In America, do as the Americans know.

Is it a culture or a norm?
 I wish I knew. Preliminary discussions with my friends revealed the vast differences that exist between the American and African societal setups, at least where I come from besides the huge environmental differences like the the powerful cold chill that hits you in the face and knocks the breath out of you as you take your baby steps on the continent. Everyone foreign to this land had this feeling even the founders of modern America I believe had this feeling when they stepped out of the water. Then comes the blazing heat that enervates you to the core, no wonder someone had to be genius enough to invent the apparatus to contain the extremes of nature. Then is the ever dynamic culture of America that is unique in its very own way. Say something in the same exact words but in a different tone of speech and an American person will not understand you, not because they are deliberately trying to shut you out but strange sounds in their ears just make little to no sense. They are like a blubber and you have to encounter the question, 'What's that?' which in normal circumstances will be, 'Pardon me or I beg your pardon?'. The land of allergies where it is a common thing to have an allergy. People sneeze or have runny noses, some have red eyes and some do not eat peanuts and they all take loads of prescriptions to curb them and they proudly take ownership of these conditions, if they are not feeling well, " I have allergies". They can not enjoy so many of things at their disposal like take a closer walk with nature because nature has these nasty little grains not visible to the naked eye at the time when she is adorned in the most beautiful apparel. I remember where I am from, there are people who have allergies too but many do not know that they are intolerances, they think they are normal sicknesses that occur at certain times of the year or after eating certain foods. For example in Spring and Summer when the Jacaranda is in bloom, lighting up the sky with purple flowers, my niece has runny eyes and she says they are always itchy and my friend's nose runs uncontrollably. Every time we took a walk along Jacaranda Avenue in Northend, they had severe cases or their eye and sinus irritations and I got to sympathize with them. Not to say I was the strongest without allergies, I would not stomach groundnuts without a visitation from pain and would not even enjoy a glass of fresh milk which I loved so much, I still do not unless its lactose free, that surely, in American parlance, it sucks.

The ever growing and expanding capitalistic lifestyle of the society is quite perturbing to a soul that has lived most of its life in a community where new things were bought not everyday. In America, there are gluttonous shoppers as well as gluttonous businesses that have you buying things just to throw them away when you get home. They name it consumerism, which is fuelled buy all sorts of triggers from music to health. Daily television screens show messages from blaring loud enticements to subtle ones that have people scrambling to make purchases for things that they believe are ' Now better than ever, number one rated, guaranteed to work or their money back, offers not affordable to be lost, Hurry Hurry Hurry!' Now in a nation where 99% of the population owns a television set and on average a household member watches the tube for at least four hours a day, there is a lot of selling and a lot of convincing that happens through the set. With the conveniences provided in the nation, one does not even need to leave the house to get things, they just pick up the phone, or go online and purchase while sipping o n a drink, in the comfort of their homes. Sellers have long discovered the trick to sell and they package usually shoddy products covering them in attractive wraps and sending it off with praise words and selling them through the music that is known to move the needy part of human beings, making them buy subconsciously. Ask advertisers, they will tell you that its true.

In terms of relations with the whole world, I have to high five American founding fathers and the stewards of this great nation for instilling in the people what is the envy of many, patriotism. Although they may say, the same is, 'The last refuge of the scoundrel', I say kudos because the difference between the patriotism in Africa, particularly where I come from, is that in America, they provided the people with all sorts of creature comforts, even exceeding them to a point of sterility (not the opposite of fertility), super-exceeding them them that its like a dream (which it somehow is) and in my part of the world, Zimbabwe to be specific, there is patriotism with no creature comforts. Only the elite who rule have all sorts of imaginable comforts while the rest of the people are poor. This has however made the nation to be a country of improvisers, many people still live to make money and buy things needed in life by thinking out of their boxes. But there would be none fully committed to patriotic causes because the word is associated with the ruling guys who are greedy and want nothing else but to squander the resources of the nation. An average American is in full support of his country's ideal which is sweet, and would rally behind whatever the country is doing around the globe because of the fact that the people are patriotic to the point of absurdity. One fine gentleman in a coffee place was labelled as a bad man by his relation and he snapped at her, 'What, I am American and I pay my taxes!'. Jeez, if the president hears this he would be shaking his hand right this instant.

