Re: ASCII Art Fart for Thu, 2004 Nov 25

On Fri, 03 Dec 2004 00:46:56 +1100, ABCGi wrote:

> Michael M. wrote:
> 
>> their neighbors when there are only two conflicting groups (in Rwanda,
>> in Bosnia, in northern Ireland, in Palestine, in the Sudan, etc.,
>> etc.), resulting in wanton slaughter and destruction.  The U.S., which
>> AFAIK is unique in its cultural, religious and ethnic diversity, seems
>> to me to be doing rather well by comparison -- "rather well" both in
>> terms of continuing to encourage and support diversity more vigorously
>> than any nation on Earth (and recognizing that the strength and
>> resiliency of the U.S. experiment derives from its diversity) and in
>> terms of managing the inevitable conflict that arises.
> 
> I would go along with that. One thing I noticed on my visit to the
> States, though, was how a large percentage of the cities and places were
>   quite homogeneous and lacked variety - as opposed to Europe, but this
> is also a function of a much longer history.

I'm curious about what cities you visited and what, exactly, was lacking
in "variety."  Europe is a continent with many small countries, the U.S.
is one large country, so if you mean that there's more variation between,
say, Paris and Barcelona than St. Louis and Dallas ... well, d'uh. :-) One
thing I liked about living in London was how easy it was to get to
numerous other countries.  But those countries, as self-contained units,
struck me as much more homogeneous than the U.S. -- even London itself,
which aside from New York City is probably the most wide-ranging and
diverse place I've been (let alone lived), is more segregated and
compartmentalized than NYC (my home now).  With the notable exception of
London, none of the European capitals I spent time in could hold a candle
to New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Miami, and perhaps even Chicago
in terms of ethnic and cultural diversity.  That's not to say they aren't
"more different" from each other than many American cities are, but none
are in and of themselves as diverse.

The depressing trend here in North America (and I say that because I've
talked to Torontonians and Vancouverans who feel the same way) is the
"mallization" of our cities.  When I first moved to NYC, it was full of
oddball quirky clothing stores and hole-in-the-wall cafes and cool little
independent bookstores -- now it's full of Gaps, Starbucks's and Barnes &
Noble superstores.  Once I took a friend visiting from France to dinner at
a Vietnamese restaurant down in Chinatown.  We decided to walk back to my
neighborhood -- roughly a three-mile walk that took us through what's left
of Little Italy, SoHo, the West Village, and Chelsea.  We passed -- I kid
you not -- 14 separate Banana Republic stores.  Now that a Home Depot has
opened in Manhattan, I fear all hope is lost -- can Wal-Mart be far
behind?

> That sounds reasonable, cultural diversity should be added to the list
> of possibilities to be explored. I wonder what other countries would
> qualify as diverse but have low per capita violence/gun deaths in
> comparison?

What other countries would qualify as diverse -- or rather, "as diverse
as" the U.S.?

-- 
Michael M.  ~~  hfr...@msbx.net  ~~  New York, NY USA
 "No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely
  under conditions of absolute reality;..." --S. Jackson

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