David Kessel
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Articles by David Kessel
June 22, 2007
You know, I love the Better Business Bureau. I can go online and check if a company I will be dealing with is legit or not, see if there have been consumer complaints and then decide if I want to deal with them or not. The problem is, though, is that the membership in the Bureau does not seem to be ...
March 26, 2007
After a long war of attrition with Germany, and subsequent hunger and a general sorry state of the country's politics and economy, Socialists stage riots in England and ask for more democracy. After several skirmishes with the weakened Royal Army, they end up creating a provisional government. An em...
November 03, 2006
As the government of Kazakhstan is hating Borat more and more for making a movie and TV series in which their country is shown to be a backward East European backwater and a poor Third World jusmping off place, and in the aftermath of the cartoon riots, many Muslims around the world are steel reelin...
October 30, 2006
The government of Kazakhstan is up in arms. A man in remote England is making fun of them by posing as a Kazakh journalist. He has set up a site in broken English, and is ridiculing the country and its people right and left. They feel insulted and are trying everything possible to stop him, but to n...
October 26, 2006
Some two decades ago, I was watching a famous preacher on TV. The topic for that day’s sermon was “India“. According to the preacher, India was poor because it was not Christian, and he was inviting people to go there and teach Christianity. At the end of the speech, he raised his voice and shouted ...
October 24, 2006
I am in the middle of Sydney, Australia. It is a cool, wintry day in August. The skyscrapers around and above me are filled with light , and a huge moon hangs over the city as the lazy puffs of vapor, coming out of the chimneys and exhaust outlets, rise into the crisp, southern skies.
I look arou...
October 21, 2006
I have been hearing the term "Balkanization" increasingly being applied to the US. Basically, what is meant by this phrase is that because of illegal immigration, and insidious multiculturalism, the US will fall apart along the ethnic lines, just like Yugoslavia has. I think it will not happen. Here...
October 20, 2006
Boy, how grateful I am that there is the Internet! When I was a kid, I really did not know what to be when I would grow up. I had too many interests, and was, basically, a jack-of-all trades, but a master of none. That proved to be a very difficult character trait as far as succeeding in today’s soc...
October 04, 2006
I have noticed that over the past 20-30 years or so more and more people speak English, and prefer to use it to communicate with foreigners. Also, what is becoming more and more common is that you have native English speakers who live in non-English speaking countries for decades, and who are doing ...
October 04, 2006
You have undoubtedly heard from many people that you should cut up your credit cards and get a visa debit card instead. I am one of those people, and I am now sorry I did that. Because I should have kept those credit cards after having paid them off. It would have been much safer for me that way. At...
September 30, 2006
Japan is not usually synonymous with racism in Western media, unlike Mississippi or Soweto, but its society is pretty racist nonetheless. However, it is an issue that is rarely studied as openly as the racism in the West, or the one that is perpetrated by Western individuals such as in the US, Canad...
September 30, 2006
It was early in the evening on a beautiful campus of a mid-sized university in Upstate New York. The time was the first week of October, the season of foliage and balmy post-Indian summer weather, with just a crisp hint of the approaching winter.
The University housed some 5,000 students among ...
June 05, 2006
I remember when back in the 80ies I was fascinated by foreign languages so I decided to learn a few. Spanish was my first choice as it was spoken all around me. So, I bought a book titled “Spanish in 22 easy lessons” or something like that.
Spanish to me was the language of Cervantes , Garcia Lorc...
May 18, 2006
I remember that day like it was yesterday. It was July something-something of 1983, and I was about to be sworn in as a new US citizen. I was at a Federal Building in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The building was as American as one can get, US flags all around, signs and all, but what was outside did not ...
April 15, 2006
Somehow, no hateful outburst in America is complete without telling somebody to go back to ?their? country or continent. I have seen many such events happen and heard the same thing from people who have been victimized by such volunteer ?travel advisors? more than once: there is always some bozo who...
April 02, 2006
There has been a lot of debate as to why immigrants will not assimilate into the American culture.
However, all those who are now assimilated children of immigrants seem to have forgotten how long it took their families to assimilate.
I am sure it was not done in 2-3 years or even one generati...
March 28, 2006
(The Americas Press Agency, March 29, 2006) - Thousands of Americans residents in Mexico marched on Mexico City; and hundreds more marched on other Latin American capitals to protest what they perceive to be the unfair treatment they have been receiving in those countries.
“We cannot work here”, c...
March 17, 2006
As an expat, you will often be living in certain places where your presence alone may attract uncalled attention from a variety of unwanted elements. Jealous locals, fake business partners, women that want to take advantage of you, prejudiced people who do not like your race or nationality, corrupt ...
March 17, 2006
In some English-speaking countries, where English is an official second language, and many documents and business communication in general, is in English, there is an interesting linguistic phenomenon: it is the numerical selling out of the tens and the “teens” which follows the utterance of the num...
March 17, 2006
In many societies there have been social and racial divisions that have existed for centuries, if not for millennia. People have learned to live with them and even benefit from them. By appearing in those countries and trying to be a do-gooder, you may violate the fragile social harmony of those cou...
March 10, 2006
Have you ever noticed how the term “Multi-Cultural” is often applied to the British colonies such as the US, Canada, Australia, and even Malaysia and Singapore, and how few other countries who were not British possessions give themselves such a description? The Soviet Union was a multi-national coun...
March 04, 2006
Jealousy is a basic human emotion, and it generally manifests itself in situation where one observes other people having things that one does not have, and/or living a lifestyle that one cannot afford to live.
Jealousy is a strong emotion, however; in the First World countries it rarely assumes d...
March 04, 2006
A lot of strife nowadays is generated by religious intolerance which is a bit difficult for those who come from fairly liberal societies to understand. My observation is that while religious differences are definitely a serious cause, the bigger cause is really in the combination of religion and tra...
