An Ode To Expatriation

[dukkha]

Although the author writes as an ex-pat in Japan for over 40 years I found it interesting and thought some might like to read what he writes and even make comment.

ODE TO EXPATRIATION:

Foreigners are incurable romantics, says Alistair Reid. They retain an illusion from chldhood that there might be some place they may finally sink to rest: some magic land, some golden age, some significant other. Yet his/her own oddness keeps the foreigner separate from every encounter.

Unless he/she regards this as something fruitful, she/he cannot be cured.

This is the great lesson of expatriation.

In Japan I sit on the lonely heights of my own peculiarities and gaze back at the flat plains of Ohio, whose quaint folkways no longer have any power over me, and gaze at the islands of Japan, whose quaint folkways are equally powerless in that the folk insist that I am not part of them.

This I regard as the best seat in the house because from here I can compare and comparision is the first step to understanding.....

Having lived in Thailand over 6 years now I found the authors writing on this subject relevant...it may not have any relevance for some but may for others...as this is essentially an ex-pat forum I thought I would like to share this with you....make what you want of it. Dukkha

[taxexile]

that has certainly got my interest , is it from a book or a newspaper article ?

can you give a reference please to the origin.

[dukkha]

This was a newspaper article with an interview with an American authour who had lived in Japan for 48 years...of course they asked him why have you stayed here so long, his reply was twofold, firstly he said, when I arrived here I felt my balls had touched the ground, but more seriously he went on to say, I am still here because here is where I like myself...sorry his name escapes me..glad that it brought some interest to you, I think it may be viewed by many as a little 'heavy' but reflection is one of my favourite pastimes as I am now in my 60's, yes a baby boomer Dukkha

[taxexile]

In Japan I sit on the lonely heights of my own peculiarities and gaze back at the flat plains of Ohio, whose quaint folkways no longer have any power over me, and gaze at the islands of Japan, whose quaint folkways are equally powerless in that the folk insist that I am not part of them.i think he sums up beautifully and concisely feelings that many of us here in thailand must feel

.....

i think he sums up beautifully and concisely feelings that many of us here in thailand must feel

Foreigners are incurable romantics, says Alistair Reid. They retain an illusion from chldhood that there might be some place they may finally sink to rest: some magic land, some golden age, some significant other. Yet his/her own oddness keeps the foreigner separate from every encounter.

Unless he/she regards this as something fruitful, she/he cannot be cured.

.... and that rings very true as well.

[Tippaporn]

I agree, Tax. "Incurable romantic" about sums me up. But feelings well expressed by the author.

[sting01]

Nice text.

But without any echo here. The fact to go abroad to proove we are worth something is simply a family tradition, so I simply comply (or try to comply).

[dukkha]

So happy that some of you have bothered to not only read the article but to make some worthwhile comments...this is what I thought the purpose of starting a thread maybe about...also great that my post has not generated any negativity or back biting...many thanks Dukkha

[Patex]

...Yet his/her own oddness keeps the foreigner separate from every encounter.

Unless he/she regards this as something fruitful, she/he cannot be cured...

dukkha,

how could one think his/her own oddness could be something fruitful??

I never would refer to myself as an expat - people who are doing so left/fled their place of origin to arrive nowhere...

[pantarei]

...Yet his/her own oddness keeps the foreigner separate from every encounter.

Unless he/she regards this as something fruitful, she/he cannot be cured...

dukkha,

how could one think his/her own oddness could be something fruitful??

I never would refer to myself as an expat - people who are doing so left/fled their place of origin to arrive nowhere...

I would die of boredom if I had to waste my life in my place of origin or any other place. Even when I occasionally end up nowhere, it is better than the same old …, same old…, same old…

"Each of us is born with two contradictory sets of instructions: a conservative tendency, made up of instincts for self-preservation, self-aggrandizement, and saving energy, and an expansive tendency made up of instincts for exploring, for enjoying novelty and risk—the curiosity that leads to creativity belongs to this set. But whereas the first tendency requires little encouragement or support from outside to motivate behaviour, the second can wilt if not cultivated."

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

[PhilHarries]

I would die of boredom if I had to waste my life in my place of origin or any other place. Even when I occasionally end up nowhere, it is better than the same old …, same old…, same old…

Exactly what made me what I am today. My first taste of overseas working was six months in the USA. When I went back and resumed the daily commute the same grey people stood on the same grey platform waiting for the same train (bluddy late again) and not one of them said "Haven't seen you for a while, you been away?"

And I thought "There just has to be more to life than this, please god or whoever, there just has to be more". Seventeen years later it's still a daily grind but the sun shines, the people are different and friendly and every six months to a year (depending on contract length) I get to move on.

[Gary A]

Someone once said that you can NEVER go back home. I had a reminder of that fact in October when I visited my friends and family on the flat plains of Ohio. There is absolutely nothing there for me. When you pull up your roots and move far away you become homeless for the rest of your life. Thailand is my home now but who knows what the future will bring? When the beloved King passes away will some little tin pot dictator change this way of life and force me to uproot again? Where will I go?

