Expatriates Unite.

Was chatting with a similarly-minded friend (an American one! An endless wonder to me) about the challenges of being an expat as one of our generation. I guess I can begin to capture it by noting that even a sentence like that one makes me want to puke-- the 'challenges' of being an expat? Like, what are THOSE exactly? And of course it's true that we lead comparitively luxurious lives-- even within expatriate communities I know that my own life is so secluded, so insulated from the challenges that many expats face that to speak of difficulties within it might seem indulgent. But that is the very problem-- that for a certain element of the current population it has become very difficult to speak or act AT ALL because we are so painfully self-reflexive about everything we do, and so critical of everything those around us do simultaneously. The things I say and do, let alone write, seem to me to be so riddled with cliche or pretentiousness that it is difficult to make any sort of definitive statements of belief or like or interest. We are so quick and so expert at identifying the 'backpacker' mentality that places the burden of authenticity upon the developing nation's people, or the peace corps ideology that is so self-serving or short-sighted in its realisation that we can hardly appreciate nor contribute to another culture. And don't get me started on the impossibility of critising, or even expressing dislike, for aspects of a foreign culture.

A great deal of this is born out of very sound ideas of not wanting to patronise or simplify complex cultures and peoples. Those are valid and, dare I say it, proper goals. But when they can also lead to the very things that they are supposed to avoid (how patronising is it, for example, to be so fearful of simplifying a culture that you never really engage with it? Isn't criticism of a people in some way related to respect for them?) there needs to be some compromise between the ideals that we know to be sound and the results that we know to be desireable.

So does that mean I should get on board with the 'save the stray cats' movement? Should I admit that köfte totally grosses me out (and to whom?)? Do I refuse to stay in mainstream tourist resorts again because they aren't the real Turkey? Or do I just commit to taking half my phrases out of inverted commas, and declare that some things do not have contested meaning... even some controversial ones. Or maybe, even if they do, I don't care.

And then I go back to the pathetic sense of radicalism that I have just associated with the removal of punctuation... and it starts all over again.