DC1346
Well-Known Member
Today was very odd. I was driving home from work and I didn't feel like making dinner because I had already spent the entire day in the kitchen with the kids. There's a little restaurant on the corner of the only strip mall in town and a sign in the window says that it offers American, Mexican, and Italian food. Now American ... okay ... and Mexican or Italian ... okay ... but all three? In the same restaurant?
I am not very good about trying restaurants I've never been to. I generally have 2-3 chain restaurants I like (on the premise that I can enjoy these meals nearly anywhere). When I go to these restaurants I always order the exact same meal. Outback Steak House: 12 oz. prime rib (medium well), grilled lobster tail, loaded baked potato, salad with Ranch dressing, whole wheat bread with butter, and for dessert - a mini milkshake. I used to get strawberry but the chain dropped strawberry and I nearly dropped the Outback in response ... but I've reluctantly settled for a mini oreo milkshake which is good but it's NOT STRAWBERRY (grumble) ... other restaurants ... TGI Friday for the full rib plate with steamed broccoli and seasoned fries and an ice cream sundae for dessert ... Denny's for their chicken fried steak with country gravy, hashed brown potatoes, a side of crispy bacon, two fried eggs (sunny side up) and whole wheat toast.
So I walk into the restaurant and the owner is Italian-American (with a distinct Italian accent). I wasn't in the mood for Italian, so I ordered a Mexican combo plate ... taco, enchilada, and tostada with Spanish rice and beans and chips with salsa and guacamole. The food was surprisingly good.
Midway through the meal, the Polish waitress (who was actually from Poland) began chatting with a diner in an adjacent booth. The waitress was talking about all of the Syrian refugees who had been flooding into Eastern Europe on their way to countries like the United Kingdom and Germany (both of which offer some of the the best benefits for refugees in the EU). I heard the diner ask why the Syrians couldn't stay with fellow Muslims in the Middle East.
This got my attention because I spent 7 years living in Saudi Arabia and 1 in Beirut, Lebanon ... so I apologized for having listened to their conversation and further apologized for interrupting but observed the following.
1) Many of the Gulf countries are still having to deal with the aftermath of the Palestinian refugees crisis dating back to the 50's, 60's, and 70's. Since the Lebanese government is a Democracy that shares power between the Druze, Christians, and Muslims, Lebanese Muslims began lobbying for Syrian Muslims to have citizenship. After all .. during the 50's and 60's some 50,000 Palestinian Christians received Lebanese citizenship ... so why couldn't Palestinian Muslims also become citizens?
The reason was political. There were a great many more than 50,000 Palestinian Muslims who wanted to become citizens and if all of these people became citizens, the balance of power would have shifted to the Muslim faction. Fearful of how this could have made the Muslims the dominant majority group in the country, the Christians and Druze blocked the Muslim proposal for citizenship ... and eventually things got very bad as the religious/political parties all vied for power and Lebanon which had been the "French Riviera" and banking center of the Middle East, fell into a 17 year long civil war from which they have still not fully recovered.
No one wants to emulate Lebanon's fall. Some 150,000 people died ... and 1/4th of the country's population were displaced.
2) The Gulf State countries have a much lower population density than Europe. They also don't have the infrastructure to deal with the influx of several hundred thousand refugees.
The diner turned around in his booth and listened to everything I said. He then asked me why the refugees couldn't go to Iran.
I pointed out that the Iranians were Persians while the Syrians are Arabs.
"But they're both Muslim," he observed.
I nodded in agreement while slurping my diet soda. "Yes, but most of the Syrians are Sunni while the Persians are Shia. The Syrians also speak Arabic while the Persians speak Farsi."
"Well what about all of that oil money?" he asked. "Why can't the Saudis take these people in?"
I observed that the Saudi national economy was not as robust as he might think. The Saudi royal family has their fingers in the national bank and every year the royals want more and more of the proverbial pie because every year, there are more and more royals.
Since the Saudis believe in polygamy and Islam teaches that all wives must be treated the same, this has become a problem. Consider the following example. If wife #1 of Prince (fill in the blank) has an opulent palace to live in with a domestic staff of 40 and a luxurious limo with a driver, then wives #2, 3, and 4 must EACH have an opulent palace to live in with a domestic staff of 40 and a luxurious limo with a driver.
Since the Saudis do not practice birth control, Prince (fill in the blank) may have multiple offspring with each of his wives and all of these children will be princes and princesses of the blood ... Royals who will each expect their own generous stipends complete with palaces and staffs.
You can imagine where this might exponentially lead. When I lived in Saudi Arabia during the 90's, there was a school whose entire student body consisted of young royals. Since boys go to a boys' school whilst girls go to a girls' school, the Royal Academy that the Princes attended was said to have had an enrollment of some 2,000 students.
Although the Saudi economy was once robust, there is a limit to how many Royals the economy will be able to support as the royal population continues to grow.
The diner nodded and as we continued to talk, I found myself marveling over the fact that I was having a spontaneous conversation about geo-cultural politics with a total stranger in what had been an unfamiliar restaurant.
This was quite uncharacteristic of me. I can only attribute it to the unsettling experiences I had over the last two days. I have not been myself.
https://www.aspiescentral.com/threads/unemployment-statistics.13309/#post-253946
(Reference posts 16 and 19)
In any event, I finished my dinner, paid my bill, clapped the stranger on the shoulder in a hail good fellow gesture, and thanked him for the conversation.
