Girma Gebrewold lives in Ethiopia, in the town Adama, located about 100 kilometres southeast of the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa. It is almost five years ago that Girma Gebrewold stayed in Germany with InWEnt. As an experience report he sent us an email, which he had sent from Germany to a friend back home in Ethiopia - "Lonely, homesick, I used to think of myself a "ghost"" - that is how he described his feelings during that time. Not all his experiences are as sour as expressed in that letter, Girma Gebrewold assures us in his recent mails. Read his critical snap-shot of his stay in Germany.
Dear Zegeye!
How do you do?
They take care of their body with almost an obsession. They have neglected their minds. Their soul is in ruins.
I was waiting for the bus. To my left was a very small thin girl, eleven or twelve years old. She was dressed in the latest fashion. Jeans and a tight t-shirt that together conspired to leave her waist in the open. She was smoking. She obviously was talking to her friend admiring her own thin waistline.
Then a woman came, she sat on the bench next to the girls. I was curious to see the reaction of this old woman. Would she disapprove the smoking? Not a bit. She took a quick glance at the girls, turned her face, looked at her watch, and took a glance in the direction of where the bus was supposed to come. Then she produced a cigarette, lighted it and started to smoke. I was flabbergasted. A 12-year-old girl smoking next to a 66-year-old woman! Well this is Germany! Do they attribute that as a sign of civilization, too?
Fashion makes the boys look like girls, and the girls look like boys. As they get older, women begin to look like men.
Obviously there seems to be no love left between the younger generation and the older generation. People are more comfortable to talk to others with the safe barrier of a mobile phone.
Little children get no smiles from passengers in a bus. However, if a child wants to play with a stranger on a bus it is apt to get a cold blank face. The poor child resigns and reverts back to playing with whatever toy is handy. On the other hand, let's say there is a pet on the bus then everybody's attention is on it. A woman smiles at it. Another wants to fondle it. The owner, nobody minds.
Of course I don't want to be too critical, Germans are highly technical people. They are the most organized people of the planet. The attention they give to details is marvelous. But then their consistent following of orders. Their continuous yearn for order has killed the magic of disorder. Well disorder is ugly for many. It needs a critical thinking mind, an open mind and a big heart to understand this.
Let me give an example. The fact that they have gone to great lengths to give details of lets say the schedule of a train station means that passengers, even a stranger to the town, will get to his destination easily. But on the other hand by giving the traveler full information - so full and exhaustive that he doesn't need to ask for help - we have denied him the chance to talk to people and who knows maybe to create acquaintances. He misses a lot of opportunities for an adventurous life.
This is what Germans are missing. By being too technical, by building too much on one spot or by burrowing too much on one site, they are murdering a lot of choices and opportunities.
Love,
Girma
First published on the website with the link below:
