In the future we may get a computer to act as a media player and stream all the videos that we want to a computer monitor (30 inch maybe?).
The main problem nowadays is cellular connection. When we first arrived here this was one of the first thing we did, thinking that we will have to communicate in some way or another with one another and with others. So we went to the only company that was generous enough to give us a plan without credit history: Verizon. It was a huge disappointment. It seems that the company messes up the user interface of it's phones, in the name of uniformity and "ease of use". I couldn't deal with my pay-as-you-go phone, which was really horrible, and switched to T-Mobile as soon as I could. There I could keep my old Sony-Ericsson, because they have a GSM network, but they don't have a 3rd generation network in Cincinnati area. How pathetic is that? And what good does it do anyone that they have Google phones if they don't have the 3rd generation infrastructure to support them? In general it seems that none of the American networks supports 3G very well outside the main cities along the coast. And that is my main complaint about American technology: you can get it, but it is limited to the rich areas and rich people living in them. Try to get internet connection or 3G in Kansas or North Dakota. You'll be happy to have limited cellular connection and dial up internet there...
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Good Things, Bad Things: Society
This post is part of the "Good Things, Bad Things" list I am trying to compile to describe our life here in Cincinnati before the first anniversary of our relocation.
There is no way around it, American society is a very ill society, almost to the point of a-socialism. If I may add a word to the English dictionary I would call it asociety. From top to bottom, from social infrastructure to daily life - nothing works in this asociety. On the list of bad things in Cincinnati, and perhaps the entire nation, I would say that American society is by far the worse.
American society is plagued by the following social pandemics: xenophobia, prejudice, and puritanism. I will now go on to explain in short what each pandemic is and how it manifests itself.
Americans are xenophobic. I don't think it's the result of the atrocities of September 11, most probably it is rooted far more in the past. They hate, fear and are repelled by foreigners on any level from the federal to the personal.
On the Federal level, this xenophobia starts with their requirements for visas. For example, Israelis are able to enter Canada as tourists without a visa, whereas they are required to have a valid tourist visa to enter the US. One may say that this is because Israelis tend to overstay their visas and work illegally. While this is true for some Israelis, it certainly isn't true for all, but more importantly the same incentives for Israelis to overstay in the US apply also for the Canadian case, so why the difference in policy.
On the personal level this xenophobia manifests itself in the most bizarre ways that American will use in order to avoid having strangers and even acquaintances in their home. For example, if they throw a party, they will do it in their yard or garage, just as long as no one will be allowed in their home. We see that every weekend in the area and it's unbelievable. It is as if Americans are afraid of having people in their homes.
Unfortunately, this xenophobia is not limited to their domiciles. D now faces something that I realized when I started working at the University: people hardly speak to each other at work. When they do, it's mostly on work issues and not personal stuff. As unbelievable as it may seem, people can spend a whole day here without ever talking with any of their peers. In Israel, when you're working there is always people to talk to. When you enter the office there's always "what's up?" and "how are you?". When one gets coffee (another big problem here), someone always joins in and you talk while making coffee. You even drink it together most often. People go to lunch together, all in the name of socializing. People care about each other and become friends, and then they invite each other home. It is unheard of that people are not invited to eat lunch with others on their first day at a work place. Absolutely none of that happens here. People here are like impenetrable bubbles, or even repelling magnets; if two happen to be too close to each other they utter "excuse me" and scurry away from each other without making eye contact.
The strangest thing is that Americans do it with the utmost politeness. If you happen to walk across someone he or she always greets you hello or nod their heads. They smile. They say "excuse me", and "thank you", though they don't say "your welcome" here, just a kind of an impolite "uh-huh".
Xenophobia goes well with prejudice. It's not pure racism as used to be here in the past, but undoubtedly it's better to be a white male than a black woman. Not to mention an alien. In Cincinnati neighborhoods are color-coded: the good are populated by whites and the African-Americans reside in the bad ones. This goes on to affect the schools they will study in, thus affecting their chances of social mobility. In general I would say that a black may become rich and successful, but it will take a unique talent, whether in sports or academy. The vast majority, perhaps 99%, will not be able to escape the fate of their ancestors. Perhaps a new African-American president will help bridge these gaps, but I have serious doubts. I think that most whites are still afraid of the Blacks around them, either because they have a different skin color (thus evoking xenophobia) or because they are used to thinking about them in terms of poor and violent people.
Perhaps as a method of helping them feel better about their ways, the people here tend strongly to be puritans. It's not a simple "bible-belt" thing, as we don't live in the area, but it's close and stems from the same Christian devotion. For example, women here tend to wear clothes that are less revealing than in Israel, while the summer here is as hot as in Tel Aviv. In D's new work place they have a booklet of instructions regarding proper behavior and attire: no Crocks, no jeans, and naturally no cleavage. Understandably, they will avoid saying words like fuck and shit, but they will also use words like gosh and hack, instead of God and hell, all in the name of the God they will not utter His name. Confused? So are we.
What's even worse, it seems to me that Israeli society is striving hard to become more American than American. Which means that we take the things that work well for us as Israelis and befoul them by imitating probably the worst society to have ever existed since the Roman Empire.
