As long as I’m ranting, I’ll tell you about the other kind of expat that bugs me. People who think their money makes them special. An American living in Turkmenistan once told me that she loved living there because it was like being a rock star. You know, I understand enjoying the ability to hire someone to clean your house and iron your clothes. (I haven’t bought a single piece of all-cotton clothing since I moved back to the US; that’s how much I hate ironing.) It’s very nice to be able to afford to live a comfortable life.
To actually revel in the inequality, though, makes me ill. Having more money than an Egyptian doesn’t make you smarter, more skilled, or more knowledgeable than he is. It makes you born in the developed world; you won a geographic lottery. That’s it. Feeling superior on that account is just pathetic.
You are great…it is in fact the inequality that makes it so wrong, at least to some of us.
To most of us, I hope. It’s amazing how hard it is to make ethical decisions in a situation of extreme inequality.