[taxexile]

When you pull up your roots and move far away you become homeless for the rest of your life.

i think thats very true , when i make return visits to the uk , and visit old friends , i feel something of an an outsider there , and a little sadness at that realisation , just as i often feel an outsider in society here.

[sting01]

When you pull up your roots and move far away you become homeless for the rest of your life.

I do not have one home, but several residences.

Even if my alliegances are those I get wehn I was given birth, I belongst not to one country but to the whole world.

Being able to call brother a bushman, or mother the fatma in Arzew made me trully admit what my race is : not a caucasian, not an african nor an asian, simply and trully human I am.

Able to named God in so many languages made understand how little I am, how much misteries are on earth, and at the end of the day I simply understood differences do not matter, it's only the willingness to be different that matter.

[taxexile]

steady on , lets not get too carried away.

[dukkha]

Thanks TE, I just made the post which is someones view of having settled in a foreign country and thought that what he wrote was interesting, dont expect it to echo with all but pleased it has led to some discussion.... Dukkha

[Cpt_M0ney_Sh0t]

Although the author writes as an ex-pat in Japan for over 40 years I found it interesting and thought some might like to read what he writes and even make comment.

ODE TO EXPATRIATION:

Foreigners are incurable romantics, says Alistair Reid. They retain an illusion from chldhood that there might be some place they may finally sink to rest: some magic land, some golden age, some significant other. Yet his/her own oddness keeps the foreigner separate from every encounter.

Unless he/she regards this as something fruitful, she/he cannot be cured.

This is the great lesson of expatriation.

In Japan I sit on the lonely heights of my own peculiarities and gaze back at the flat plains of Ohio, whose quaint folkways no longer have any power over me, and gaze at the islands of Japan, whose quaint folkways are equally powerless in that the folk insist that I am not part of them.

This I regard as the best seat in the house because from here I can compare and comparision is the first step to understanding.....

Having lived in Thailand over 6 years now I found the authors writing on this subject relevant...it may not have any relevance for some but may for others...as this is essentially an ex-pat forum I thought I would like to share this with you....make what you want of it. Dukkha

Wow that is deep. Just when you thought you were special and throughly unique in a see of expats in forgrien lands, a kindred spirit writes a few lines that almost all of us can relate to on one level or another.

Bravo, very nice I would love to read more.

I expecialy liked the line "This I regard as the best seat in the house because from here I can compare and comparision is the first step to understanding....."

[dukkha]

Captain, nice to know you enjoyed the brief words written by the American ex-pat who has lived in Japan for over 48 years....it really resounded with me, as for deep, it was taken from an article from the New York Review of Books some years back, what I liked was his reason for staying in Japan for so long was that he...'liked himself there'...this has been my experience, here in the Kingdom I feel the same, guess one can re-invent oneself etc....after two years here I stopped taking anti depressant pills which had been taking daily for the previous 14 years, so think that is some kind of indictment about me and living in Thailand...glad you enjoyed Capitano!

Dukkha

[ColPyat]

how could one think his/her own oddness could be something fruitful??

Because being in a partly outsider position combined with insights, close relationships and bonds formed through years of personal involvement and necessary confrontation with a culture not one's own is a unique condition learn and come to often unexpected and surprising results.

[thaihome]

steady on , lets not get too carried away.

TH

[Woodentop]

I hope the author *) doesn't mind me putting this here...

*) Not the author the OP is referring to, I still don't know who this is or what his work is...

The Men That Don't Fit In

by Robert W. Service

There's a race of men that don't fit in, a race that can't stay still;

So they break the hearts of kith and kin, and they roam the world at will.

They range the field and they rove the flood, and they climb the mountain's crest;

Theirs is the curse of the gypsy blood,

And they don't know how to rest.

If they just went straight they might go far;

They are strong and brave and true;

But they're always tired of the things that are,

And they want the strange and new.

They say: "Could I find my proper groove.

What a deep mark I would make!''

So they chop and change, and each fresh move

Is only a fresh mistake.

And each forgets, as he strips and runs

With a brilliant, fitful pace,

It's the steady, quiet, plodding ones

Who win in the lifelong race.

And each forgets that his youth has fled,

Forgets that his prime is past,

Till he stands one day, with a hope that's dead,

In the glare of the truth at last.

He has failed, he has failed; he has missed his chance;

He has just done things by half.

Life's been a jolly good joke on him,

And now is the time to laugh.

Ha, ha! He is one of the Legion lost;

He was never meant to win;

He's a rolling stone, and it's bred in the bone;

He's a man who won't fit in.''

Edited November 10, 2006 by Woodentop

[rocky]

...Yet his/her own oddness keeps the foreigner separate from every encounter.

Unless he/she regards this as something fruitful, she/he cannot be cured...

dukkha,

how could one think his/her own oddness could be something fruitful??

I never would refer to myself as an expat - people who are doing so left/fled their place of origin to arrive nowhere...

