In the cultural trenches

In response to my recent burka post, “Decent Exposure: Women without veils, Men without pants,” The Red Electric’s Berlin correspondent wrote that the clash of cultures in Germany is no laughing matter.

She has a friend, a pediatrician, who often confronts the great divide between manifestations of Islam and Germany’s secular culture.

Our correspondent shares two examples.

An Arab couple with a newborn visited the doctor’s practice a couple of weeks ago. The woman was cloaked in a burka. It was the first time the doctor had personally encountered a woman fully covered. Her formless, faceless presence was unsettling as he attempted to address the newborn’s problems.

The doctor, like our correspondent, finds the burka “utterly demeaning to women.”

But the visit became even more disconcerting because, while the mother could ask the doctor questions, the couple insisted that he address only the husband, as is the custom.

While the doctor treated the child during the visit, he decided he could not continue to because he couldn’t communicate directly with the parent most responsible for the child’s health. He referred the couple and the infant to another doctor.

On another occasion, the doctor had a Turkish father come in with his teenage daughter. He asked the physician to determine if she was still a virgin. She was about to be married off and proof of her virginity was essential to striking the marital bargain. The doctor informed the father that he wasn't a gynecologist and didn't conduct such exams. Then the doctor added, "And even if I were, I would refuse you."

Our correspondent writes, “…after having lived in Europe a decade, I truly understand how the French and Germans feel about what is going on here. (Americans) need to come here and live in the trenches to understand.”

A Different Perspective on Undergrounding

The Red Electric's Berlin correspondent, Lizi Zach, wrote the following in response to my protestations about the most recent "overgrounding" of utilities in Hillsdale:

In Berlin, everything is underground. The downside is that there is CONSTANT digging up of sidewalks and roads to make repairs on the pipes and electrical/telecommunications stuff. And it is EVERYWHERE in this city and it is a pain. It's just as much a blight as it is overground and, in winter, with snow and ice everywhere, it is a hassle and a hazard.

So, frankly, I don't know what the real solution is. Back to the Dark Ages, anyone? No running water, no telecommunications?

Side note: German friends and acquaintances who travel to the U.S. always remark to me afterwards how silly all the phone and electrical cables above ground look over there. They see it as a huge security risk — one colleague told me that during the Cold War, photos of the U.S. shown in Germany belittled how primitive the Americans were not to bury their wiring underground — and how naive: "Don't they know what an easy target they are for the Russians?"

Update on Voter Registration problem

I'm going to check with the Oregon Secretary of State's office today to get the official word on how would-be voters registering (or re-registering) with only their social security information are being treated. Are they being purged or allowed to go on the election rolls?

Stay tuned.

The links to my earlier posts on this issue are here and here. Today's New York Times story is here.

Meanwhile, our Red Electric Berlin correspondent, Lizi Zach, who has been registering Americans living in German, writes to report similar problems:

Just read the latest post on your blog - the same experience over here in registering voters, but greater in that we see Americans from all over the U.S. We use a thick book of instructions with voter registration forms from every state and the addresses of the voter registrars for every county in the U.S. What surprised me when I started this is, as you describe, the issue with the drivers licenses. Some forms imply that that is required to register, which is not true, obviously. You really do have to read the fine print. I was also stumped recently by a friend from Washington (Mike has lived in Berlin a little longer than I have) - he told me that on his form, it states that if he votes absentee in the general election, it disqualifies him from voting on local measures in Kirkland, where his parents and siblings live. He wants to vote on those measures because it affects his family and also he says he might return to live there some day. The form and restrictions were so confusing that he ended up calling his local registar office to get a straight answer. He was told his local voting rights wouldn't be affected, but had he not called, I would have ventured to guess, based on the form, that he would have been forfeiting his rights. I've become convinced these last few months of volunteering that the next big cause needs to be voter registration reform - to make the process more uniform. Even those of us who have been volunteering to register voters for weeks now are confused by the rules - how, then, can we expect Joe Sixpack (sorry, couldn't resist) to figure out what is allowed and what not.

Two views from abroad

One of the many joys in my life is hearing from former students. Some, like Stanislaus O’bul, go back more than 40 years to when I was a Peace Corps teacher in remote western Kenya.

Stanislaus lives in his native Sudan where he has managed to survive the country’s turmoil through a number of managerial jobs. He recently wrote to say that he is looking for work as an English teacher.

Lizi Zach, living and working in Berlin, was in my classes in the early ‘90s. My classroom stories about my Peace Corps experience contributed to her decision to become a PCV in Poland.

So without knowing each other, Stanislaus and Lizi have one thing in common — me, their former teacher.

They also turn out to have something else in common, and I believe it reflects how much of the world views our presidential campaign.

I’ll let them speak for themselves.

Here’s Lizi on Sarah Palin: “If this woman comes even close to the White House, if the Republicans win this year, I am so done. It will be time to go native: burn the passport and take up German citizenship.”

Here’s Stanislaus on Barack Obama: “As democrats, we all send Barack Obama our greetings and pray to God to guide him for the benefit of society and lasting peace in the world.”