Friday, May 23, 2014

City Conversations

I was at a LARGE eyeglasses shop trying to select new frames for my new prescription.  I update my glasses about once every 5 or 6 years because insurance covers such a small part and I tend to like only those designer frames.  I think eyeglass frames are the biggest rip-offs on the face of the planet and if I had decided to be a designer, that is the direction I would have headed.

But this is not about my going slowly blind and broke.  This is about the people one meets on that journey. 

On my drive to the large shopping center with the large eyeglass store (I spend way to much time the country and am impressed by size) I noticed an unusual number of women wearing headdress in hijabs walking along the roadways and in the housing areas as I approached the mall.  These were the traditional dark lengthy coverings with neutral head covers...not the exotic mysterious clothing where only netted space for eyes is allowed.  They were all ages, some alone and some in groups.  It reminded me years ago when shopping this same mall I rarely heard English spoken in the stores.  I rarely heard any accent I recognized spoken although all the shoppers were at that time all in western dress.

Now I see many Middle Eastern people in western and traditional dress wandering the mall.  The eyeglass store employed ONLY Mid-Eastern people, all dark skinned, dark haired, dramatic looking people speaking with Mid-Eastern accents. 

When I had selected my expensive eye wear and handed the tray to one of the clerks, she bubbled brightly helping me choose among the selection as hubby has not a clue.  As we measured my eyes, talked about the gazillion choices in lens types she was most friendly before turning me over to a young man for the sale.  He and I discussed  discounts, insurance, and warrenty and as we waited for the computer to change screens, I said something about data and expressed that probably the NSA was inputting my eye prescription to their database and that was the slow-down. 

The young man with a mustache and wearing glasses looked away from the computer screen and smiled and said (he had little or no accent) that he was sure the NSA was tracking him and his computer and phone calls.

I asked if he thought that was because he was from the Mid-East.  He responded that "No." he had been born in Connecticut, but his mother was from Afghanistan and currently worked as a contractor for the US Army and was in Afghanistan translating.  We talked briefly about the book "A Thousand Splendid Suns" by Khaled  Hosseini and "In My Father's Country" by Saima Wahab, the latter a true story about a woman who was doing what his mother was doing. Like US Southern writers, Middle-Eastern writers have their unique style which means they tend to have a rich way of describing things and a great complexity in their characters.

The flamboyant, dramatic looking woman returned at the end of the sale to measure me for sunglass frames which were next on my way into debt.  Since we had been chatting so comfortably about love and marriage and having children...something us old folks can get young folks to do...I asked why there were so many people from Afghanistan in this area.  She responded that the Afghan government paid for them to go to school here, paid for their airfare, their schooling, their living expense and their health care!  She could not explain why this area was the one selected, but we were close to DC so that might have something to do with it.  Clearly they brought their large families along.

I could not help but feel chagrined that we send our young men and women to live in tents, eat canned or dried food, and risk their lives every day, so that these very wealthy citizens of another country can come here.

It did not ease the sour feeling in my gut when upon leaving I passed a beautiful young woman in a flowing pastel silk hijab sitting on a bench in the mall center using her cell phone which was attached to a huge jewel-encrusted chain around her neck looking like someone who belonged on Rodeo Drive in California...or more likely in a nightclub in the Mid-East.

21 comments:

  1. The world over, people with money have choices the rest of us don't have.

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  2. I'm with you on this. We send the aid over there and our own kids cannot afford to go because of the high prices, which can be maintained due to the influx of foreign students and this is true in every university in the country. When I found out the price of state school's tuition today, for those living in the state no less, I was in shock. It's no wonder the kids end up owing $50,000 for a four year degree which may not even get them a job :(

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  3. Rain Trueax...to the highest bidder. Everything seems to have to have a profit motive.

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  4. The well to do are the same everywhere.

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  5. Interesting. I am working myself up to the fleecing of my pocketbook which is the eyeglass experience around here. It seems as though most of the mall workers here are Russian. I an mot sure why.

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  6. I think I saw more turbans in our local Target than I saw on our trip to India.

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  7. I am not sure what to say to this.
    They are obviously making a contribution to the economy rather than living on state hand-outs.

    Therefore they are welcome. They certainly would be over here.

    If you have the means you can live anywhere, if you don’t, it doesn’t matter where you live, you’ll be despised by the well-off.

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  8. The question I would ask is why a third world country supports students like this while America kids have to go into lifelong debt if they are not born into wealth. That's where I thought you were going with this. Not that your own question isn't valid.