Some people are born an expat, .born into a strange country as result of misplacement, maybe as a result of economics, war or government policies. I was one of these children.

Growing up as a foreigner in a strange land, Leaving the UK was easy choice for me, although I was welcome I never felt welcomed, visiting the land of my for fathers I realised that I was a bigger stranger still. When I realised this predicument, I was already nowhere.

Finally leaving the past behind, arriving on thailands shores, I am no more a stranger here than where I grew or where I dreamt, it is easy for me not to a citizen here, as I had never really felt like a citizen before.

[fruittbatt]

Like you, Rocky, the experience of going to the land of one's ancestors made me realize that I was a stranger everywhere. When friends of my Sinhalese cousins saw my white skin, one asked "How did that happen?" The lack of a shared history and culture was unbridgable.

Yet in Australia I had never felt "at home" either: was always madly enthusiastic, energetic, and ill at ease with many cultural and political values.

After a while I realised that there is no "home", at least no material place where one can dwell in permanent peace, freedom, and security. These days my home is the place and space from which I write, in whatever part of the planet.

[rocky]

Like you, Rocky, the experience of going to the land of one's ancestors made me realize that I was a stranger everywhere. When friends of my Sinhalese cousins saw my white skin, one asked "How did that happen?" The lack of a shared history and culture was unbridgable.

Yet in Australia I had never felt "at home" either: was always madly enthusiastic, energetic, and ill at ease with many cultural and political values.

After a while I realised that there is no "home", at least no material place where one can dwell in permanent peace, freedom, and security. These days my home is the place and space from which I write, in whatever part of the planet.

Home is where the heart is, today my heart is here, here in Jomtein, what makes life easier for me, if and when my heart changes, it is easy to move on and move away. For every disadvantage sooner or later an advantage will be found. Not being deeply rooted with any Countries system, to be free to move when religious or political systems no longer fit. Too call home where you find yourself. Apposed to dreaming of the good old land, which no longer exists.

[Gary A]

This a very good thread and causes one to think about many things. I have been sitting here thinking about the land of my ancestors. Many generations ago they came from Germany, yet I have never had any desire to visit Germany. Maybe it has to do with the attitude of past generations. My folks and my grandparents never considered themselves anything other than Americans. No talk of the "old" country, no remnants of the language and as far as I know, none of them ever bothered trying to visit or even contact their remaining German relatives.

[farangsay]

Saw this thread and read it all .

I remember years ago , when I came back from

a stint in Africa to my native land. I had amusing

stories from here to wherever about my experiences

to relate but found my friends eyes glazed over

rapidly and they started talking about who's round

it might be.

That was my first clue to the fact that there are

those who stay and those who roam. The penalty

for roaming is that you finish as a stranger in the

land you were born. The bonus for staying is a

certain stability in your life and a lot of boredom.

Everyone makes his choice , and we should not

criticise their choice.

Neither should we expect them to understand ours.

[dukkha]

WOW, when I decided to pen the words of the American ex-pat to allow people to discuss I did not expect to receive such great discussion as it touches us all in so many ways...again, many thanks that the small act I did has generated some self reflection and discussion and to those who have expressed their interest many thanks to you, I did not do it to generate some self kudos but to allow us to talk with one another as that is what I thought a forum of this nature was about...keep 'em rolling folks, kop khun na krup Dukka

[farangsay]

WOW, when I decided to pen the words of the American ex-pat to allow people to discuss I did not expect to receive such great discussion as it touches us all in so many ways...again, many thanks that the small act I did has generated some self reflection and discussion and to those who have expressed their interest many thanks to you, I did not do it to generate some self kudos but to allow us to talk with one another as that is what I thought a forum of this nature was about...keep 'em rolling folks, kop khun na krup Dukka

Actually you posted an interesting topic. You got some interesting

replies. You realise they will now have to kill you because this is

against the rules ? Take care , ya hear !

[dukkha]

Faransay make Dukkha chuckle ...... kop khun na krup...I go hide now Dukkha

[fruittbatt]

Expatriation is a particularly "fruitful" limbo IMHO in countries like Japan or Thailand where there is no chance of becoming a citizen.

Estrangement from one's former country and inability to "join" the adopted one creates a hybrid consciousness, a mental space in which we are freed from the oppression of nationalism if we choose to be. In this space we can see through the propaganda of nations, the futility of their wars, the hypocrisy of their policies, the pettiness of their exclusion zones.

Expatriation is partial liberation from the power of the State, which allows us to re-imagine and re-make our lives. We are free to reflect, to compare, to adopt new cultural values as they "click", to shrug off useless burdens, to learn new social skills, to develop understanding of people's needs in different societies, and to recognize the global nature of many environmental and social issues.

Expatriation works for me precisely because it is not a "home".

Edited November 12, 2006 by fruittbatt

[dukkha]

Some great input Fruitbat, good on ya mate and thanks for contributing in such a non aggressive manner but one with insight, intelligence and understanding..regards Dukkha