‘Kindness’ Is The Name Of The Curse - 4. Your Neighbor Is Your Enemy
4. Your Neighbor Is Your Enemy
You hope that most people, if not, all of them, try their best to get along with their neighbors. It is a logical thing to do because peace is a critical element of quality life. It is completely irrational to deny that. However, if you study history, you find irrationality everywhere. England and Scotland were not great neighbors historically speaking. Countries in the continental Europe such as France, Germany, Spain and Italy fought many wars. China, North Korea, South Korea and Japan have the bitter history as well. Even a relatively young country like U.S. had conflicts with its neighbor, Mexico. Relationship between India and Pakistan is another example. Consequently, if you find a man or a woman whose origin is a neighboring country of the country of your origin, you would feel hostile to him/her or you would have to suspect that he could be hostile to you; this is not about being prejudice but about being realistic.
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The waiter was a young man from a neighboring country of the country of his origin, and so was the owner of the restaurant. He knew this because of the cuisine served and the appearance and accent of people working there. Over the years, he learned to become less prejudicial; he realized his ignorance and he persuaded him that he ought to have a different perspective on people. However, he was not reborn to become a different man. He could not help being slightly prejudicial and discriminatory. He also had to suspect that the restaurant owner could be hostile to him based on his personal experience. But the irony here was that this was the place he had to seek help. He could walk into a different restaurant, but they didn’t even recognize his face, so chances of borrowing money there were slim. He could try to get in touch with his new employer and try to get the relocation fee tonight, but it was unwise; it wouldn’t be a good way to start his employment assuming that the employer wouldn’t change his mind. He couldn’t risk his future employment. It had to be here, this restaurant, if he were to borrow any money to get by for the next couple of days.
