Day 44 – Proud to be an American

There comes the time in our travels, every time, when we think back to the home country we left behind and feel proud to be its citizens. Not that we do not think that normally. But sometimes comparisons bring home better what we have.

We went to see the Atomium today. It is a giant model of the Iron molecule built for the 1958 World Fair. It was recently renovated and looks pretty good on the outside. The inside is much of the late 50s splendor so not very impressive.

First, you are squeezed like sardines in the elevator that takes you to the top sphere for the view of the city, from maybe 20th story height. Next, you are herded back to the ground floor and take escalator and stairs to 2 more spheres.

What disturbed us was the exhibition that was designed to showcase the challenges of being accepted by the Belgian society of the new immigrants. There were stories of immigrants, pictures and all that good thing. But they also had exhibit labeled “Foreign Scum.” The board said something like “6 out of 10 African immigrants think they are not being treated right.” There were other similar statistics and I do not remember them. There was also a TV with a taped interview in French presumably on the same topic. We moved to a different sphere and there was artistic exhibit – a neon sign saying, “Scum.” It was interesting that it was pointing towards the elevator that could only be used by the staff on this floor and at the moment a black cook was standing next to it. There was another sign about the foreign scum a few feet away.

The fact that the subject comes up and there is a word for it or rather label, and there exhibits showcasing it indicates that yes, immigrants know that they are scum, and locals know that immigrants are scum. And yes, indeed it is a great social problem.

Now in US, if someone so much had called someone a foreign scum they would probably arrested for racial/religious hate crimes. There is no concept such as a foreign scum here. Everyone in the country is immigrant and an American and I appreciate the great pains that country is going through every day to make sure it stays so (give or take Arizona). That’s why you can bring your family to Belgium, and dozens of other countries in the region, and give them you best and in the end, the best you would be is still the foreign scum.

I am sure that great quantities of Belgians are good people and do not think of foreigners as scum and do help them, hopefully more of them would get the message. One other note, I ranted on the first day how hard it is to find anything "Belgian" in some areas and how depressed and run down things that are not Belgian are. I guess this all stems from the scum concept. The same donner may look glorious on the market in Marakesh. But here it is a sign of decline. Fixing this should start from beginning to respect it. If you respect foreign things, you could extract and distill the very best out of them. For example, Americans were able to perfect the Italian pizza and take it to the new heights via the deep dish and the New York style pizza. Lithuanians did it by putting the entire contents of their fridge on it.  

Mini-Europe was visible from the Atomium and was  not worth it.

Our next point was the glass town but having received varrying directions for the locals we ended up wandering for 3 hours in the outskirts. Eventually we made it back to town. Walked around for the rest of the day re-sampling to local specialties. Here they are again: waffles, doner kebab, French fries with mayo, and deep fried meat. Had some beer on the street. Dan was embarrassed to have it out in the open :) Take out coffee is soo bad. Coffee Inn, Coffee Inn!! How come Starbucks never made it past the airport?

Flower carpet on the Grand Place is almost finished. It is awesome. Will try to find a high point tomorrow to view the whole thing.