As a result, of the many factors and the hope contained by the nation, many immigrants have flocked to the nation and have been assimilated into its system. Some come by ways authorities disprove and some come in with the approval of the same. For may reasons people come, to seek refuge from persecutions, to seek for opportunities in life, to get everything that is promised by The Dream. A walk down the street can confirm this, you meet and hear languages that confound you. Its quite surprising that with so many people from so many different parts of the world, little is known by average people about where they come from. Maybe its because people from other parts of the world do not want to share the stories with their hosts. Some would do everything possible to shake off anything that ties them to their original culture. Their children born in America they do not teach them the ways of living of where they are from. Some, however are resilient, holding on to their cultures and enthusiastically doing whatever they do in the ways they have always done things even before crossing the high seas to discover this nation. Average people in the street think that Africa is a country and that its inhabitants roam about amid their wildlife picking berries, hunting animals to eat wearing nothing but loin skins. They think people speak one language (African)  and that's the clicking language they heard in some African movie like 'The Gods must be crazy'. There some who have had the opportunity to travel there and they know the truth and some who have been taught in school or have had enlightenment from their friends and neighbors that know more, and they do not make such wild assumptions.

In this way, is the general way of living similar also to the way of living from where I come from. Drinking, a pastime. Many people have generally drinking habits here, some drink at the bar after work, others drink during the day while some drink at social gatherings and some do not touch alcohol at all. The difference is that no one is supposed to drink at work which is also the same thing with Zimbabwe except in the past. This I heard from my grandmother- People used to have events called 'Nhimbe' in the villages. A Nhimbe was a call to a household's neighbors, friends and family to come and help them harvest their field produce. The hostess would brew traditional beer and the host kill a beast or a goat and prepare the meat. People would come to their homestead early in the morning and go to the field to be harvested and begin working. When they were through, the party began. Calabashes of frothing beer would be brought out as they all sat under the shade and food accompanied the beer. By the end of the day, the work would have been done and the people full and drunk. That was how a 'Nhimbe' was conducted, collective effort with food and drink as a thank you.

It is considered neighborly to greet those that live close to you. Here you may be intruding their privacy, in Zimbabwe, you smile if you see a kid as a sign of kindness even in a supermarket. A person may talk to some body's little child and it would not be anything at all. Children can wander off in a park and a stranger picks them up and bring them back to their parents. Of course there are some people who are sick like any other pervert you will find in any other state. People interact loudly in the streets, not so loud to disturb the peace of the surrounding and people care. If somebody is in distress, people offer to help them out of their dire situation. It is a different case altogether in this land of dreams. People tend to shrink into themselves and want to live life by themselves even if they are in danger, they would rather dial a number and call for help than call out for help. Even if they do, they may or may not get any response. Its such a cold environment, isn't it?

There are stereos that exist among the society and like a friend of mine remarked the other day, 'Stereotypes only exist only because we live up to them'. What a mouthful? Well, I was watching ABC's and host John Quinones' 'What Would You Do?', the episode where they put actors to act as if they were stealing a bike in a public place. One was white man, the other was black man and the other was a beautiful white girl. The reactions they got were reactions from real people who had no idea they were acting. The white man got very little attention from the passerbys as he was sawing the chain off a bicycle that was parked in a park. The black man came and he was met with outrage. People thronged to him and tried to stop him right there and there. The beautiful lady came and got help from gentlemen who admired her beauty. Well, at the end of the day I saw that the black male was treated so differently from the other two. Here, if I walk down a street in a neighborhood where the rich live, I may be hurt because of people who have a sick mentality that any black person is a criminal. That is the worst stereotype to exist on this earth ever. Some people do not even believe there are black people that do not steal, do drugs and live violently. They have no sense of knowing the truth but to live in perpetual ignorance and fear. A lot of tongues are wagging currently over the unfortunate and untimely death of a young black kid at the hands of a George Zimmerman, early in the year. It is unjust and grossly unfair to take a life, worse of a young person and I do believe the killer was enveloped by this stereotypical thinking, thinking he was saving the world, he took the life of a person. Now read the following by our former president and tell me where today's people get such horrible stereotypes: Written by Thomas Jefferson in 1776,

We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.