On Sun, 23 Nov 2003 21:37:15 +0900, Eric Takabayashi
<etakajp@yahoo.co.jp> wrote:

>Scott Reynolds wrote:
>
>> On 11/23/2003 9:08 PM, Raj Feridun wrote:
>>
>> > Because I get very VERY sad to think that I'll never go home again no
>> > matter how nice life here is. Dorothy SAID there's no place like home.
>> > She's right.
>>
>> Well, then you should be aware that most of the people you have been
>> calling ignorant, elitist, racist (etc., etc.) are here for the long
>> term, many probably permanently. (I include myself in this group, BTW.)
>>
>> But then again you gave yourself away with your "if you don't like it,
>> go home" comment. You don't seem to understand that for many of the
>> regulars in this group (and, specifically, for the ones you have been so
>> busy insulting) Japan IS home.
>>
>> And what Ed wrote is what all of us have felt at one time or another. To
>> pretend that the coldness of the Japanese toward others in public
>> settings, and the shocking lack of compassion or even consideration
>> toward strangers, is some sort of "racist, elitist" lie is simply to
>> deny reality. It surely is the least attractive aspect of this country,
>> and it does get to you sometimes.

>> Are you seriously trying to tell me that it has never bothered you?

>I can believe that in a rural area with a more traditional sense of
>community, he might actually be sheltered from the problem, and be allowed
>to have his view that problems he has never seen or experienced are merely
>a way of life, and someone else's problem.

Thank you, Eric. For one thing I never saw Scott's direct reply for
some reason and would have missed it but for your quotation of it.

Thank you also for the defense even though I think it was a bit
tongue-in-cheek. My whole point from the very beginning of this was
not that the problem did not exist but that it is racist to label the
entire Japanese with that unkind, uncaring stamp of disapproval. This
place I'm in too is Japan. I don't think its someone else's problem
either. I've got a problem with anyone who is unkind and void of
compassion for others, period.

Scott, sorry if you think I'm all about insults. That's not it at all.
To answer your final question no, it never bothered me because IT is
not something I am very familiar with. This place I'm in is very small
and very closeknit and warm and if they ARE cursing this "dirty
gaijin" behind my back I never hear about it. That's all I'm saying.
That's all I was saying to begin with. Open yourself up to the
possibility that yours may not be THE universal experience and by
doing so understand where I'M coming from when I hear you guys spout
off about the "Japanese", case closed. I'm not saying your experiences
are false. I'm saying those are just f'in a-holes you're dealing with
and the fact that they're Japanese may not be THE problem. I've got
evidence to the contrary in the form of very kind and caring Japanese
people all around me. Japan is my home too and has been for the past
10 good years. 

Raj