Attentive readers of Ethical Musings will have noticed an
almost three-month gap in my postings from mid-April to early July. I
appreciated a couple of concerned friends querying whether I was ill during
that period. I was not ill and, to the best of my knowledge my cancer remains
in remission. Most of that time, I was traveling in Europe, spending about a
week and a half in England, four weeks in Venice, and four weeks in France (the
rest of the time I was traveling in the U.S., visiting friends and family).
In the late 1990s, I lived
for two years in London. Since then, I’ve traveled frequently to Europe, most years
following my 2005 retirement from the Navy spending one or two months there.
On this trip, my first trip to Europe in three years, I noticed
some interesting changes.
First, almost all French and Italian sales clerks, restaurant
wait staff, museum personnel, etc., began the conversation in English or
immediately shifted to English if I started the conversation. Previously, both
in Italy and France people appreciated tourists at least exchanging greetings
in the local language, initially attempting to conduct business in the local language,
and only then shifting to English to aid a floundering tourist.
Some restaurants insisted on providing me an English language
menu in spite of my expressed preference for a menu in the local language. Restaurant
menus often have misleading if not inaccurate translations; my restaurant
Italian and French are sufficient for me to read most menus in the original language.
Perhaps a combination of two factors explain this shift.
People may be adopting the faster pace of American life (see below). Concurrently,
English is also rapidly becoming the global language, at least in Europe. For
example, when an Italian or French person and the individual with whom they
were trying to communicate lacked a common language, everyone immediately shifted
to English. People from other countries with whom we spoke routinely described studying
English as a part of their curriculum from the first years of school through
high school.
I suspect that Americans’ lack of bi- or tri-lingual skills
will become a handicap as globalization increases because not everyone in every
country will truly be fluent in English.
Second, the pace of life among the French and Italians has
seemed to quicken. Illustratively, McDonalds now sells more hamburgers in
France than the French sell of their previously most popular sandwich, a
baguette with ham and butter. Street food is more common. Locals now eat while striding
purposefully rather than stopping for a long lunch. On a couple of occasions,
wait staff or sales clerks actually apologized for keeping me waiting, something
that I never before experienced in Europe.
Third, smartphones appeared to be omnipresent. Indeed, companies
in the travel business (airlines, train companies, hotels, and others) now
presume that their customers have a smartphone. Not having a smartphone, which I
don’t, sometimes required utilizing awkward or time-consuming alternatives. And
by extension, European companies are as diligent and intent on collecting all
possible data about their consumers as are U.S. firms. Similarly, I was as
bemused in Europe as I am at home in Honolulu by tourists focused on a
smartphone instead of visually enjoying the place they have paid to visit.
Fourth, based upon my observation the number of beggars in
both France and Italy has increased over the last three years. In Italy, most
of the beggars looked as if they were Roma, i.e., gypsies. In France, a
disproportionate number of the beggars were black. However, in neither France or
Italy did the beggars appear to be as numerous as are the homeless in Honolulu.
Furthermore, the beggars did not obviously include the mentally ill or
substance abuses so evident among the homeless in Honolulu.
Italy and France are apparently more compassionate than is
the U.S., offering more appropriate and adequate assistance to the mentally ill
and substance abusers than we do. The increased number of beggars points toward
ka fraying social safety net in Europe and, in France, toward a recognized need
to improve racial integration and upwards mobility.
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