Where to go ..

I have heard the argument about the richness of the cultures in the east versus the ones of the west ever so often. But, from the perspective of an ordinary working man, looking towards the world to find a good country to settle in, this argument has a lot of bearing.

As I move through life as a working professional, I come across several problems that countries in the developing world will take eons to overcome. Customer service, standard of living, respect, manners etc. are higher order things that are foolish to expect in nations where clean drinking water is not available to all.

Hence I look around to find a country where I might want to spend the summers and winters of my middle age. I have travelled and lived in several developed countries and there is no doubt that the US is the easiest to go and settle in. But why? Well, 'they have a lot of tolerance to outsiders' is the common explanation. But why is that? Well, since they have a very simple, almost non-existent cultural history. Most of the culture is metropolitan, modern which is almost similar to metros in other countries as well. Hence, easy transportability and adaptability. I feel that the argument can be partly tranlated to the other side of the world - Australia and New Zealand.

Europe is a tougher area to adapt in. Precisely because they have social customs that are older, and would require a concious, forced attempt by an outsider to adapt and adopt to. The serenades of Spain, the family bonds of italy, the naked saunas of Finland or the sincere hardworking culture of Germany are things that have no logical reason for existence but have been passed through generations. One can argue that one need not adopt them and just be an outsider who lives in that country. But that just saps the juice out of living at a place. I am looking at a time-span of around 30 years of life in such a location. Not adapting to the system is not an option.

And discussing the east is just belaboring the point. If the culture of europe was not a bottleneck enough, the customs of food and drink of the east coupled with a strong culture of their own are much much more of a deterrent. There are developed countries there as well - S. Korea, Taiwan, Japan. But, it takes a special kind of constitution to adapt to eating raw octopus and snails for lunch. And neither does one wish to raise a family in a country with a questionably healthy (?) and socially accepted appetite for pornography.