Fings aint wot they used to be

By William Corden

Sigh!

Just got back from 3 weeks tramp steaming the coast of Portugal , Morocco and Spain. Can’t remember where I was ‘cos all the ports homogenize into one blurry picture in my mind, all that stands out are the two beautiful cities of Valencia and the throbbing, pulsing city of Barcelona.

I’ve been on a few cruise ships now and it’s sad to note that , as time goes by, the accountants seems to have taken over the whole ethos of giving you what you paid for.

With their algorithms, they now sit at the desk on Monday morning and analyse every cent that they could have shaken down from the sitting ducks who are the passengers. This particular cruise line wanted US$ 100 for a tour of the ship that you’d just paid to travel on and you couldn’t get a serving of pop ( or a coke) unless you forked out a King’s ransom.. The quality has gone down to the level of a floating truck stop and I’m told that it’s a trend on all cruise lines these days

But I’m rambling, I know I’m very lucky to be able to afford one.

What I want to talk about is the stark differences between our North American culture of “anything goes ” and the Iberian  style of generally good manners, elegance and family togetherness.

You very rarely see overweight people of middle age, most people are well groomed, extremely polite in line ups and eager to take up a conversation, even if they don’t have a great command of English.

It’s funny but while we were walking around one of the beautiful malls in Barcelona we came upon one of our fellow passengers, a loud mouthed 60 plus jerk from New York, bellowing at a sales clerk because he thought they’d allowed somebody to jump in front of the line.

His wife would have qualified for the star attraction at Seaworld and for a brief moment I wondered how in the hell she could have fit into the tiny shower in the cabins on board.. she was equally obnoxious. The two of them typified the boorish American tourist.

The locals just looked on in wonderment and disgust and we distanced ourselves from the scene, scared of guilt by association.

Many, many slender Mom’s and daughters walking along arm in arm, only the odd tattooed weirdo/ beggar, and in general the entire vibe  you got from the city was one of harmony and safety, with proceedings firmly under control.

Virtually no litter on the streets , no homeless camps, a strong police presence evident with the feeling that they’re no-nonsense if you break the cultural guidelines. They have walking patrols in the busy areas and they are friendly and polite if you approach them with a question.

How come then, when you walk around the streets of New York or Vancouver, (or any major North American City for that matter) people just drop their litter wherever they want, (and nobody cleans it up?) how come our transit systems are full of tattooed, socially autistic misfits, how come we have so much violence in a culture where so much wealth prevails at the middle class (which is where most of our troubled youth come from) ?

Is it that the Iberians have a religious touchstone that puts social values and caring as the most important qualities in the health of a society? I don’t know, but it sure as hell is a better experience than a walk around the other western cities that are overrun with refugees.