"Have a pleasant evening!" he said as I turned and walked out the door.
What a strange ending to a very strange day.
I felt ... almost normal ... how very odd ...
David
I am not very good about trying restaurants I've never been to. I generally have 2-3 chain restaurants I like (on the premise that I can enjoy these meals nearly anywhere). When I go to these restaurants I always order the exact same meal. Outback Steak House: 12 oz. prime rib (medium well), grilled lobster tail, loaded baked potato, salad with Ranch dressing, whole wheat bread with butter, and for dessert - a mini milkshake. I used to get strawberry but the chain dropped strawberry and I nearly dropped the Outback in response ... but I've reluctantly settled for a mini oreo milkshake which is good but it's NOT STRAWBERRY (grumble) ... other restaurants ... TGI Friday for the full rib plate with steamed broccoli and seasoned fries and an ice cream sundae for dessert ... Denny's for their chicken fried steak with country gravy, hashed brown potatoes, a side of crispy bacon, two fried eggs (sunny side up) and whole wheat toast.
So I walk into the restaurant and the owner is Italian-American (with a distinct Italian accent). I wasn't in the mood for Italian, so I ordered a Mexican combo plate ... taco, enchilada, and tostada with Spanish rice and beans and chips with salsa and guacamole. The food was surprisingly good.
Midway through the meal, the Polish waitress (who was actually from Poland) began chatting with a diner in an adjacent booth. The waitress was talking about all of the Syrian refugees who had been flooding into Eastern Europe on their way to countries like the United Kingdom and Germany (both of which offer some of the the best benefits for refugees in the EU). I heard the diner ask why the Syrians couldn't stay with fellow Muslims in the Middle East.
This got my attention because I spent 7 years living in Saudi Arabia and 1 in Beirut, Lebanon ... so I apologized for having listened to their conversation and further apologized for interrupting but observed the following.
1) Many of the Gulf countries are still having to deal with the aftermath of the Palestinian refugees crisis dating back to the 50's, 60's, and 70's. Since the Lebanese government is a Democracy that shares power between the Druze, Christians, and Muslims, Lebanese Muslims began lobbying for Syrian Muslims to have citizenship. After all .. during the 50's and 60's some 50,000 Palestinian Christians received Lebanese citizenship ... so why couldn't Palestinian Muslims also become citizens?
The reason was political. There were a great many more than 50,000 Palestinian Muslims who wanted to become citizens and if all of these people became citizens, the balance of power would have shifted to the Muslim faction. Fearful of how this could have made the Muslims the dominant majority group in the country, the Christians and Druze blocked the Muslim proposal for citizenship ... and eventually things got very bad as the religious/political parties all vied for power and Lebanon which had been the "French Riviera" and banking center of the Middle East, fell into a 17 year long civil war from which they have still not fully recovered.
No one wants to emulate Lebanon's fall. Some 150,000 people died ... and 1/4th of the country's population were displaced.
2) The Gulf State countries have a much lower population density than Europe. They also don't have the infrastructure to deal with the influx of several hundred thousand refugees.
The diner turned around in his booth and listened to everything I said. He then asked me why the refugees couldn't go to Iran.
I pointed out that the Iranians were Persians while the Syrians are Arabs.
"But they're both Muslim," he observed.
I nodded in agreement while slurping my diet soda. "Yes, but most of the Syrians are Sunni while the Persians are Shia. The Syrians also speak Arabic while the Persians speak Farsi."
"Well what about all of that oil money?" he asked. "Why can't the Saudis take these people in?"
I observed that the Saudi national economy was not as robust as he might think. The Saudi royal family has their fingers in the national bank and every year the royals want more and more of the proverbial pie because every year, there are more and more royals.
Since the Saudis believe in polygamy and Islam teaches that all wives must be treated the same, this has become a problem. Consider the following example. If wife #1 of Prince (fill in the blank) has an opulent palace to live in with a domestic staff of 40 and a luxurious limo with a driver, then wives #2, 3, and 4 must EACH have an opulent palace to live in with a domestic staff of 40 and a luxurious limo with a driver.
Since the Saudis do not practice birth control, Prince (fill in the blank) may have multiple offspring with each of his wives and all of these children will be princes and princesses of the blood ... Royals who will each expect their own generous stipends complete with palaces and staffs.
You can imagine where this might exponentially lead. When I lived in Saudi Arabia during the 90's, there was a school whose entire student body consisted of young royals. Since boys go to a boys' school whilst girls go to a girls' school, the Royal Academy that the Princes attended was said to have had an enrollment of some 2,000 students.
Although the Saudi economy was once robust, there is a limit to how many Royals the economy will be able to support as the royal population continues to grow.
The diner nodded and as we continued to talk, I found myself marveling over the fact that I was having a spontaneous conversation about geo-cultural politics with a total stranger in what had been an unfamiliar restaurant.
This was quite uncharacteristic of me. I can only attribute it to the unsettling experiences I had over the last two days. I have not been myself.
https://www.aspiescentral.com/threads/unemployment-statistics.13309/#post-253946
(Reference posts 16 and 19)
In any event, I finished my dinner, paid my bill, clapped the stranger on the shoulder in a hail good fellow gesture, and thanked him for the conversation.
"Have a pleasant evening!" he said as I turned and walked out the door.
What a strange ending to a very strange day.
I felt ... almost normal ... how very odd ...
David
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