Prometheus 6

Quote of note:

Not to be browbeaten by the attack on the World Trade Center and for the American way of life to continue, said Amadhila, President Bush appeared on television and urged the Americans not to stop going to the malls and shop. “The emphasis of his message was for the Americans to go out and shop. American life, so it seemed, is determined by their buying power. It is as if they measure their lives on what they spend. This was totally strange to me. The realization then dawned on me that America is completely a consumer society.”

Small Bite at the American Pie – From a Namibian Living in America
2004-03-19
By Catherine Sasman
WINDHOEK

YOU can call Americans patriotic, but you should never accuse them of being class-conscious. They are by and large in denial about the stark divides that exist between the rich and the poor, and issues of class are at best acknowledged in hushed tones.

It is inconvenient to talk about it, and considered rude when brought up in conversation. And yet, class stratification is at the heart of the American society, where a man’s social standing can be judged from how tightly his collar fits around his neck; or where obesity is viewed as a disease of the ‘lower classes’.

“You could say I’ve lived and worked with people from all social classes in America,” said Tangeni Amadhila, a Namibian who lived and worked in the belly of this capitalist beast for five years.
She joined her American husband who was attached to a university in Washington DC with their two children.
“Because of my husband’s work connections we could live in what can be considered a rich neighbourhood. But because money was tight, I worked amongst the ordinary every-day Americans.”

“Talk about social division is very economic. Neighbourhoods strictly cater for certain economic classes. Values are widely different. Living in a rich neighbourhood was like a dream world where your every whim is satisfied,” said Amadhila.
Enter the world of closed facades, uniformly trimmed lawns and scrubs, where children barely 16 years of age - as a rule – cruise along the streets of suburbia in convertible BMWs, Mercedes Benzes, SUV (sport utility vehicles) Cadillacs, Ford Explorers and Lexus.

“All these cars are in abundance at schools. Children there drive the most expensive cars. These cars are especially manufactured for that market. And parents are mollified in the belief that the bigger the car the less harm will come to their children when they are in accidents.”

But as abundant as the big expensive cars are, so are the accidents, continued Amadhila. And yet if parents can afford such expensive toys for their children, then it is almost compulsory for the children to have them.

“In that world children are strongly steered to be like adults. I think it can be very confusing for them because it is as if they are put in two worlds and it is expected of them to perform equally well in both realities,” she added.

“As an African going to America it was a complete culture shock concerning raising children. Although the Americans always focus on children and call them precious, I detected a sense of hypocrisy because I thought the society there just tries to keep up a glossy image.”

So, for example said Amadhila, it is against the law in America to leave children younger than 12 alone without supervision at all times. “If a child turns 12 you can leave other children with that one - for no longer that one hour. At the end of the day you as a parent feel imprisoned by having to drag your children along with you wherever you go. I feel under those conditions children also do not have any space to breathe and grow. When a child turns 16 he or she is considered a young adult. They can then get a driver’s licence. At 18 the young Americans can be conscripted to war and given a licence to kill people in Iraq or Afghanistan, but they are not allowed to buy alcohol or go into a nightclub.”

Conversely, said Amadhila, children are often left to their own devices. “Because time in America is money, a precious commodity, the average Americans do not give the time of day to their families.”

“I have worked as a teacher at a day school for two years. There you start understanding the concept of the American family life. By the time children turn six weeks they get enrolled into day-care. Rich parents work very hard and long hours to maintain their lifestyles, so they would drop off their children by 6:30 in the morning and pick them up at 5:30 in the afternoon. Even if parents work from home they still prefer to have their children in day-care. At the end of the day the children are more attached to you as the teacher with very little attachment to their parents. After weekends some children would come back with nappy rashes because the parents just don’t seem to know how to deal with their children. And then they wonder why kids there murder their parents!”

What is of all importance to Americans, according to Amadhila, is to make as much money as possible and that means work and more work.

“Americans work. Their work culture is in stark contrast to ours. In the more elementary job categories most workers get only two weeks holiday and four days sick leave per year. If you are sick for longer than four days you get unpaid leave. And if you do not go to work you do not get paid. If you come late, money is deducted from your hourly rates. However, I have also noticed that foreigners fill many of these elementary positions. Americans in these positions are often very unreliable because there are so many jobs available. If you work hard you can end up with two or three jobs. One of the best occupations there is nursing because it pays well. A large proportion of the American population is old because of their good lives and good medical facilities.”

Despite the little time available for children, America experienced a baby boom after September 11, 2001. “I think the devastation of the World Trade Center brought about a new realisation of the importance of family life,” said Amadhila.
“I was in Washington on that day. The aftermath of that was very strange. Every house and car was sported with an American flag. I would not say it was patriotism reawakened. Instead I think it was an aroused sense of standing up as a united America. The government perpetuated that. But being a foreigner I became fearful of the vigour with which non-Americans were held under suspicion. There was a gulf of feelings of belonging or not belonging,” she noted.
Amadhila mentioned that after 9/11 living in America felt like living in “any other African country” – devoid of democratic choices. “Everyone had to give in to the rest of society not to be treated as a terrorist. It was a matter of either you are in with the crowd or you are not. Media practitioners were sacked if they questioned subsequent government policies, and there were many incidences where the government directly interfered in radio and television broadcasts.”

The conclusion for Amadhila on the state of democracy in America is that it is a double-edged sword. “I felt for the families who lost their loved ones but perhaps it happened that way as a wake-up call to the world to what is occurring daily in other parts of the world even though they do not get the same media coverage. Losing lives through violent acts remains senseless.”

Not to be browbeaten by the attack on the World Trade Center and for the American way of life to continue, said Amadhila, President Bush appeared on television and urged the Americans not to stop going to the malls and shop. “The emphasis of his message was for the Americans to go out and shop. American life, so it seemed, is determined by their buying power. It is as if they measure their lives on what they spend. This was totally strange to me. The realization then dawned on me that America is completely a consumer society.”

Another culture shock for Amadhila was the supreme rule of creditworthiness. “It was the most terrible time for me when I first arrived there. I could not open a bank account because I did not have a social security number. The social security number is your gateway to becoming a person in the USA. You get it at birth if born there. Without it you are a non-entity for all practical purposes.”

Another big shock was when she applied for a credit card. “The shock was that you have to have a credit history to shop. Coming from Namibia I had no credit history. That, in a sense, is the Catch-22 for the poor in America whose background does not allow them to build up credit. The discrepancies also come in where the rich become richer on credit and the poor remains poor because they cannot come into riches.”

Fitting into the American way of life, Amadhila got a second job as a credit controller dealing with credit applications for customers at a retail outlet. “A good example of how serious Americans take the matter of credit history was when a multimillion dollar – in US terms – football player in a major league wanted to buy something from us. Though the item was well in the range of his budget he could not get the item because he did not have a credit history. He had to bring in his sister to buy the item for him,” she mused.

The reason, she guessed, was because the system is closely guarded. “Social control is immensely tight. It is all geared to make you a conforming citizen and every cog in the social set up turns against you if you are against the system.”
Although her experience in America has taught her a lot about the way the world of money and power works, Amadhila noted with a sign of relief that she is happy to have returned to Namibia. “In Washington I visited the zoo with my children. I looked at the animals in their cages and I felt like those animals – caged in a world of plastic and fantasies. One of the first things I did on return was to go to Etosha where the animals still walk proudly and free – and I knew I was back home.”