rs-forever's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Not stupid and not happy. We went to watch the Cambodian Dance troupe perform with Melinda. We first went to her house for lunch, then drove back to watch the show. It was nice. But there were too many dances, and all dances get old. I think I must be the only Indian averse to dancing x-( After which was a short 55 minute movie based on the lives of three young members of the dance troupe. The movie was trying to understand the difficulties in the lives of first generation Cambodian immigrants. They had trying lives indeed, working at Stop & Shop when they were young, and being confused often. One kid said he was working so hard and Stop and Shop, and they were so poor, but then he said he spent all of his money buying fancy tire rims for his brother's car. Another girl said she was going to put pink leather seats in her car (Her family was poor too). They had Cambodian friends and their boyfriends/girlfriends were Cambodian too. They went to hip-hop clubs with their Cambodian friends. They also crashed their cars with the Cambodian friends in the passenger seats. And yet their parents blamed America for the lack of their kids working hard. I wonder why. To simplify things, and to get the genocide out of the way from skewing my vision, I will try to think about Indian immigrants. If they hang around with their Indian friends, and socialize in their Indian circles, and now if they start drinking alcohol and eating beef - who is to be blamed? A country that gave them the freedom to be whatever they wanted to be, or they themselves? Would they have not done this if they had the same freedom in India, and if they were not in the close proximity of people who may have told on them? So then why blame a culture - which is not even American to begin with. Hip-hop club culture is not American by any means. It is something young immigrants (Indian, Cambodian, whoever) like to think it is, because that is what they like doing. And it is so convenient to blame it on the culture here. They asked the audience for questions. I wanted to know -- "How many generations does it take such a close knit immigrant population to become homogenize with the native population?" You cannot tell an American of Irish descent from an American of German descent because they do not hold on to their cultural identities. Also, they are Irish, but never completely, French or German, but not completely either. They have a mix of some sort in them. And so they do not cling on to their cultures anymore like Asian immigrants do. It must have been easier for an immigrant white population to mix with the native white population. But I wonder if this would happen to an Asian population too? The first batch of immigrants only came over to the USA just about 40 years back. They are still closely knit, but I wonder for how long. No, this movie maker did not have a good answer for me. I thought she was haughty to begin with, and I was so correct. She said she was not a sociologist followed by a truckload of BS. Sure, she could not answer questions about immigrants, nor was she a sociologist -- and yet she was here documenting the private lives of poor Cambodian immigrants for her own personal gains. Also, when no more Cambodians were in sight in the auditorium, she told us things about a girl in one of the families that I am absolutely certain her family would not want any, anybody at all to know. I am going to tell on her, the next time I go to the Asian store run by this Cambodian lady. I will make sure this information is conveyed back to her family so they know they should not trust this selfish woman. I think they would know that already though. And yes, telling on her has nothing to do with me being Indian. It just made me upset that I was witness to a character assassination of this girl just because nobody was around to defend her. And again, I was telling Ryan - I wish I did not think so much into things and spoil them for myself. Dissect them until they look like their ugly selves in an attempt to find the truth. I am too skeptical. But Ryan says if I am not, then I would probably fall for people's lies and who knows even propaganda. But I still wish I were stupid and happy. It is November 15th already. I am going to panic. Bye Bye. 6:51 p.m. - 2009-11-15 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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