March 04, 2006
As I thumb through major international magazines, I often come upon all these schools that advertise their long distance programs as well as on-campus programs for BAs, MAs and PhDs. They make it a point to convince the potential student that the degrees are legal and approved. And I keep seeing the...
February 26, 2006
Best things in life are…cheap if you know where to look.
I do believe that best things in life may be free, but what is not free is getting to where they are and putting yourself in the situations where you are more likely to find them.
Too many of us are simply short of both time and money to b...
February 26, 2006
For a long time on earth we have had several opposing camps - Communist vs. Capitalist, Materialism vs. Spirituality, Fundamentalism vs. Secular or Christian- based democracy, etc.
In each of such camps there were dissidents - people who disagreed with the mainstream political or spiritual philoso...
February 19, 2006
When traveling from country to country one becomes exposed to local radio programs be they in a taxi or a car you rent or wherever. If you listen to love songs, I mean, local love songs, you will become aware of an interesting phenomenon- namely, the kind of lyrics and the type of performers change ...
February 19, 2006
Jews in America often cannot relate to what the Jews in Eastern/Central Europe went through.
There have been demonstrations by some Jews in the US against Israel and Zionism. The reason they saw the need to demonstrate in America was because they were as 100% American, just as anyone else in the U...
February 19, 2006
The British law, as the American law, treats people born in their country as their own.
If you are an American, a Canadian or a British citizen reading this, you are probably used to the fact that 'national' and 'citizen' mean the same thing in your countries. In America, actually, the word "natio...
February 18, 2006
Straight Expats - Victims of Homophobia
Homophobia is a very bad thing according to the modern PC culture.
However, inspite of it, gays have made significant progress in attaining an almost equal ground with other groups in being able to assert their rights to live a full life on this planet. W...
February 18, 2006
So many of us spend decades of our lives climbing social ladders of societies where competition is high, the dog-eat-dog attitude is the norm, and true friendship and love are devilishly hard to find. We grow stronger in such an environment, wiser in an unhealthy way, and, at the same time, tougher ...
February 18, 2006
Jews, Zionism and the European Right of Blood.
The Middle Eastern conflict has been viewed from many angles in the media, and there have been numerous viewpoints as to who had caused it, why it has happened and who is at fault. It is kind of hard not to be partial or not to take sides in the de...
February 18, 2006
Conflicting Partial Cultural Perspectives Greatly Complicate the Situation.
A great deal of confusion has been caused by the misunderstanding resulting from how different cultural groups view what is happening in the Middle East and the consequent controversies that result from such differences. L...
February 18, 2006
Eastern and Central European Countries Are Also to Blame for The Middle Eastern Conflict.
There are numerous conferences always taking place around the Muslim world against Zionism, against American imperialism, Western "encroachment", etc. Somehow the Muslims see Zionism as an American invention,...
February 18, 2006
Jews were not the only ones who have suffered from Jus Sanguinis.
A few paragraphs above I have also mentioned that the nationality by blood model is also a model used by the Japanese. It is also important to note that the same method of defining one's legal ethnicity is utilized in China, Korea...
February 18, 2006
American, British and East European Jews see and experience anti-Semitism differently.
When American Jews complain about the Anti-Semitism in the US, they classify it under "religious prejudice". A Jew who claims discrimination in hiring says that he was not hired, or that he was fired because of ...
January 21, 2006
I have, on several occasions, read the writings of ladies who were wives of American officers, and who spent a large chunk of their lives accompanying their husbands on their overseas postings. They would describe their lives in Germany, Japan, and other such locations with the most positive of term...
January 21, 2006
If you are preparing to go abroad for a short- or long term, and decide to consult the State Department and order any brochures from them that deal with foreign travel, they will be happy to supply you with the most up-to-date information on visas, travel restrictions, and tell you what to do and wh...
January 14, 2006
When I was a kid, the world was simple- it had only six continents- Europe, Asia, America, Africa, Australia and Antarctica. That is what I learned in my Geography class. People living in those areas were, therefore, Europeans, Asians, Americans, Africans, Australians and...Antarcticans, I guess. I ...
January 14, 2006
I have been struggling to coin a term for this group of people and it is not about tourists in flip-flops. By triple f’s I mean people who are caught in between cultures. In the nation of Flops they are Flips and in the nations of Flips they are Flops. How so?
Take second generation immigrants in ...
January 14, 2006
When I was working in Saudi Arabia, a British co-workers once asked me:" Let me sing you the national anthem of the country of dummies?" Then he proceeded to sing "the Star-Spangled Banner" with the following lyrics: "Dumb-dumb-dumb dumb-dumb-dumb..". Another British co-worker said that Americans we...
January 14, 2006
There have been movies and books featuring the often hackneyed story of a handsome American ( or British, German, etc.)soldier or businessman who falls in love with a gorgeous Third World girl and saves her from the life of drudgery and hopelessness by bringing her to the States ( or other such coun...
January 14, 2006
With very few exceptions, when there is a popular rage about some foreign country that everybody is going to on vacation, to retire or to find friends or money, I take it as sign that the country is no longer suitable for any serious sojourn. When I hear about huge numbers of expats retiring in Cost...
January 14, 2006
As you go from country to country and spend time in them, you will become aware of an interesting phenomenon- you will assume a new role, so to speak in every country you visit and your image and self-image will change. In some countries you will be a low class nobody, in other countries you suddenl...
January 14, 2006
I think naturalization is a great thing. It is wonderful if you can go to another country, live there, learn the language and then apply for citizenship. It is refreshing to stand in front of a new flag and give an oath of allegiance. Feel something new, patriotic, and say “ Now I am ( put the new n...