Why are people in general so two-faced and/or hypocritical?
It seems to be the same all over!
In France, Germany, the USA, Spain and in the UK, and no doubt elsewhere.
[Image courtesy of SunStar]
France
Impeccably mannered, the French are polite to a "T".
"Messieurs, ..... dames!" they unfailingly cry at the butcher's, the baker's and ..... the candlestick-maker's.
Yet this greeting is nothing more than a formula, as they most likely hate their fellow shoppers, be they French or foreigners.
[Image: The Context of Things]
Germany
The Germans, like the French, are generally very polite in shops, etc. But do they all like each other really?
Waiters behave impeccably and are polite and professional. Are they genuine or is it because they think the amount of their "tip" depends on their behaviour?
Photo of a German waiter [Freepik]
The USA
The USA is very racist. Whites generally regard themselves as superior to Native Americans (Red Indians), Hispano-Americans ("spics") and African Americans ("blacks").
[Amnesty International USA]
If you're white, you have a chance of being accepted, although if you're Irish ("micks"), Polish ("Polacks") or Italian ("dagoes" or "Eyeties") you can be the butt of jokes and worse.
Religion is a factor also. If you're a WASP (White Anglo-Saxon Protestant), that's OK, but if you're a Roman Catholic, a Mormon, Amish or Pentecostal, you'd better watch out! You will more than likely suffer from discrimination.
Spain
After the Reconquista, when the Christian Spanish, ousted the Moorish invaders after nearly 700 years of occupation (711 - 1492), Spain was a mixed population of Christians, Jews, Moors, moriscos, other Arabs and gypsies. Somehow they rubbed along together.
[Maps Spain]
Modern-day Spain is an even more diverse population with the huge influx of foreigners from Northern and Eastern Europe, from the USA and Canada and from Spanish-speaking countries in Latin America.
Romanians have come en masse and Italians also. Both Romanian and Italian are quite close to Spanish (Romance languages descended from Latin) and are mutually understandable.
Curiously, there is a strong Russian presence on the costas. Those Russians who no longer wished to live in Vladimir Putin's disaster of a country, presumably, or, as some suggest, the Russian mafia.
Ukrainians keen to escape the war back home in Ukraine are also in Spain in significant numbers.
***
As a resident of some 17 years I do not detect a great deal of racism. Of course, we white Northerners are "guiris".
I think the Spanish are frustrated that most incomers have made very little effort to learn Spanish, live in "ghettoes", ie large gated communities on the coast, and spend their time eating, drinking and sun-bathing.
[Image courtesy of Computer Hoy]
There is more tension between the castellano speakers, and catalan and euskera people in Catalonia, Valencia, Islas Baleares and Pais Vasco. Less so between asturianos, gallegos and speakers of Castilian Spanish.
Two-faced?
One of the reasons I love living in Andalucia is the friendliness and openness of the andaluces. Where we live in the campo outside Ronda, most of our neighbours are local people. They are very friendly, generous and helpful.
And I don't think they are two-faced. I don't think that they talk maliciously about us behind our backs. They gossip, of course, but who doesn't?
They think we "guiris" are well-to-do when many of us are not. Another of my reasons for living in Spain is that the cost-of-living is way below that of Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands, the whole of Scandinavia, Switzerland and the UK. I would struggle financially if I lived in England, for example.
If they do have something against you, they won't tell you what the problem is.
Older Spaniards are not prepared to "upset the apple cart".
They lived suppressed lives under the dictator Franco, so it's not in their DNA to criticise and complain.
Franco died in November 1975 [Daily Mail]
The United Kingdom
The country of my birth, yet I am disappointed with the place these days, after the chaos of 14 years of Conservative governments (Theresa May, Bojo the Clown, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak were all terrible prime ministers); Brexit; the recession; the mis-management of the Covid-19 pandemic; the MPs expenses scandal; illegal migration; the near collapse of the National Health Service; the Post Office scandal and so on .....
[YouTube]
Yet the British Isles are without doubt beautiful and varied.
From Land's End to John O'Groats. Cornwall, the Devonshire coasts, Somerset, the Cotswolds, the Kent and Sussex coasts, Wales, East Anglia, Yorkshire, Lancashire, the Lake District, Scotland, and the Islands.
St Michael's Mount, Cornwall [British Heritage Travel]
So, why don't I like the UK any longer?
It is very expensive.
Big cities like London, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds and Glasgow are noisy and dirty. Edinburgh is the sole exception.
Edinburgh, Scotland [Globus Tours]
Edinburgh is one of my favourite capital cities and I've been to around 34 capitals around the world.
Anything else?
The British people are pretty unfriendly, especially to strangers, and very "age-ist". At 75 I am invisible .....
© Pablo de Ronda
Pictures:
Amnesty International USA, British Heritage Travel, Computer Hoy, Daily Mail, Freepik, Globus Tours, Maps Spain, SunStar, The Context of Things, YouTube
Links:
Ben and Joan, Monty Jack and Big Ron - Help me, Ronda
Capital "Punishment"- Part One - Eye on Spain
REST of THE WORLD - Capitals of Mainland Europe - Help me, Ronda
What is a guiri? It's what the Spanish call us foreigners - but is it good or bad? - Secret Serrania
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