Notes from Miami: why Americans respect their neighbor

What respect Latin American janitors

The first thing that strikes the eye is the respect of Americans for any honest work. This country was built by hard workers who rolled up their sleeves, though not always tactfully and diplomatically in relation to other nations, but conquered, conquered and bought new lands on the American continent.

Here you will never find a scornful attitude, for example, to the janitor’s profession. By no means! This is the most important person-unit of any condominium, thanks to which in the hall of the building the floors are always polished to a shine, it smells good, the elevator buttons are not melted, and the chewing gum in all the slots is not plugged into the elevators themselves.

Moreover, this person (most often of the Latin American type) is respected by everyone for the fact that he, with his meager salary, pays taxes to Uncle Sam and does not live on benefits at the expense of American taxpayers.

The whole house gives him presents for Christmas and Birthday, they greet him and cope with the health of his family, because in America the saying “from rags to riches” is relevant nowhere else - perhaps tomorrow you will exchange places for money.

Another example. I usually write 30 minutes in the morning at Starbucks around the corner, while walking with my baby. The peanut snorts peacefully in a wheelchair, and I knock on the keys and watch the people in the queue frowningly. Two come in. The first, a hefty African American in a cement-stained construction uniform, hard hat and coarse dirty “caterpillar” on his feet. The second is a typical yuppie, in a fitted suit, clean-shaven and with a danhil leather briefcase under his arm.

In our native "blue-eyed" hostess and the administration of the catering establishment, if we went there with similar prototypes of our heroes, we would have rushed headlong to empty the table for the second character, hastily forgetting about the first, because in their eyes the second looks a much more solvent unit. That is so, but not in America!

The first hard worker can work at extremely dangerous, and therefore highly paid, high-altitude work on a nearby skyscraper across the street (and get about $ 100 / hour), while the second one could simply buy (or even take on installments, which is issued here for everything) Neapolitan cut suit for the last money, in order to then cut across the ocean drive in the same rented "jaguar" and throw dust into the eyes of potential customers and the fair sex. Have you heard about multimillionaires in faded old jeans and cheap electronic watches? So, they are all Americans.

For how many minutes will passersby help lying on the sidewalk

The following is my personal observation of a common stereotype that even though Americans meet each time they ask how you are doing, they actually don’t have any business to them. Imagine there. Two friends, one of whom lives in our latitudes, and the second left for the summer for a student exchange in the United States, conducted a demonstration experiment.

His goal was to determine which nation is more open to help a stranger and how soon she is ready to help. Everything was extremely simple: an absolutely normally dressed young man lay down directly on the sidewalk and waited for how soon he would be turned to and asked if everything was all right with him. It is possible to assume that a person has something wrong with his heart, or something else, and he needs urgent medical assistance. He was filmed with a hidden camera and timed it. For the purity of the experiment, it was duplicated in the summer on an open street (maybe a sunstroke happened, who knows?) And in the shopping center. Well, have you guessed the results?

In the case of our compatriots, the first girl who dared to bend over and find out if all the guy lying prone on the ground is in order (I repeat, absolutely well dressed and not smelling bad), came up in ... 53 minutes!

That is, for almost an hour, a potentially sick person, in a situation where the bill could go on for minutes, lay in the middle of a busy street amongst passers-by who were rushing about their business.

Just imagine that this could be your close and dear person! "Again, a drunk some drunk in the middle of the day" - probably, the majority thought. Well, in the officially “most drinking country of the world” such an opinion has a right to exist. In the mall, the time record could be updated, but the guy roughly picked up the police squad from the ground in half an hour. As they say, and thanks for that.

In America, events developed as follows. The first time, “sir, are you all right?” Was heard in 3,5 minutes. The team decided that this was a statistical error, and again put the "victim" in another place. This time 6 minutes! And in the huge "Walmart" he was not allowed to lie down and minutes! I think this is a very eloquent and illustrative example. And alas, not in favor of my homeland ...

Why Americans love children so much

But the most important rupture of the pattern occurred to me after I myself repeatedly became a direct witness to the attitude of ordinary Americans towards their little citizens. The kids here are really idolizing!

And do not be misled by various propaganda TV horror stories that regularly broadcast dozens of innocently ruined souls forgotten in cars or starved adopted children. The US population has passed for 300 millions - of course, for so many people is insignificant share and moral degenerates.

At first, when at every crossroads or the beach during our walk with my son, almost every second headwalker began to smile to the toddler, politely ask his age and what his name was - I was very surprised. We have not done so. And I even began to write it off as “American hypocrisy,” which we all frighten here, but then events only gained momentum. And the point, of course, is not in my particular special child.

For which they apologize in the supermarket

The last panegyric for today - and we will finish with the laudatory odes. If you are standing in an American supermarket in front of an endless shelving or display cabinet and you choose something painfully (and there is always a choice to choose from, given the enormous range of choices), and at that time a stranger passes between the shelf and you, he will certainly apologize.

Just elementary apologize for the fact that for a second invaded your personal space! And in no case between you, turning your back and blocking your view. To my question “Excuse me, do I bother you?” In the mirror situations that occur in our supermarkets, usually in the dairy departments (alas, I don’t immediately manage to quickly find there low-fat cottage cheese, milk and kefir) - as a rule just stare in surprise.

Well, that's all, perhaps. This is if tezisno and concisely. For writing about all sorts of differences in mentality and ways of life "there" and "here" can be endless. I sincerely hope that my personal observations will serve the good work of someone.