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  9. I also was thinking as you, Anvilcloud. We are no longer the privileged country we think we are, we are much like England now and I guess someone else is moving up the ladder of wealth. I also do not begrudge the students their wealth, but I question how hard they worked for it. I think it was our people keeping their industry safe.

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  10. Whoops. I confused your book "In My Father's Country" with "In My Country".

    I must get the one you mention, and read it.

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  11. My frames are "Sophia Lorens" I don't recall how much out of pocket I had to pay, but I love them.

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  12. Makes no sense.

    I'd love to see your glasses.

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  13. I like the frames I have and will continue to put new lenses in them as long as they last.

    It is my understanding that the majority of the aid we send to other countries rarely reached the needy. It usually goes to their military or their wealthy citizens.

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  14. My glasses come off of the "discontinued" rack, the cheap ones they are getting rid of. It's a good thing i'm not picky what they look like, since i only use them for driving.

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  15. Here in our upscale mall English is a second language to Spanish. And yes, I too have this tendency to pick expensive frames. This time I sat on my glasses at the gym. George got them semi straight, but I really need to replace both the lenses and the frames.

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  16. Hello There, We just got home from a great week--which was a terrific 'healing' experience for me --as I recover from gallbladder surgery followed by that wicked infection... You'll have to check out my blog post today (if you haven't done so yet).

    Our world is a mess in so many ways.. I have to distance myself from 'what should be' --in order to keep my sanity... I know that our country and leadership is the worst it's ever been--and that makes me very sad... Oh Well... Guess I'll just keep living my life the best I can!

    Hugs,
    Betsy

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  17. I will not win any popularity contests here, but I went to Wal-Mart and got my glasses. The optometrist and glasses technician were first rate. The optometrist had had a practice in San Jose but was forced to give it up after the landlords raised the rent on her. This was not Wal-Mart's doing but because of the influx of people into Silicon Valley who are driving prices up there.
    Actually, the optometrist was working with another optometrist who was renting the space from Wal-Mart, and the technician was a Wal-Mart employee who helped me pick out the frame and lenses.
    All the equipment was up to date and got the trifocal graduated and coated lenses. The glasses cost $500.
    The glasses from an optometrist in Ballard, Seattle cost $1,200. That kind of price difference is significant!
    I should add that I find Wal-Mart employees to be unfailingly kind and helpful. And more and more they are getting out there and demanding fair treatment for themselves. This is a large class of people that Barbara Ehrenreich writes about in Nickel and Dimed, working, supporting families. Actually, my husband was up there this a.m. getting some window blinds and the clerk complained that she had to work on the holiday. No reason why they could not close the place and give everyone some time off!
    There really isn't anything wrong with Wal-Mart's retail model, which is Basic Big Box. They are not fancy, but they usually have the ordinary things you need. What they must do is treat their employees fairly, both the ones at home and the ones in other countries. And stop with the stupidity like Black Friday and so on.
    Oh, and I should add that here on the Big Island of Hawaii they have not damaged local businesses the way they have elsewhere. Our economy has always been slow.
    The only thing I object to is that they sell food, which means they are making a lot of money from our reasonably generous SNAP program (and of course, as is well known, many of their employees need to use this and other forms of public assistance). But so does Target. Still, this does not seem to have hit the local groceries very hard.
    Sorry for the long comment...

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  18. I'm with Friko. Most of our larger Canadian cities are multicultural. If folks immigrate legally, behave within the law and are productive taxpaying citizens, are they not welcomed as Americans? Which is not to say that all Canadians are always that accepting without question..

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  19. I love the diversity and the opportunity to hear other languages and know folks from other places. I can't help but think of my fathers people who came to this country, built thriving businesses and stayed to raise American kids. No they were not supported by their homeland, nor would they have been rich. Most assuredly they would have died in gas chambers. Once here, outside their New York ghetto, they were distrusted, shunned and polarized. So much has changed. Everyone has a different story.

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  20. I'm agreeing with Linda Reeder. I really noticed this in Bangladesh.

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  21. I shop at Walmart. they hire often handicapped workers, the elderly which couldn't likely get jobs elsewhere. At my age, I don't want to run from store to store anymore than i have to-- so Costco, walmart and the like are where I get a lot of food and sometimes clothing ;) I mean the clothes are all made somewhere else whether Walmart or a high end department store. My last glasses came from Costco. I got my contact prescription there but then buy the contacts mail order.

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