An Immigrant Tale: An Arab Experience in the U.S.A*
Hasan A. Yahya, Professor of Sociology
Have you been fooled in early days of visiting a foreign country far from your hometown? Well, may be you were not. This article, provides wisdom to those new visitors, and may some readers might need it, whether they like it or not. The story reflects some experiences of those new comers to America or Europe from the Middle East. You will see how people can be deceived, and accept deception voluntarily. They receive unsolicited messages from everywhere or may be from nowhere, and begin the process of cheating themselves by their own perceptions, in a scam-like correspondents. This is a real situation happened to the writer or some of his friends. It might happen to you, therefore, be careful.
Deception is the name of the game.
Are any of these Scams happened to YOU, lately?
Or to some one you know?
To be fool is Easy, To be smart is NOT difficult.
In more details for what I experienced as an Arab new comer to the United States of America in the early years. Here you may hear the saying: The law does not protect the fools. This is true in many cases. In the American society as a leading society in individualism and self promotion, and selfishness, beside freedom, liberty and pursuit of happiness. It is true in many cases to say that dreams come true, but fools cannot be counted believing these slogans, but life experiences make them accept much of the rules of the game in everyday life.
Are you fool, or ignorant? I think you are neither. But as ordinary person you should learn from your own or other’s mistakes. For example you pay for what you buy, but if you were exploited to pay more, that’s a fraud committed from someone dishonest. Dishonesty in America and may be everywhere on the planet earth is common when it comes to new comers to the big cities.
One day, in early years, I traveled to Dallas, Texas in a business trip. I have my bag, in it some ideas for projects belong to the University I was working for. I arrived the airport, and looked for a cap, Taxi, to take me to my destination. In the way, After a while the driver turn right to a gas station, while filling the gas, I stepped outside the cap, and went in the store to buy a newspaper and some sweets, I used to have on an empty stomach. Then return back to the cap, the driver continues the way to my destination. I stayed two days there, and went back to Michigan. After two or three week, I received in the mail, a letter asking me to pay for credit card the monthly payment. I read the letter, and revised the items to pay for, I was surprised to find that I never bought these items. the amount was not large, it was a little over $55.00 Dollars. I first, checked my credit card, it was not in my wallet which I used to put it. I began to remember where I bought these items, I discovered the origins of the merchandise, it was Dallas, Texas. I rewind my memory to discover my big mistake, which was leaving the cab while my bag is not attended and unlocked in the back seat. That was a lesson I learned much from. For me, it was naive to trust a stranger like the cap driver, or any body else, I did not know. In the case of the driver, he meet everyday different people. And honesty is far from finding, in few minutes friendship. As an Arab and Muslim, I never thought that I might be fooled of trusting strangers as our culture may tell. In Arabic culture, in the first meeting, they trust you, and consider you as a friend. But this is not the case in America. You need longer time to trust somebody.
Arabs in this case should follow Omar in his saying to a man who claimed that he knew. Omar asked him:
Have you dealt with him, the man answered:
- No! Omar, then said:
My advise to readers, while not all cap drivers cannot be trusted, you have not to be fooled with people you don’t know, they might be smart enough to fool you and steal things from your wallet if they had the chance, and your things are not attended, in the land of opportunity America. This we learned later from the Airport announcement instructions every few minutes, not to leave your belongings unattended. (786 words) www.hasanyahya.com
*Source: from the author’s book: The Beast in Me, America, on Amazon, 2009, the story was under the title :Cap driver in the City
Hasan A. Yahya is an American writer, scholar, and professor of philosophy. Has a 2 Ph.d degrees from MSU. He published 22 Arabic and 8 English books, and 200 plus articles on sociology, religion, psychology, politics, poetry, and short stories. Philosophically, his writings concern logic, justice and human rights worldwide. Dr. Yahya is the author of Crescentoly: Theory C. of Conflict Management and Cultural Normalization, 2009, on Amazon. He?s an expert on Arab and Islamic cultures, and was invited to several TV shows and international conferences on religion and future strategic planning.
www.dryahyatv.com
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