There is no way around it, American society is a very ill society, almost to the point of a-socialism. If I may add a word to the English dictionary I would call it asociety. From top to bottom, from social infrastructure to daily life - nothing works in this asociety. On the list of bad things in Cincinnati, and perhaps the entire nation, I would say that American society is by far the worse.
American society is plagued by the following social pandemics: xenophobia, prejudice, and puritanism. I will now go on to explain in short what each pandemic is and how it manifests itself.
Americans are xenophobic. I don't think it's the result of the atrocities of September 11, most probably it is rooted far more in the past. They hate, fear and are repelled by foreigners on any level from the federal to the personal.
On the Federal level, this xenophobia starts with their requirements for visas. For example, Israelis are able to enter Canada as tourists without a visa, whereas they are required to have a valid tourist visa to enter the US. One may say that this is because Israelis tend to overstay their visas and work illegally. While this is true for some Israelis, it certainly isn't true for all, but more importantly the same incentives for Israelis to overstay in the US apply also for the Canadian case, so why the difference in policy.
On the personal level this xenophobia manifests itself in the most bizarre ways that American will use in order to avoid having strangers and even acquaintances in their home. For example, if they throw a party, they will do it in their yard or garage, just as long as no one will be allowed in their home. We see that every weekend in the area and it's unbelievable. It is as if Americans are afraid of having people in their homes.
Unfortunately, this xenophobia is not limited to their domiciles. D now faces something that I realized when I started working at the University: people hardly speak to each other at work. When they do, it's mostly on work issues and not personal stuff. As unbelievable as it may seem, people can spend a whole day here without ever talking with any of their peers. In Israel, when you're working there is always people to talk to. When you enter the office there's always "what's up?" and "how are you?". When one gets coffee (another big problem here), someone always joins in and you talk while making coffee. You even drink it together most often. People go to lunch together, all in the name of socializing. People care about each other and become friends, and then they invite each other home. It is unheard of that people are not invited to eat lunch with others on their first day at a work place. Absolutely none of that happens here. People here are like impenetrable bubbles, or even repelling magnets; if two happen to be too close to each other they utter "excuse me" and scurry away from each other without making eye contact.
The strangest thing is that Americans do it with the utmost politeness. If you happen to walk across someone he or she always greets you hello or nod their heads. They smile. They say "excuse me", and "thank you", though they don't say "your welcome" here, just a kind of an impolite "uh-huh".
Xenophobia goes well with prejudice. It's not pure racism as used to be here in the past, but undoubtedly it's better to be a white male than a black woman. Not to mention an alien. In Cincinnati neighborhoods are color-coded: the good are populated by whites and the African-Americans reside in the bad ones. This goes on to affect the schools they will study in, thus affecting their chances of social mobility. In general I would say that a black may become rich and successful, but it will take a unique talent, whether in sports or academy. The vast majority, perhaps 99%, will not be able to escape the fate of their ancestors. Perhaps a new African-American president will help bridge these gaps, but I have serious doubts. I think that most whites are still afraid of the Blacks around them, either because they have a different skin color (thus evoking xenophobia) or because they are used to thinking about them in terms of poor and violent people.
Perhaps as a method of helping them feel better about their ways, the people here tend strongly to be puritans. It's not a simple "bible-belt" thing, as we don't live in the area, but it's close and stems from the same Christian devotion. For example, women here tend to wear clothes that are less revealing than in Israel, while the summer here is as hot as in Tel Aviv. In D's new work place they have a booklet of instructions regarding proper behavior and attire: no Crocks, no jeans, and naturally no cleavage. Understandably, they will avoid saying words like fuck and shit, but they will also use words like gosh and hack, instead of God and hell, all in the name of the God they will not utter His name. Confused? So are we.
What's even worse, it seems to me that Israeli society is striving hard to become more American than American. Which means that we take the things that work well for us as Israelis and befoul them by imitating probably the worst society to have ever existed since the Roman Empire.
Good Things, Bad Things
I have been toying with the idea of writing a list of things I like and dislike about Cincinnati, and America in general. The more I thought about it, the more it appeared to me that this list is going to be long and hard to complete. Not to mention the fact that it's going to be impossible for any reader to follow.
So, instead, I decided to compile this list in parts, where each part will try to encompass a single aspect of our lives here. I think that it is becoming to do it between America's birthday and the anniversary of our arrival here, so hopefully I will be able to complete it in the allotted period of time.
Naturally, most of the analysis will be based on a comparison between the two countries that I lived in: Israel and here.
What are the topics?
So, instead, I decided to compile this list in parts, where each part will try to encompass a single aspect of our lives here. I think that it is becoming to do it between America's birthday and the anniversary of our arrival here, so hopefully I will be able to complete it in the allotted period of time.
Naturally, most of the analysis will be based on a comparison between the two countries that I lived in: Israel and here.
What are the topics?
- Society
- Technology
- Academy
- Food and nutrition
- Economy
- Health
- Weather
- Infrastructures
- Privacy
- Measurements and Distances
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